ALSC names 2015 Notable Children's Books

CHICAGO — The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected its 2015 list of Notable Children’s Books. The list of titles includes fiction, nonfiction, poetry and picture books of special interest, quality, creativity and value to children 14 years of age and younger.

The titles include:

Younger Readers

“The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend.”  By Dan Santat. Illus. by the author. Little Brown.

“The Baby Tree.” By Sophie Blackall. Illus. by the author. Penguin/Nancy Paulsen.  

“Beautiful Moon: A Child's Prayer.” By Tonya Bolden. Illus. by Eric Velasquez. Abrams. 

“Blizzard.” By John Rocco. Illus. by the author. Disney-Hyperion. 

“A Boy and a Jaquar.” By Alan Rabinowitz. Illus. by CáTia Chien. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure.” By Doreen Cronin. Illus. by Kevin Cornell. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum.  

“A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream.” By Kristy Dempsey. Illus. by Floyd Cooper. Penguin/Philomel.

“Dory Fantasmagory.” By Abby Hanlon. Illus. by the author. Penguin/Dial. 

“Draw!” By Raúl Colón. Illus. by the author. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman. 

“Early Bird.” By Toni Yuly. Illus. by the author. Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan.  

“The Farmer and the Clown.” By Marla Frazee. Illus. by the author. Simon & Schuster\Beach Lane.  

“The Farmer's Away! Baa! Neigh!” By Anne Vittur Kennedy. Illus. by the author. Candlewick. 

“Feathers: Not Just for Flying.” By Melissa Stewart. Illus. by Sarah S. Brannen. Charlesbridge.

“Firebird.” By Misty Copeland. Illus. by Christopher Myers. Penguin/G.P. Putnam's. 

“Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems.” Selected by Paul B. Janeczko. Illus. by Melissa Sweet. Candlewick. 

“Flashlight.” By Lizi Boyd. Illus. by the author. Chronicle. 

“Fox's Garden.” By Princesse Camcam. Illus. by the author. Enchanted Lion. 

“Froodle.” By Antoinette Portis. Illus. by the author. Roaring Brook/Neal Porter. 

“Gaston.” By Kelly DiPucchio. Illus. by Christian Robinson. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum. 

“Green Is a Chile Pepper.” By Roseanne Greenfield Thong. Illus. by John Parra. Chronicle.

“Handle with Care: An Unusual Butterfly Journey.” By Loree Griffin Burns. Photographs by Ellen Harasimowicz. Millbrook/Lerner. 

“Have You Seen My Dragon?” By Steve Light. Illus. by the author. Candlewick. 

“Hi, Koo!: A Year of Seasons.” By Jon J. Muth. Illus. by the author. Scholastic. 

“The Iridescence of Birds: A Book about Henri Matisse.” By Patricia MacLachlan. Illus. by Hadley Hooper. Roaring Brook/Neal Porter. 

“Little Melba and Her Big Trombone.” By Katheryn Russell-Brown. Illus. by Frank Morrison. Lee & Low. 

“Little Roja Riding Hood.” By Susan Middleton Elya. Illus. by Susan Guevara. Penguin/G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

“Mama Built a Little Nest.” By Jennifer Ward. Illus. by Steve Jenkins. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane. 

“The Most Magnificent Thing.” By Ashley Spires. Illus. by the author. Kids Can. 

“Mr. Putter & Tabby Turn the Page.” By Cynthia Rylant. Illus. by Arthur Howard. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“My Teacher Is a Monster! (No, I am Not).” By Peter Brown. Illus. by the author. Little, Brown. 

“Nana in the City.” By Lauren Castillo. Illus. by the author. Clarion. 

“Naptime.” By Iris De Moüy. Illus. by the author. Tr. by Shelley Tanaka. Groundwood/House of Anansi.

“The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky's Abstract Art.” By Barb Rosenstock, Illus. by Mary Grandpré. Random House/Knopf.

“The Pigeon Needs a Bath!” By Mo Willems. Illus. by the author. Disney-Hyperion. 

“Queen Victoria's Bathing Machine.” By Gloria Whelan. Illus. by Nancy Carpenter, Simon & Schuster. 

