Chicken Spaghetti

April Poem

I chose Jessie Redmon Fauset's "Rondeau" for Poetry Friday today. This wonderful spring poem begins,

When April's here and meadows wide 
Once more with spring's sweet growths are pied 
    I close each book, drop each pursuit, 
    And past the brook, no longer mute, 
I joyous roam the countryside.

You can read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.

"Rondeau" was one of my favorite poems in the book Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance, by Nikki Grimes (Bloomsbury Books for Children, 2021). Grimes writes, "It should come as no surprise...that the names of gifted, even prolific women poets of the Harlem Renaissance are little known, especially as compared to their male counterparts." She anthologizes a number of works from that historic period, plus she includes poems of her own inspired by those of Fauset, Anne Spencer, Ida Rowland, and others. It's a gem of a book, beautifully illustrated by contemporary Black women artists.

In her role as literary editor of The Crisis (the official publication of the NAACP), Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882-1961), published Langston Hughes's "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," among other important poems. Morgan Jerkins writes in the New Yorker, "though [Fauset] helped to usher in a crucial period of artistic flourishing, and was herself a vital participant in that flourishing, she was not destined to get much credit for it." (Jerkins' fascinating piece can be found here.) I really like Grimes' idea of getting the word out to younger people about the women of the Harlem Renaissance; the rest of us readers benefit, too.

The Poetry Friday roundup for April 14, 2022, is at Matt Forrest Esenwine's blog. See you there!

2015 Best Children's Books of the Year: A List of Lists and Awards

It's raining books, hallelujah!

The holiday season means an abundance of online "best books" lists, and here on Chicken Spaghetti I collect the ones for kids' books. The focus is on material published in 2015, although you'll find that a few lineups also incorporate titles from previous years. Some of them cover way more than children's books; a mention here means that somewhere on the list is at least one kids' category. I plan to update the big list regularly.

©Susan Thomsen, 2015.

Be sure to see the magnificent list of all 2015 book lists at Largehearted Boy. And my list-loving Irish friends at St. Columba's College English Department have started their annual roundup, too. Travis Jonker, over at School Library Journal's 100 Scope Notes blog, writes about "2015 Children's Lit: The Year in Miscellanea."

AAAS: SB&F holiday gift guide. (AAAS=American Association for the Advancement of Science. SB&F=Science Books & Film review journal)

AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize finalists. Science books. 

Abby the Librarian. Favorites.

The Age. Same list as Sydney Morning Herald. (Australia)

A.V. Club. One-shot comics and graphic novels, a few for kids. Same with ongoing and serial comics.

Air & Space Magazine (Smithsonian). Aviation- and space-themed books.

Alaska Dispatch News. Favorite Alaska books include a couple for younger readers.

Alex Awards. Adult books appropriate for teens.

All the Wonders. Nonfiction.
All the Wonders. Picture books.

Alligator's Mouth (UK)

Amazon. Children.
Amazon. Young adult.

Anorak Magazine. Picture books. (UK)

Asian Pacific American Library Association (APALA) Literary Award. Via the Lee & Low Books blog.

Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC). Notable books of the year.

Atlantic. One YA book on the list.

Audubon Magazine. Bird books, with a couple for children.

Australian

Autostraddle. "Top 10 queer and feminist" books and runners-up include a few YA titles.

Bank Street Center for Children's Literature: Children's Book Awards

Batchelder Award. For children's books in translation.

Ben Clanton's Squiggles & Scribbles

Birmingham Mail. Christmas books. (UK)

Blogging Through the Fourth Dimension. Teacher Pernille Ripp's YA gift list.

Blue Peter Book Awards. Shortlists. (UK)

BN (Barnes & Noble) Teen Blog

Boing Boing. A few kids' books in the gift guide.

Book Chook (Australia)

Book Dragon (Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center blog). Books for adults & children.

Book Riot. List includes YA. Same with another Book Riot list, best books "you might have missed," and audiobooks.

