100 Magnificent Children’s Books of 2011

I had a good time coming up with this list last year, so I figured I’d give it a shot again.  So here you go. If you had a horribly limited library budget and you could only buy 100 children’s books from the year 2011, here are the hundred I would insist you get.  Cutting such a list down to this number is painful to the point of insanity, but cut I did.   Plus, as I systematically linked each book to the review I wrote for it, I couldn’t help but notice my own gaps.  More than once I’ve found myself saying, “I didn’t review that?!?”  Well, we still have a couple days left before the end of the year . . .

Picture Books

• Belle, the Last Mule at Gee’s Bend by Calvin Alexander Ramsey and Bettye Stroud, illustrated by John Holyfield

• Blue Chicken by Deborah Freedman

• The Book That Zack Wrote by Ethan Long

• Do You Know Which Ones Will Grow? by Susan A. Shea

• A Dog Is a Dog by Stephen Shaskan

• Everything Goes on Land by Brian Biggs

• Hot Hot Roti for Dada-Ji by F. Zia, illustrated by Ken Min

• A House in the Woods by Inga Moore

• Hugs from Pearl by Paul Schmid

• I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

• Ice by Arthur Geisert

• Little White Rabbit by Kevin Henkes

• Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell

• Mitchell’s License by Hallie Durand, illustrated by Tony Fucile

• My Hands Sing the Blues: Romare Bearden’s Childhood Journey by Jeanne Walker Harvey, illustrated by Elizabeth Zunon

• My Side of the Car by Kate Feiffer, illustrated by Jules Feiffer

• A New Year’s Reunion: A Chinese Story by Li Qiong Yu

• Perfect Square by Michael Hall

• Press Here by Herve Tullet

• The Princess and the Pig by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Poly Bernatene

• Rah, Rah, Radishes!: A Vegetable Chant by April Pulley Sayre

• Tell Me the Day Backwards by Albert Lamb, illustrated by David McPhail

• What Animals Really Like by Fiona Robinson

• You WILL Be My Friend! by Peter Brown

Folk and Fairytales

• The Boy from the Dragon Palace by Margaret Read MacDonald, illustrated by Sachiko Yoshikawa

• The Cazuela That the Farm Maiden Stirred by Samantha R. Vamos, illustrated Rafael Lopez

• Gifts from the Gods: Ancient Words and Wisdom from Greek and Roman Mythology by Lise Lunge-Larsen, illustrated by Gareth Hinds

• The Greedy Sparrow: An Armenian Tale by Lucine Kasbarian, illustrated by Maria Zaikina

• How the Leopard God His Claws by Chinua Achebe, illustrated by Mary GrandPre

• The Mouse and the Lion by Rand Burkert, illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert

Poetry

• Every Thing On It by Shel Silverstein

• Lemonade: And Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word by Bob Raczka, illustrated by Nancy Doniger

• Never Forgotten by Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon

• Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw

Early Chapter Books

• Clementine: The Family Meeting by Sara Pennypacker

• EllRay Jakes Is Not a Chicken! by Sally Warner, illustrated by Jamie Harper

• The Great Hamster Massacre by Katie Davies, illustrated by Hannah Shaw

• Marty McGuire by Kate Messner, illustrated by Brian Floca

• The No. 1 Car Spotter by Atinuke, illustrated by Warwick Johnson Cadwell

• Spunky Tells All by Ann Cameron, illustrated by Lauren Castillo

• Toys Come Home: Being the Early Experiences of an Intelligent Stingray, a Brave Buffalo, and a Brand-New Someone Called Plastic by Emily Jenkins, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

Graphic Novels

• Astronaut Academy: Zero Gravity by Dave Roman

• Bad Island by Doug TenNapel

• Benjamin Bear in Fuzzy Thinking by Phiippe Coudray

• Hera: The Goddess and Her Glory by George O’Connor

• Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists by various authors with introduction by Leonard Marcus

• Sidekicks by Dan Santat

• Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

Chapter Books

• Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu

• The Cheshire Cheese Cat: A Dickens of a Tale by Carmen Agra Deedy and Randall Wright, illustrated by Barry Moser

• The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales with an introduction by Lemony Snicket, by Chris Van Allsburg

• Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos

• Dragon Castle by Joseph Bruchac

• The Dragon’s Tooth by N.D. Wilson

• The Floating Islands by Rachel Neumeier

• Fly Trap by Frances Hardinge

• The Fourth Stall by Chris Rylander

• Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri, illustrated by Jesse Joshua Watson

• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente, illustrated by Ana Juan

• Hidden by Helen Frost

• Hound Dog True by Linda Urban

• Icefall by Matthew Kirby

• Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai

• The Inquisitor’s Apprentice by Chris Moriarty

• Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

• Kat, Incorrigible by Stephanie Burgis

• The Luck of the Buttons by Anne Ylvisaker

• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

• The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill

• The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson

• Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt

• One Day and One Amazing Morning on Orange Street by Joanne Rocklin

• The Penderwicks at Point Mouette by Jeanne Birdsall

• The Silver Bowl by Diane Stanley

• Six Days by Philip Webb

• Small Persons With Wings by Ellen Booraem

• Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

• The Trouble with May Amelia by Jennifer L. Holm

• The Unforgotten Coat by Frank Cottrell Boyce

• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Nonfiction Picture Books

• Alicia Alonso: Prima Ballerina by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, illustrated by Raul Colon

• All the Way to America: The Story of a Big Italian Family and a Little Shovel by Dan Yaccarino

• America is Under Attack: September 11, 2001: The Day the Towers Fell by Don Brown

• Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet

• Can We Save the Tiger by Martin Jenkins

• Coral Reefs by Jason Chin

• Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allan Drummond

• The Incredible Life of Balto by Meghan McCarthy

• Nurse, Soldier, Spy: The Story of Sarah Edmonds, a Civil War Hero by Marissa Moss, illustrated by John Hendrix

• Orani: My Father’s Village by Claire A. Nivola

• Queen of the Falls by Chris Van Allsburg

• The Quite Contrary Man: A True American Tale by Patricia Rusch Hyatt

• Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and the True Story of an American Feud

Nonfiction Chapter Books

• Amelia Lost: The Life and Disappearance of Amelia Earhart by Candace Fleming

• Drawing from Memory by Allen Say

• From Then to Now: A Short History of the World by Christopher Moore

• Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African Americans by Kadir Nelson

• The Mysteries of Angkor Wat by Richard Sobol

• Wheels of Change: How Women Rode the Bicycle to Freedom (With a Few Flat Tires Along the Way) by Sue Macy

• Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem by Rosalyn Schanzer

Filed under: Best Books of 2011