“Sam and Dave Dig a Hole.” By Mac Barnett. Illus. by Jon Klassen. Candlewick.

“Shh! We Have a Plan.” By Chris Haughton. Illus. by the author. Candlewick. 

“Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos.” By Stephanie Roth Sisson. Illus. by the author. Roaring Brook. 

“Tap Tap Boom Boom.” By Elizabeth Bluemle. Illus. by G. Brian Karas. Candlewick. 

“Telephone.” By Mac Barnett. Illus. by Jen Corace. Chronicle. 

“Tiny Creatures: The World of Microbes.” By Nicola Davies, Illus. by Emily Sutton. Candlewick. 

“Viva Frida.” By Yuyi Morales.  Illus. by the author. Roaring Brook/Neal Porter.

“Waiting Is Not Easy!” By Mo Willems. Illus. by the author. Disney-Hyperion.

“Water Rolls, Water Rises: El agua rueda, el agua sube.” By Pat Mora. Illus. by Meilo So. Tr. by Adriana Domínguez & Pat Mora. Lee & Low/Children's Book Press. 

“Weeds Find a Way.” By Cindy Jenson-Elliott. Illus. by Carolyn Fisher. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane. 

“Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold.” By Joyce Sidman. Illus. by Rick Allen. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“Work, An Occupational ABC.” By Kellen Hatanaka. llus. by the author. House of Anansi/Groundwood

“You Are (Not) Small.” By Anna Kang. Illus. by Christopher Weyant. Two Lions.

 

Middle Readers

“Absolutely Almost.” By Lisa Graff. Penguin/Philomel. 

“Arcady's Goal.” By Eugene Yelchin. Illus. by the author. Holt. 

“Angel Island: Gateway to Gold Mountain.” By Russell Freedman. Illus. Chinese poems Tr. by Evans Chan. Clarion.  

“Before After.” By Anne-Margot Ramstein & Matthias Arégui. Illus. by the authors. Candlewick. 

“Brown Girl Dreaming.” By Jacqueline Woodson. Penguin/Nancy Paulsen.

“The Boundless.” By Kenneth Oppel. Simon & Schuster. 

“The Case of the Vanishing Little Brown Bats: A Scientific Mystery.” By Sandra Markle. Illus. Millbrook. 

“Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cats.” By Sy Montgomery. Photographs by Nic Bishop. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

“Dare the Wind: The Record-Breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud.” By Tracey Fern. Illus. by Emily Arnold McCully. Farrar/Margaret Ferguson. 

“El Deafo.” By Cece Bell. Color by David Lasky. Abrams/Amulet. 

“Eye to Eye: How Animals See the World.” By Steve Jenkins. Illus. by the author. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

“The Fourteenth Goldfish.” By Jennifer L. Holm. Random House. 

“Freedom Summer: The 1964 Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi.” By Susan Goldman Rubin. Illus. Holiday. 

“The Great Greene Heist.” By Varian Johnson. Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine. 

“Half a Chance.” By Cynthia Lord. Scholastic. 

“Harlem Hellfighters.” By J. Patrick Lewis. Illus. by Gary Kelley. Creative Editions. 

“Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.” By G. Neri. Illus. by A. G. Ford. Candlewick. 

“Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust.” By Loïc Dauvillier. Illus. by Marc Lizano. Color by Greg Salsedo. Tr. by Alexis Siegel. First Second.

“Hope Is a Ferris Wheel.” By Robin Herrera. Abrams/Amulet. 

“I Lived on Butterfly Hill.” By Marjorie Agosín. Illus. by Lee White. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum. 

“Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker.” By Patricia Hruby Powell. Illus. by Christian Robinson. Chronicle.

“Kinda Like Brothers.” By Coe Booth. Scholastic. 

“Lowriders in Space.” By Cathy Camper. Illus. by Raúl the Third. Chronicle. 

“The Luck Uglies.” By Paul Durham. Illus. by Pétur Antonsson. HarperCollins. 

“Mikis and the Donkey.” By Bibi Dumon Tak. Illus. by Philip Hopman. Tr. by Laura Watkinson. Eerdmans.

“The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher.” By Dana Alison Levy. Random House/ Delacorte. 