Book Voyagers. Young adult and new adult, mostly.

Booklist. Religion and spirituality.
Booklist. Arts.
Booklist. First novels.
Booklist. Romance fiction.
Booklist. Science and health.

BookPage. Children and teens. Plus, gift books.
BookPage. YA.

Books for Keeps. Gifts. (UK)

Books Live. A couple of titles for younger readers on a long list of reviewers' favorites. (South Africa)

Booktopia. Scroll down on the list. (Australia)

Bord Gáis Energy (BGE) Irish Book Awards shortlists. Junior and senior. (Ireland)

Boston Globe. Kids.
Boston Globe. Young adult.

Boys' Life Book Zone

Brain Pickings. Art books, including one kids' title. Same with science books.
Brain Pickings. Children's books.

British Comic Awards. Shortlists & longlists. (UK)

Brown Bookshelf

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Blue Ribbons, for best books of the year.
Bulletin of the Center for Children's books. Gift guide (PDF). 

Bustle. Best YA book covers.

BuzzFeed. "Beautifully illustrated" picture books.
BuzzFeed. Fantasy books, including a few for kids.
BuzzFeed. Gifts for "activisty families."
BuzzFeed. Young adult.

Caldecott Medal

Canadian Children's Book Centre Awards

Carnegie Medal. For children's video.

CBC/Radio-Canada. List includes a few books for kids. (Canada)

Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature (Pinterest page)

Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) UK

Centro Voices. "Essential Boricua Reading for the Holiday Season" includes some kids' & YA books.

Charlotte Zolotow Award

Chen Bochui Awards (China). Via the Bookseller.

Chicago Public Library. Fiction for older readers (3rd through 8th grades).
Chicago Public Library. Informational books for older readers (3rd through 8th grades).
Chicago Public Library. Informational books for younger readers (Kindergarten through 3rd grade).
Chicago Public Library. Picture books.
Chicago Public Library. Teen fiction.
Chicago Public Library. Teen graphic novels and manga.
Chicago Public Library. Teen nonfiction.

Christchurch City Libraries (New Zealand)

Charlotte Huck Award. For fiction; sponsored by NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).

Cleaver Magazine

Comics Alliance. Teens.

Conversations Book Club

Cool Mom Picks

Cooperative Children's Book Center. CCBC Choices. (PDF)

Coretta Scott King Book Award

Cosmos Magazine. Illustrated science books, with several for children. (Australia)

Costa Children's Book Award. Shortlist and winner. PDFs (UK)

Culture Whisper (UK)

Cuyahoga Public Library. Gifts & "great books for kids."

Cybils (Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards). Finalists in eleven categories. Winners to be announced Feb. 14, 2016.

Daily Beast

Daily Express (UK)

Daily O (India)

Denver Public Library. Gift guide.

EarlyWord. Spread sheet of various lists of best kids' books.

Edgar Awards. Sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America. Nominees, including "juvenile" and YA books. Winners to be announced April 28, 2016.

Elle UK. One kids' book on the list.

Entertainment Weekly. Comics, some for adults.
Entertainment Weekly. Gift guide: teens.

Entropy. Best fiction list includes a graphic novel for young adults.

Everything Zoomer. Gifts. (Canada)

Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award. See YALSA, below.

Ezra Jack Keats Awards. To be announced April 2016.

Financial Times (UK)

First Book

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

A Fuse #8 Production (School Library Journal blog). Librarian Elizabeth Bird's 100 Magnificent Children's Books 2015.

#GayYABookClub. 2015 Favorites from a Twitter chat, via Storify.

GeekDad. Gift guide, kids & adults.

Geisel Award. Beginning readers. Announced Jan. 11, 2016; link coming soon.

Globe and Mail (Canada)

Good Reads with Ronna. Picture books.

