Keep in mind that my kids haven't been small enough to pay attention to this category of book for a while. So I have less exposure to the new ones than I'd like. Unless they're by Neil Gaiman because c'mon. It's a book by Neil Gaiman.
Bold means I've read it
Italics means I haven't read it but STILL have an opinion. You know that's how I roll.
** means I love it enough to own it (or loved it enough when I was a kid to own it and then hang onto it long enough to push on my own kids ... Dr. Doolittle, I'm lookin' at you here.)
- 2013: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (HarperCollins Children's Books)
- 2012: Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos (Farrar Straus Giroux)
- 2011: Moon over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House Children's Books)
- 2010: When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books)
- 2009: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, illus. by Dave McKean (HarperCollins) -- loved it! **
- 2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)
- 2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
- 2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
- 2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
- 2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
- 2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
- 2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park(Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
- 2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)
- 2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
- 1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster) My kids had to read this one and I avoided it like the plague after hearing their reactions.
- 1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
- 1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
- 1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
- 1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
- 1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry (Houghton) liked it well enough
- 1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
- 1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
- 1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
- 1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
- 1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
- 1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
- 1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
- 1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper) Ok - this is how important book covers are. I took one look at that cover and swore I'd never read it.
- 1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)** Not my favorite McKinley, but The Blue Sword which was written before this, remains a favorite.
- 1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
- 1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
- 1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
- 1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
- 1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
- 1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton) Began it ... never got further than two chapters in
- 1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
- 1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
- 1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum) Listened to the audiobook and liked it well enough.
- 1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
- 1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
- 1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper) (I think I've read this.)
- 1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
- 1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
- 1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
- 1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
- 1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
- 1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
- 1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
- 1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
- 1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
- 1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar) ** A classic for good reason. Are there households that don't have a copy of this book?
- 1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
- 1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
- 1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
- 1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton) I know I read this but I recall nothing of it. Which speaks for itself.
- 1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
- 1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
- 1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
- 1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
- 1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
- 1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
- 1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
- 1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
- 1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
- 1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally) Oh, Scholastic Book Club, where would I be without the many fine books you lured me into buying and reading? This was one and I still recall a lot of it.
- 1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
- 1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
- 1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
- 1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking) I know I read it. But that's all I know about this book.
- 1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton) This may well be the book that began my love of historical fiction. A damn fine book.
- 1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
- 1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
- 1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
- 1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
- 1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
- 1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
- 1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
- 1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan) I seem to recall this as a different sort of "Little House" book. And Laura Ingalls Wilder owned that category for me. So this book was just annoying.
- 1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
- 1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
- 1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
- 1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
- 1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
- 1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
- 1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
- 1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
- 1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
- 1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
- 1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)** Not the easiest read these days because the language is old fashioned. But still we all dutifully read the stories when I was a kid since he was a relative ... and they weren't half bad! In fact, I read a couple of them on Forgotten Classics.
- 1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
- 1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes) ** How I laughed at the Pushmepullyou ... and all the various adventures the doctor had.
- 1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)
My brain is on "must add to my reading list" overload right now! For the last few years, I've been more drawn to children's books. There are a few exceptions, of course, but I much prefer that the authors don't/can't simply rely on violence, murder, sex, etc., to move the stories along. And I used to read murder mysteries and suspense novels almost exclusively! I know it's purely subjective to say this, but eliminating those themes seems to push their creativity and storytelling.
ReplyDeleteAs for the specifics of the list, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH was a fine book. I read it aloud to my 6th grader as he read along in his book. I think much of my enjoyment came from being able to say, not just read, the words. O'Brien's writing was superb. This will sound nerdy of me to say, but I really appreciated the more complex sentence structure of his writing. It wasn't just subject verb direct object repeat. So it was more fun to say and to hear it. The sequel was written by his daughter, and it left much to be desired, both in style and story.
Island of the Blue Dolphins was my absolute favorite book when I was a girl. It is about a young girl surviving by herself on an island for several years and was like Extreme Little House! to my young mind. I think part of the current Zombie craze is partly the appeal of the Swiss Family Robinson-style survival story about living without all the mod cons.
ReplyDeleteOn an unrelated note, anyone who likes Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen will probably love Patrick O'Brian. I have read all his books to pieces. They're a bit more focused on action and less on romance, but the underlying theme is the same - the close observation of people's foibles and strengths and the immersion in that historical period.
-Angie
You know what, now that you describe that book I think I actually did read it ... and enjoy it a lot. Funny how memory can betray us, right?
DeleteI have tried Patrick O'Brien and never could get into the first book. I've tried twice...