105 Ways to Give a Book

Best Books of 2007 (So Far): MEGALIST

Here are the favorites of more than thirty bloggers and kidlit lovers (not mutually exclusive categories). If a book was mentioned more than once, the number of times it was put forward is indicated in parentheses. I took a few liberties with the placement in categories, but for the most part followed the suggestions of the person naming the book. The clear winner of the year is The Invention of Hugo Cabret, listed as a favorite by almost half the respondents. The out-of-sight-out-of-mind winner would have to be Eclipse, which got rave reviews, but was only mentioned after I nudged readers to name the missing YA. Enjoy.

Picture Books
17 Things I’m Not Allowed to Do Anymore, by Jenny Offill (4)
The Apple Doll, by Elisa Kleven
The Apple Pie that Papa Baked, by Lauren Thompson
At Night, by Jonathan Bean (3)
Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug, by Mark Newgarden
The Bunnies Are Not in Their Beds, by Marisabina Russo
The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County, by Janice Harrington (5)
Chicky, Chicky, Chook Chook, by Cathy MacLennan
Cowboy and Octopus, by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith
Dadblamed Union Army Cow, by Susan Fletcher
Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Dumpster Diver, by Janet Wong
Edwardo the Horriblest Boy in the Whole Wide World, by John Burningham
The End, by David LaRochelle (2)
Fabian Escapes, by Peter McCarty
Fred Stays With Me! by Nancy Coffelt (2)
Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy, by Jane O’Connor (2)
Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash! by Suse MacDonald
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, by Caralyn Buehner
Go To Bed, Monster! by Natasha Wing
A Good Day by Kevin Henkes (3)
Green as a Bean, by Karla Kuskin
Grumpy Bird, by Jeremy Tankard (2)
I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean, by Kevin Sherry (3)
The Incredible Book Eating Boy, by Oliver Jeffers
Jazz Baby, by Lisa Wheeler.
Knuffle Bunny Too, by Mo Willems (4)
Library Mouse, by Daniel Kirk
Lissy’s Friends, by Grace Lin
Little Night, Yuyi Morales
Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, by Beverly Donofrio
Me I Am! by Jack Prelutsky
My Cat Copies Me, by Yoon D. Kwan
Orange Pear Apple Bear, by Emily Gravett (3)
Penguin, by Polly Dunbar
The Pink Refrigerator, by Tim Egan
Pirates Don’t Change Diapers, by Melinda Long
Pssst! by Adam Rex (2)
On Meadowview Street, by Henry Cole
Ruthie and the (not so) Teenie Tiny Lie, by Laura Rankin
Scribble, by Deborah Freedman
Taking a Bath with the Dog and Other Things that Make Me Happy, by Scott Menchin (2)
That Special Little Baby, by Jane Ann Peddicard
Walk On! By Marla Frazee
What Happens on Wednesdays, by Emily Jenkins
The Wizard, by Jack Pretlusky
Wolf! Wolf! by John Rocco
Yo, Jo! by Rachel Isadora
The Zoo, by Suzy Lee (2)

Beginning Readers
“Every single Elephant and Piggie book by Mo Willems that you can get your hands on.” (quote from Fuse#8, but echoed in sentiment by anyone who listed this category.)

Younger Elementary
The Friskative Dog, by Susan Straight
A Girl, A Boy and a Monster Cat, by Gail Gauthier
Henry’s Freedom Box, by Ellen Levine, illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals, illustrated by Ashley Bryan (2)
Mokie and Bik, by Wendy Orr
Rickshaw Girl, by Mitali Perkins
The Talented Clementine, by Sara Pennypacker. (4)
Violet Bing and the Grand House, by Jennifer Paros

Elementary/Middle-Grade
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
The Arrival, by Shaun Tan
Atherton: The House of Power, by Patrick Carman
The Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles (3)
The Baptism, by Sheila Moses
Billy Hooten: Owlboy, by Tom Sniegoski
Cassie Was Here, by Caroline Hickey
Castle Corona, by Sharon Creech
Click, by Linda Sue Park and others
Clarice Bean, Don’t Look Now, by Lauren Child
A Crooked Kind of Perfect, by Linda Urban (5)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney (4)
Elijah of Buxton, by Christopher Paul Curtis (2)
Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat, by Lynne Jonell
Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree, by Lauren Tarshis (4)
Evil Genius, by Catherine Jinks
Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer, by Laini Taylor
I Am Not Joey Pigza, by Jack Gantos (2)
Into the Wild, by Sarah Beth Durst (2)
The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick (14)
Kimchi and Calamari, by Rose Kent
Laika, by Nick Abadzis
Leepike Ridge, by N.D. Wilson (2)
The Lemonade War, by Jacqueline Davies
Letters from Rapunzel, by Sara Lewis Holmes
Louisiana’s Song, by Kerry Madden (2)
Middle School is Worse Than Meatloaf, by Jennifer Holm (3)
Miss Spitfire: Reaching Helen Keller, by Sarah Miller (2)
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love Stuart Little, by Peggy Gifford (4)
The Mysterious Benedict Society, by Trenton Stewart
The Navigator, by Eoin McNamee
No Castles Here, by A.C.E. Bauer
No Talking, by Andrew Clements
Paint the Wind, by Pam Munoz Ryan
Runaround, by Helen Hemphill
The Secret History of Tom Trueheart, by Ian Beck
The Secret Identity of Devon Delaney, by Lauren Barnholdt
Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landry (3)
Someone Named Eva, by Joan Wolf
Theodosia and the Serpents of Chaos, by R.L. LaFevers
The Thing About Georgie, by Lisa Graff (3)
Titan’s Curse, by Rick Riordan
Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville
Verdigris Deep, by Frances Hardinger
Way Down Deep, by Ruth White
Where I Live, by Eileen Spinelli