Goodreads Choice Awards. Graphic novels and comics. Some, not all, for children.
Goodreads Choice Awards. Middle grade.
Goodreads Choice Awards. Picture books.
Goodreads Choice Awards. Young adult fantasy and science fiction.
Goodreads Choice Awards. Young adult fiction.

Governor General Literary Awards. For children's literature, text (English and French), and illustrated books (English and French). (Canada)

Gransnet (UK)

Guardian. Best kids' books of the year. Plus, some author, editor, and reader favorites.
Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. Shortlist. Winner. (UK)
Guardian. Christmas books. (UK)
Guardian. Various authors' favorites of the year. See Lauren Child's picks for some children's books. (UK)
Guardian. Young Critics Competition winners. (UK)

Heavy Medal, A Mock Newbery Blog. Shortlist.

Herald (Scotland). Picture books. (UK)
Herald (Scotland). YA. (UK)
Herald (Scotland). Younger readers. (UK)

Horn Book Magazine. Fanfare, year's best.
Horn Book Magazine. Holiday High Notes, new holiday books.

Hudson Booksellers

Huffington Post. Picture books.
Huffington Post. YA.

Imagination Soup. Board books.

Independent. Books for babies. (UK)
Independent. Picture books.
Independent. Readers aged 8 to 11.
Independent. Young adult. (UK)

Indigo (Canada)

io9. Science fiction and fantasy, including some YA books.

Irish Times. Robert Dunbar's favourites. (Ireland)

Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger. Gifts recommended by a Lemuria Books staffer.
Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger. Top Mississippi books, including books for kids.

Japan Times. Books on Japan, including several for children. (Japan)

Jefferson County (Colorado) Public Library. Best monster books. Now we're talkin'.

Jewish Journal. Hanukkah books.

Jewish Press

Kansas City Star

KCUR/Johson County (Kansas) Library

Kid Lit Frenzy

KidsReads

Kirkus Reviews. Middle grade.
Kirkus Reviews. Picture books.
Kirkus Reviews. Teen. Plus, columnist Leila Roy's "stand-out YA" books of the year.

LA Weekly. LA books, one YA.

Latina Book Club. Some kids' and YA titles on the list.

Latin@s in Kid Lit

Latinas for Latino Lit

Literary Hub. Booksellers' favorites, with a couple of titles for younger readers.

Londonist. Best London books, with a couple for kids. (UK)

Lone Star Literary Life. Texas books for younger readers, and Texas YA.

Los Angeles Public Library. Children.
Los Angeles Public Library. Teens.

Lucie's List

Marin Mommies

Masala Mommas. South Asian kids' books, with some older titles. (Canada)

Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List, from the Texas Library Association.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. List includes two kids' books.

Minneapolis Star Tribune. Critics' Choices include one book for children.
Minneapolis Star Tribune. Middle-grade and YA books by Minnesota authors.

MPR (Minnesota Public Radio)

Morris Award. For debut young adult fiction. Finalists. Winner.

Motherland. Books for preschoolers. (UK)

Mountain Xpress. Kids' books by local Asheville, NC, area authors.

Multnomah County Library. Kids.
Multnomah County Library. Picture books.
Multnomah County Library. Teens.

NAACP Image Awards. Nominees in many categories, including outstanding literary works for children and for youth/teens.

Nashville Lifestyles. Southern titles, with one picture book on the list.

National Book Award for Young People's Literature

National Outdoor Book Awards

National Science Teachers Association. Outstanding science trade books for students K-12.

NBC News Latino. Latino books from small presses; one kids' title on the list.

Nerdy Book Club. Early readers and chapter books.
Nerdy Book Club. Fiction picture books.
Nerdy Book Club. Graphic novels.
Nerdy Book Club. Middle grade fiction. 
Nerdy Book Club. Nonfiction.
Nerdy Book Club. Nonfiction picture books.
Nerdy Book Club. Poetry and novels in verse.
Nerdy Book Club. Young adult fiction, Part 1 and Part 2.