“A Moose Boosh: A Few Choice Words about Food.” By Eric-Shabazz Larkin. Readers to Eaters. 

“Mysterious Patterns: Finding Fractals in Nature.” By Sarah C. Campbell. Photographs by the author and Richard P. Campbell. Boyds Mills.

“Neighborhood Sharks: Hunting with the Great Whites of California’s Farallon Islands.” By Katherine Roy. Illus. by the author. Roaring Brook/David Macaulay.

“Nest.” By Esther Ehrlich. Random House/Wendy Lamb. 

“Once Upon an Alphabet.” By Oliver Jeffers. Illus. by the author. Penguin/Philomel. 

“Rain Reign.” By Ann M. Martin. Feiwel and Friends/Macmillan.

“The Red Pencil.” By Andrea Davis Pinkney. Illus. by Shane W. Evans. Little, Brown. 

“Separate Is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation.” By Duncan Tonatiuh. Illus. by the author. Abrams.

“A Snicker of Magic.” By Natalie Lloyd. Scholastic. 

“Sisters.” By Raina Telgemeier. Illus. by the author. Scholastic/Graphix. 

“Three Bird Summer.” By Sara St. Antoine. Candlewick. 

“The Turtle of Oman.” By Naomi Shihab Nye. HarperCollins/Greenwillow. 

“Under the Egg.” By Laura Marx Fitzgerald. Penguin/Dial. 

“West of the Moon.” By Margi Preus. Abrams/Amulet. 

“The Whispering Town.” By Jennifer Elvgren. Illus. by Fabio Santomauro. Kar-Ben. 

“The Witch's Boy.” By Kelly Barnhill. Algonquin/Workman.

 

Older Readers

“Because They Marched: The People's Campaign for Voting Rights That Changed America.” By Russell Freedman. Illus. Holiday.

“Caminar.” By Skila Brown. Candlewick.

“The Crossover.” By Kwame Alexander. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

“The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion & the Fall of Imperial Russia.” By Candace Fleming. Illus. Random House/Schwartz & Wade.

“How I Discovered Poetry.” By Marilyn Nelson. Illus. by Hadley Hooper. Penguin/Dial.

“The Night Gardener.” By Jonathan Auxier. Abrams/Amulet.

“Nine Open Arms.” By Benny Lindelauf. Illus. by Dasha Tolstikova, Tr. by John Nieuwenhuizen. Enchanted Lion.

“The Port Chicago 50: Disaster, Mutiny, and the Fight for Civil Rights.” By Steve Sheinkin. Illus. Roaring Brook.

“Portraits of Hispanic American Heroes.” By Juan Felipe Herrera. Illus. by Raúl Colón. Penguin/Dial.

“Revolution: The Sixties Trilogy, Book Two.” By Deborah Wiles. Scholastic.

“This One Summer.” By Mariko Tamaki. Illus. by Jillian Tamaki. First Second.

“A Time to Dance.” By Padma Venkatraman. Penguin/Nancy Paulsen.

 

All Ages

“The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus.” By Jen Bryant. Illus. by Melissa Sweet. Eerdmans.

“The Scraps Book: Notes from a Colorful Life.” By Lois Ehlert. Illus. by the author. Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane.

“Take Away the A: An Alphabeast of a Book!” By Michaël Escoffier. Illus. by Kris DiGiacomo. Enchanted Lion.

 

Members of the 2015 Notable Children's Books Committee are: Edith Ching, chair, Silver Spring, Maryland.; Allison Barney, Nashville (Tenn.) Public Library; Keary Bramwell, Mount Prospect (Ill.) Public Library; B. Allison Gray, Santa Barbara Public Library System, Goleta (Calif.) Library; Joyce Laiosa, Slingerlands, N.Y; Bettye Loggins Smith, District of Columbia Public Library, Washington, D.C.; Jennifer Smith, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Ky.; Gwen Taylor, Spokane, Wash.; Larence Wawro, King County Library System, Bellevue, Wash.; Bina Williams, Bridgeport (Conn.) Public Library; and Chrystal Carr Jeter, Willoughby - Eastlake (Ohio) Public Library.