Young Adult
Beige, by Cecil Castellucci
Beauty Shop for Rent: ... fully equipped, inquire within, by Laura Bowers
Betwixt, by Tara Bray Smith
Blood Brothers, by S.A. Harazin
Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale (4)
Boy Toy, by Barry Lyga
Cupid, by Julius Lester
Cupcake, by Rachel Cohn (2)
Deadline, by Chris Crutcher
Defect, by Will Weaver
Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
Dramarama, by E. Lockhart
Eclipse, by Stephanie Meyer (2)
Epic, by Conor Kostick
Evolution, Me, and Other Freaks of Nature, by Robin Brande (3)
Feathers, by Jacqueline Woodson
First Light, by Rebecca Stead
Flora Segunda, by Ysabeau S. Wilce
Forever in Blue, by Ann Brashares
Forever Rose by Hilary McKay
Girl at Sea, by Maureen Johnson
Grief Girl, by Erin Vincent
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K. Rowling (4)
Here Lies Arthur, by Philip Reeve
How to Get Suspended and Influence People, by Adam Selzer
I’m Exploding Now, by Sid Hite
In Search of Mockingbird, by Loretta Ellsworth
Lemonade Mouth, by Mark Peter Hughes
Lessons from a Dead Girl, by Jo Knowles
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, by Gabrielle Zevin (2)
The Nature of Jade, by Deb Caletti
The Off Season, by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (4)
The Plain Janes, by Cecil Castelucci (3)
The Princess and the Hound, by Mette Ivie Harrison
Reaching for Sun, by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer (2)
Story of a Girl, by Sara Zarr (5)
Such a Pretty Girl, by Laura Wiess
A Swift, Pure Cry, by Siobhan Dowd
Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher
Tips on Having a Gay (ex)Boyfriend, by Carrie Jones,
Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson (2)
The Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt (5)
What My Girlfriend Doesn’t Know, by Sonya Sones
Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier
Y: The Last Man, by Brian Vaughn
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, by Stephenie Hemphill

Poetry
Animal Poems, by Valarie Worth (3)
Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems, by John Grandits
comets, stars, the moon and mars, by Douglas Florian (3)
Dogku, by Andrew Clements
Here’s a Little Poem, ed. by Jane Yolen (5)
Tap Dancing on the Roof, by Linda Sue Park
The Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear (KCP)
This is a Poem That Heals Fish, by Jean-Pierre Simeon
This is Just to Say, by Joyce Sidman (3)
Today and Today, by Kobayashi Issa, illustrated by G. Brian Karas (2)
Twist: Yoga Poems, by Janet Wong
Shout! Little Poems that Roar, by Brod Bagert

Nonfiction
1607: A New Look at Jamestown, by Karen Lange
A Seed is Sleepy, by Diana Hutts (2)
Dogs and Cats, by Steve Jenkins
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz
Nothing but Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson, by Sue Stauffacher
One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II, by Lita Judge
One Well: The Story of Water on Earth, by Rochelle Strauss
Strong Man, by Meghan McCarthy
Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood, by Ibtisam Barakat
The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music, by Bret Bertholf
Tracking Trash, by Loree Burns
Where in the Wild? Camouflaged Creatures Concealed... and Revealed, by David Schwartz, Yael Schy, and Dwight Kuhn

Thanks to everyone who participated. I hope this sparks some ideas for the upcoming Cybil Award nominations and gives everyone some new books to look for at your local library or bookstore!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's great! I've got my reading list for the rest of the year!

Suz

ElsKushner said...

Wow! I didn't get it together to send in any titles, but I see some of my favorites up there, along with lots more I really want to read. So many books, so few waking hours...

Elaine Magliaro said...

MR,

Thanks for putting these lists together. I have to think about the best 2007 picture books I've read to date.

Anonymous said...

Wow! What a great list! Thanks for doing this again. I'm sorry I never got my lists in - I just didn't feel like I'd read widely enough this year to pronounce best books, despite having actually read more books this year than by this time last year. And now I have all these other recommended titles to want to read, too.

Vivian Mahoney said...

This is a fantastic list! I need to do quite a bit of reading to catch up to this list. Thanks for putting this together.

Unknown said...

Oh, goodness gracious. This is a stark reminder of how little time I have in each day to read.

This is a fabulous list! I made some flippant comments earlier in the year about how 2007 was a slow year for outstanding books...Now I know for sure that I was wrong. Amazing stuff out there!

Anonymous said...

Oh, man. I'd better get cracking...

Anonymous said...

Wow, thanks for all your work!

Two things, though. The author of Betwixt is Tara Bray Smith, not Sara (this was one of my titles, hope I didn't spell it wrong in the comment I left), and Maureen Johnson's Devilish is actually a 2006 book.

MotherReader said...

Ch.ch.ch..changes.

I've made them. Totally missed the Tara/Sara thing. Amazon had Devilish listed as 2007, but now I think that's for the paperback -even though they had no other listing. Tricky, tricky Amazon.

Thanks for catching them.

Unknown said...

Wonderful, thank you for your hard work compiling these! Now I have a head start on my next purchase list for the school library! Nothing beats recommendations you can trust.

Anonymous said...

THANKS for doing this!

fairrosa said...

Hi.. Just a quick note to say that thanks for putting up so many good books of the year -- and to bring to your attention that one title is erroneously entered:

Instead of
Emily and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

It should be
EMMY and the Incredible Shrinking Rat

Deb Cushman said...

Thanks for the list! I don't know where to begin.