New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards

New Scientist. One kids' book on the list. (UK)

New Statesman. Critic Amanda Craig's selections. (UK)

New York Public Library. "100 Notable Titles for Reading and Sharing."
New York Public Library. Teens.

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books
New York Times Notable Children's Books

Newbery Medal

News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)

Nonfiction Detectives

Not My Typewriter. List includes a few books for kids.

NPR. Kids.
NPR. Young adult.

Odyssey Award. For audiobooks.

Oklahoman. Gifts.

Orbis Pictus Award. For nonfiction; sponsored by NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).

Pages & Pages (Australia)

Parents Magazine

Parents' Choice Awards

Parnassus Musing. Gift list for children and teens.

Paste. Comic books, some for kids. 
Paste. Young adult.

Peaceful Reader

Penn GSE [Graduate School of Education] Newsroom. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas's picks.

Picture Books Blogger (UK)

Planetary Society. Books about space.

Port Huron (Mich.) Times Herald. Gifts.

Powell's Books. Plus, "picks of the season" for adults and kids.

Prime Minister's Literary Awards. Shortlists. (Australia)

Printz Award. Announced Jan. 11, 2016; link coming soon.

Project Eve Moms. Picture books.

Publishers Weekly. Comics. Some, not all, for children.
Publishers Weekly. Middle grade.
Publishers Weekly. Picture books.
Publishers Weekly. Young adult.

Pura Belpré Awards

Queensland Literary Awards (Australia)

Quill & Quire (Canada)

Rainbow List. GLBTQ books.

Raising Arizona Kids

Reading Is Fundamental

Reading (MA) Public Library

Reading Rockets. Gift guide.

Readings. Emily Gale's picks for her family. (Australia)
Readings. Junior fiction. (Australia)
Readings. Middle fiction. (Australia)
Readings. Picture books. (Australia)
Readings. Young adult. (Australia)

Red Magazine (UK)

Rich in Color. Favorite diverse books from K. Imani, Jessica, Crystal, and Audrey.

Rookie. Gifts (teens).

Royal Society Young People's Book Prize. Science books. (UK)

Sakura Medal. Nominees. (Japan)

San Francisco Chronicle. Gift guide include books for children.

San Jose Mercury News. Middle-school readers.
San Jose Mercury News. Younger readers.

Sarah Webb (Ireland)

Schneider Family Book Award. Announced Jan. 11, 2016; link coming soon.

School Library Journal. Adult books for teens.
School Library Journal. Middle grade.
School Library Journal. Nonfiction.
School Library Journal. Picture books.
School Library Journal. Top 10 audiobooks. 
School Library Journal. Top 10 graphic novels.
School Library Journal. Top 10 Latin@ books.
School Library Journal. Young adult.

Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction. Via Read Roger at the Horn Book.

Seattle Review of Books. Teens.

Shelf Awareness

Sibert Informational Book Award

Slate. Laura Miller's list includes a kids' book.

South Coast Today (MA)

Spectator. One kids' book included. (UK)

Spinoff  (New Zealand)

Stonewall Book Award

Sunday Express (UK)

Sydney Morning Herald. Plus, Colin Steele's gift picks, which include a couple of kids' and YA books. (Australia)

Sydney Taylor Book Awards. Sponsored by the Association of Jewish Libraries. (PDF)

Tablet Magazine. Marjorie Ingall's roundup of the best Jewish children's books.

Teaching for Change

TD Canadian Children's Literature Award shortlist

Tejas Star Reading List. Bilingual English/Spanish books, and books in Spanish.

Telegraph. Young adult. (UK)

Time

Today's Parent. Picture books. (Canada)

Tor.com. Staff favorites include some YA.

Toronto Public Library. Books for children under 5. (Canada)

Tri-City News (Canada)

USA Today. Christmas books.

Vampire Book Club. Some YA books on the list.

