My Favorite Children’s Books of 2007

As you will see, my list is faulty because I don’t see half as many poetry and non-fiction titles as I should.  Still, I sacrificed a lot of blood and sweat and tears to winnow these titles down.  If you don’t see your favorite, rest assured that it was the very very last book I cut from the list.  Honest!

In any case, here are the pretty picks that I liked the best.  Yay!

Picture Books

• Coffelt, Nancy. (Little Brown & Co.). Fred Stays With Me!

• Donofrio, Beverly. Illustrated by Barbara McClintock. (Schwartz & Wade). Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary.

• Freedman, Deborah. (Knopf – Random House imprint). Scribble.

• Harrington, Janice. N. (Melanie Kroupa Books – An FSG imprint). The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County.

• Lee, Suzy. (Kane/Miller). The Zoo.

• Levine, Ellen. Illus. Nelson, Kadir. (Scholastic). Henry’s Freedom Box.

• Lin, Grace. (Viking – Penguin). Lissy’s Friends.

• Lindenbaum, Pija. (R&S Books – FSG). Mini Mia and Her Darling Uncle.

• Makhijani, Pooja. (Little Brown & Co.). Mama’s Saris.

• McCully, Emily Arnold. (FSG). The Escape of Oney Judge: Martha Washington’s Slave Finds Freedom.

• Morales, Yuyi. (Roaring Book Press). Little Night.

• Rocco, John. (Hyperion). Wolf! Wolf!

• Schlitz, Laura Amy. (Candlewick). The Bearskinner: A Tale of the Brothers Grimm.

• Stauffacher, Sue. (Knopf). Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson.

• Stewart, Joel. (Holiday House). Dexter Bexley and the Big Blue Meanie.

• Tankard, Jeremy. (Scholastic). Grumpy Bird.

• Thomas, Jan. (Harcourt). What Will Fat Cat Sit On?

• Thompson, Lauren. Illustrated by Jonathan Bean.(Simon & Schuster). The Apple Pie that Papa Baked.

Early Readers

• Willems, Mo. (Hyperion). I am Invited to a Party!

• Willems, Mo. (Hyperion). My Friend is Sad.

Young Readers

• Barshaw, Ruth McNally. (Bloomsbury). Ellie McDoodle: Have Pen, Will Travel.

• Irving, Washington. Illustrated by Gris Grimley. (Atheneum – S&S). The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

• Kinney, Jeff. (Abrams Books for Young Readers). Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

• Orr, Wendy. (Henry Holt and Company). Mokie and Bik.

• Paros, Jennifer. (Viking). Violet Bing and the Grand House.

• Perkins, Mitali. (Charlesbridge). Rickshaw Girl.

Fiction

• Bauer, A.C.E. (Random House). No Castles Here.

• Berlin, Eric. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). The Puzzling World of Winston Breen.

• Carman, Patrick. (Little Brown & Co.) Atherton: The House of Power.

• Clements, David. (Simon & Schuster). No Talking.

• Curtis, Christopher Paul. (Scholastic). Elijah of Buxton.

• Davies, Jacqueline. (Houghton Mifflin). The Lemonade War.

• Durst, Sarah Beth. (Razorbill – Penguin Group). Into the Wild.

• Flake, Sharon G. (Jump at the Sun – Hyperion imprint). The Broken Bike Boy and the Queen of 33rd Street.

• Gantos, Jack. (FSG). I Am Not Joey Pigza.

• Holm, Jennifer L. Illustrated by Elicia Castaldi. (Ginee Seo – Atheneum – S&S). Middle School is Worse than Meatloaf.

• Jinks, Catherine. (Harcourt). Evil Genius.

• Jonell, Lynne. Illustrations by Jonathan Bean. (Henry Holt and Company). Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat.

• Kluger, Jeffrey. (Philomel). Nacky Patcher and the Curse of the Dry-Land Boats.

• Moses, Sheila. (McElderry – S&S). The Baptism.

• Park, Linda Sue and others. (Scholastic). Click.

• Reeve, Philip. (Bloomsbury). Starcross.

• Riddleburger, Sam. (Dial Books – Penguin imprint). The Qwikpick Adventure Society.

• Rowling, J.K. (Arthur A. Levine – Scholastic). Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

• Schmidt, Gary D. (Clarion – Houghton Mifflin). The Wednesday Wars.

• Selfors, Suzanne. (Little Brown & Co.). To Catch a Mermaid.

• Selznick, Brian. (Scholastic). The Invention of Hugo Cabret.

• Soule, Jean Conder. (Random House). Never Tease a Weasel.

• Stewart, Trenton Lee. (Little Brown & Co.). The Mysterious Benedict Society.

• Tarshis, Lauren. (Dial). Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree.

• Taylor, Laini. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons – Penguin imprint). Faeries of Dreamdark: Blackbringer.

• Urban, Linda. (Harcourt, Inc.). A Crooked Kind of Perfect.

• Wilson, N.D. (Random House). 100 Cupboards.

• Wilson, N.D. (Random House). Leepike Ridge.

• Wolf, Joan M. (Clarion – A Houghton Mifflin imprint). Someone Named Eva.

• Wynne-Jones, Tim. (Melanie Kroupa – Farrar, Staus & Giroux). Rex Zero and the End of the World.

Graphic Novel

• Abadzis, Nick. (First Second). Laika.

• Jansson, Tove. (Drawn & Quarterly), Moomin (Vol. 1).

• Sturm, James. Illustrated by Rich Tommaso. (Center for Cartoon Studies – Jump at the Sun – Hyperion). Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow.

• Tan, Shaun. (Arthur A. Levine – Scholastic, Inc.). The Arrival.

• Talbot, Bryan. (Dark Horse Books). Alice in Sunderland.

• Varon, Sara. (First Second). Robot Dreams.

Non-Fiction

• Barakat, Ibtisam. (Melanie Kroupa Books – FSG). Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood.

• Bertholf, Bret. (Little Brown and Company). The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music.

• Bryan, Ashley. (Atheneum – S&S). Let it Shine.

• Debon, Nicolas. (Groundwood Press). The Strongest Man In the World: Louis Cyr.

• Fleischman, John. (Houghton Mifflin). Black and White Airmen: Their True History.

• Griffith, Saul (PhD), Bonsen, Joost. Illustrated by Nick Dragotta. (Harper Collins). Howtoons: The Possibilities Are Endless.

• Hill, Laban Carrick. (Little Brown & Co.). America Dreaming: How Youth Changed America in the ’60s.

• Kirkpatrick, Katherine. (Holiday House). The Snow Baby: The Arctic Childhood of Admiral Robert E. Peary’s Daring Daughter.

• McCarthy, Meghan. (Knopf – RH). Strong Man.

• Schlitz, Laura Amy. (Candlewick). Good Masters! Fair Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village.

Poetry

• Lear, Edward. (KCP Poetry – An imprint of Kids Can Press). The Owl and the Pussycat.

• Prelutsky, Jack. (Greenwillow – Harper Collins). The Wizard.

Special YA Shout-Outs to Three Books That Managed to Get Past My “No Young Adult” Stipulation:

• Asher, Jay. (Razorbill). 13 Reasons Why.

• Datlow, Ellen and Windling, Terry (ed.). (Viking). The Coyote Road: Trickster Tales.

• Moore, Perry. (Hyperion). Hero.

Filed under: Best Books of 2007