Victorian Premier's Literary Awards  (Australia)

Vikki VanSickle (Canada)

Vox. Comics, some for kids.

Vulture (New York Magazine). Graphic novels, some for kids.

Waking Brain Cells. Fiction.
Waking Brain Cells. Graphic novels.
Waking Brain Cells. Nonfiction.
Waking Brain Cells. Picture books.

Wall Street Journal. Gifts. Also, a "Best of the Best-of Lists" includes YA. And Meghan Cox Gurdon's list (behind a pay wall).

We Need Diverse Books/B&N [Barnes and Noble] Teen Blog

What Do We Do All Day? Picture books: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Plus, middle grade books.

Washington Post. Children's books.
Washington Post. Graphic novels. Some, not all, for kids.

Waterstones' Book of the Year (UK)

We Need Diverse Books. Middle grade.

YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. Finalists. Winner. (YALSA = Young Adult Library Services Association) 

YALSA lists

• Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults
• Best Fiction for Young Adults
• Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults
• Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers
• Teens' top ten

Zooglobble. Best kids' music. Not books but still fun.

Chicken Spaghetti's Best Kids' Books 2013: A List of Lists and Awards

Yippee! It's "best books of the year" season. Once again I'll be gathering the online lists of best kids' books right here. The Chicken Spaghetti compilation features books published in 2013, no matter when the list or awards are announced. Readers can expect to see this post amended many times, especially over the next few months.

Looking for older titles? Since this blog has been around a while, you'll find more Chicken Spaghetti lists at the following links: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Don't miss Largehearted Boy's amazing annual roundup of all the best-book lists.

And please do give me a holler if you see any I've overlooked, via Susan_Thomsen on Twitter or c_spaghetti AT yahoo DOT com.

*****

AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books: Finalists and winners

Air & Space magazine/Smithsonian: Aviation- and space-themed children's books

Alex Awards

Amazon: Ages 0-2 (board books)
Amazon: Ages 3-5
Amazon: Ages 6-8
Amazon: Ages 9-12
Amazon: Editors' picks, including teen and young adults

Amelia Bloomer Project (feminist books for children)

American Indian Youth Literature Award

Arthur Ellis Awards. Presented by the Crime Writers of Canada, prizes include a children's/YA category.

Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Awards

Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC): Tween Recommended Reads (PDF file; books from 2012 and 2013)

Band of Thebes. 92 writers recommend best LGBT books of the year, including a couple of YA titles. (Some older books on this list, too.)

Bank Street Children's Book Committee Awards

Bank Street College: Best Children's Books

Barnes and Noble

Batchelder Award (for books in translation)

Bellingham (WA) Herald

Belmont (MA) Public Library Children's Room

Blue Peter Book Awards shortlist (UK)

Boing Boing Gift Guide: Books (some YA and kids' titles in a longer list)

Book Diaries: Picture books

Bookie Woogie

Booklist: Arts
Booklist: Audiobooks
Booklist: Black history
Booklist: Crafts and gardening
Booklist: Religion and spirituality
Booklist: Science and health
Booklist: Sports

BookPage

Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards. Titles from 2013 and 2014.

Brain Pickings

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books. Annual gift guide (PDF) includes 2013 titles and older books. Also, Blue Ribbons (best-of-the-year books).

BuzzFeed Books

CONTINUED AFTER BREAK

Best Books Season Begins! Book Lists Galore

Let it snow! For those of us who love a good list, the last two months of the year bring a flurry of online "best of the year" roundups of books. Starting in 2008, I've been collecting the lists for children's books, including links to various newspapers, magazines, journals, and blogs, as well as different literature prizes and awards given out. I update the big list often.

Here is a link to this year's page:

The Best Children's Books of 2012: A List of Lists and Awards

Also, David Gutowski collects all the "best of" lists for books (for grown-ups and kids alike) at his blog, Largehearted Boy.

Meanwhile, speaking of snow, don't miss Kids' Science Books for Stormy Weather, at Scientific American's Budding Scientist blog.

National Book Award Finalists 2012

If you are like me and forgot to watch the announcement on the "Morning Joe" show, Publishers Weekly has the scoop. 

The nominees for the Young People's Literature prize are as follows:

William Alexander, Goblin Secrets

Carrie Arcos, Out of Reach

Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down

Eliot Schrefer, Endangered 

Steve Sheinkin, Bomb: The Race to Build―and Steal―the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon 

Saturday Morning Reading, 05.19.12

A few highlights from this week's reading:

Tanita S. Davis, author of the newly released YA novel Happy Families, pens a wonderful tribute to the late Jean Craighead George's novel My Side of the Mountain. I loved that book when I was a kid. Loved it. Jean Craighead George died recently at the age of  92.

In tomorrow's New York Times Book Review (available online now), Judith Shulevitz writes about listening to audiobooks with her children. I smiled at her choices, "...or they’re books we’ve always meant to read but needed children as an excuse to do so" because I've felt the same way. See "Let's Go Reading in the Car."

The Nonfiction Detectives review Kelly Milner Hall's Alien Investigations: Searching for the Truth About UFOs and Aliens. I added the title to our library list immediately; my 12 year old can't get enough of this subject. Don't miss the other articles on the Detectives' blog; you'll find all kinds of good recommendations for young nonfiction fans.

After following a link from Page-Turner, the New Yorker's revitalized book blog, I was happy to add Rohan Maitzen's Novel Readings: Notes on Literature and Criticism to Google Reader. In a recent post, she makes the case for Middlemarch and book clubs, providing a number of helpful tips to taking on George Eliot's 1,000+-page classic. Maitzen is an English professor at Nova Scotia's Dalhousie University.

I'm bookmarking this post from Misadventures of the Monster Librarian because of the folktale recommendations for second graders. "My" second graders (the class I read to once a week) like folktales a lot.

Speaking of second graders, I read Lita Judge's excellent nonfiction picture book Bird Talk: What Birds Are Saying and Why to them a few weeks ago. My crew was particularly delighted by the scat-bombing Scandinavian Fieldfare, mentioned by NC Teacher Stuff in his review. In our conversation after the read-aloud, I found out that several of the kids own parrots. Parrot stories abounded.

Finding Good Children's Books

Over at What Do We Do All Day?, you'll find an excellent post about ways to locate good books for children. The blog kindly includes a nod to Chicken Spaghetti's love of book lists. So, yeah! Let's break out a couple of new kid-book lists that popped up recently.

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers, for kids 12-18 (via Bartography)

Charlotte Zolotow Award books, honoring writing for picture books

Edgar Award finalists, mysteries (books for grown-ups, too)

NAACP Image Award nominees for literature, featuring books in a number of categories, including ones for children and teens

APALA Asian/Pacific American Awards

Amelia Bloomer Project, feminist literature

Rainbow List, GLTBQ books

American Indian Youth Literature Awards, "created to identify and honor the very best writing and illustrations by and about American Indians, Alaska Natives, Canadian First Nations and Native Hawaiians"

The Chicken Spaghetti Gift Guide 2011

Hark! Here is a gift guide for the holidays. Some books are for grown-ups, some for children. At the end of the post, I've linked each title to Powell's. I have no affiliation with the store, but have ordered from it successfully in the past.

For the writer who doesn't mind a fist fight or two (or twenty):
Townie, author Andre Dubus III's memoir of his surprisingly hardscrabble upbringing—one of the best books about writing that I've read in ages.

For the preschooler on the verge of big-sisterhood or big-brotherhood:
Pecan Pie Baby, in which Jacqueline Woodson taps into the "What about me?" emotions of a soon-to-be sibling with humor and love.

For the subversive fifth grader in your life:
Spy vs. Spy Omnibus, vintage Mad Magazine cartoon comedy.*

For the friend who wants to cook more often and better:
The Kitchen Counter Cooking School. The subtitle says it all: "How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices Into Fearless Home Cooks."

For the toddler who scampers away at bedtime:
Hide-and-squeak, Heather Vogel Frederick's rhyming story of Mouse Baby and her papa. Featuring big, joyful illustrations by C.F. Payne.

For the student artist:
Drawing from Memory, Allen Say's fascinating picture-book memoir of an apprenticeship to a famous Japanese cartoonist.

For the grown-up fan of Doctor De Soto:
Cats, Dogs, Men, Women, Ninnies and Clowns: The Lost Art of William Steig, a collection of previously unpublished work by the New Yorker cartoonist and children's book author.

For the viewer of TV shows like "Ghost Hunters" and "The Othersiders" who needs a dose of reality:
Witches! Rosalyn Schanzer's narrative nonfiction history (for kids 10+) of the Salem witch trials.

For the parade lover:
Balloons Over Broadway, a captivating picture book about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the puppeteer who started it all. Readers of all ages will want to look at it again and again to see the details of the art.

*Note: The hardcover Spy vs. Spy Omnibus is the only one on this list that I haven't read. I am going by my son's love for the library copy of an earlier paperback collection, Spy vs. Spy: The Complete Casebook (2001).

Details

Dubus, Andre III. Townie: A Memoir (W.W. Norton, 2011).

Flinn, Kathleen. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices Into Fearless Home Cooks (Viking, 2011).

Frederick, Heather Vogel. C.F. Payne, illustrator. Hide-and-squeak (Simon & Schuster, 2011).

Prohias, Antonio. Spy vs. Spy Omnibus (MAD Books, 2011).

Say, Allen. Drawing from Memory (Scholastic, 2011).

Schanzer, Rosalyn. Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem (National Geographic, 2011).

Steig, Jeanne. William Steig, illustrator. Cats, Dogs, Men, Women, Ninnies and Clowns: The Lost Art of William Steig (Abrams ComicArts, 2011).

Sweet, Melissa. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy's Parade (Houghton Mifflin, 2011).

Woodson, Jacqueline. Sophie Blackall, illustrator. Pecan Pie Baby (Putnam, late 2010).

Poetry Friday: Bootleg (Found Poem)

Bootleg: A Found Poem

 

Blind tiger, bootlegger, booze
Flapper, hooch, moonshine

Rumrunner, speakeasy, teetotaler

The days
of outright prohibition
are
gone
and likely will
will never return.

Source: Bootleg: Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition, by Karen Blumenthal (Roaring Brook, 2011)

I'm just starting Bootleg, which is popping up on year-end best-kids-books lists, including those from School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews, as well as the YALSA Nonfiction Award finalists.

I'm curious about the subject since saloon keeping and home brewing were activities enjoyed by a number of my kinfolks during the same era. Well, the saloon keeping (of one Bismarck Saloon on the town square in Waco, Texas) was just prior to Prohibition, for obvious reasons...

The glossary words in Blumenthal's book read like poetry to me, and I liked her conclusion at the end. That's where I concocted the poem above. The nonfiction book is geared toward readers 12 and older.

Other children's books bloggers are writing about poetry (and not moonshine) today; see the Poetry Friday roundup at Read, Write, Howl for more selections.

National Book Award for Kids' Lit to First-Time Author

A debut author has won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Last night at the National Book Award ceremony in New York, Thanhha Lai took home the prize for her autobiographical novel in verse, Inside Out & Back Again. Elizabeth Burns, who blogs at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy, reviewed the book here, adding, "Am I the only one hoping this becomes a series that follows Ha [the protagonist] through her childhood and teenage years?"

The other winners were Jesmyn Ward, for Salvage the Bones (fiction); Stephen Greenblatt, for The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (nonfiction); and Nikki Finney, for Head Off & Split (poetry).

For more on the awards and the evening, hop over to NPR's Monkey See blog.