2005 Notable Children's Books announced

Contact: Laura Schulte-Cooper
312-280-2165
lschulte @ala.org
For Immediate Release
February 1, 2005

2005 Notable Children's Books announced

CHICAGO - The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), has selected its 2005 list of Notable Children's Books.

The list of titles includes fiction and nonfiction, poetry and picture books of special interest, quality, creativity and value to children from preschool through age 14.

The books are:

Younger Readers

  • "Home," by Jeannie Baker, illus. Greenwillow

  • "Baby Danced the Polka," by Karen Beaumont, Illus. by Jennifer Plecas, Dial

  • "Odd Boy Out: Young Albert Einstein," by Don Brown, illus. Houghton

  • "Guji Guji," by Chih-Yuan Chen, illus. Kane/Miller

  • "The Neighborhood Mother Goose," by Nina Crews, illus. Greenwillow

  • "Hot Day on Abbott Avenue," by Karen English, Illus. by Javaka Steptoe, Clarion

  • "The Turn-Around, Upside-Down Alphabet Book," by Lisa Campbell Ernst, illus. Simon & Schuster

  • "Sidewalk Circus," by Paul Fleischman, Illus. by Kevin Hawkes, Candlewick

  • "Where Is the Green Sheep?" by Mem Fox, Illus. by Judy Horacek, Harcourt

  • "Kitten's First Full Moon," by Kevin Henkes, illus. Greenwillow

  • "Apples to Oregon: Being the (Slightly) True Narrative of How a Brave Pioneer Father Brought Apples, Peaches, Pears, Plums, Grapes, and Cherries (and Children) Across the Plains," by Deborah Hopkinson, Illus. by Nancy Carpenter, Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz

  • "Love and Roast Chicken: A Trickster Tale from the Andes Mountains," by Barbara Knutson, illus. Carolrhoda

  • "The Red Book," by Barbara Lehman, illus. Houghton

  • "Ruby Lu, Brave and True," by Lenore Look, Illus. by Anne Wilsdorf, Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz

  • "Wow! City!" by Robert Neubecker, illus. Hyperion

  • "If Not for the Cat," by Jack Prelutsky, Illus. by Ted Rand, Greenwillow

  • "Tiger on a Tree," by Anushka Ravishankar, Illus. by Pulak Biswas, Farrar

  • "Lemons Are Not Red," by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, illus. Roaring Brook/Neal Porter

  • "Wild About Books," by Judy Sierra, Illus. by Marc Brown, Knopf

  • "Polar Bear Night," by Lauren Thompson, Illus. by Stephen Savage, Scholastic

  • "Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale," by Mo Willems, illus. Hyperion

  • "Teeth, Tails, & Tentacles: An Animal Counting Book," by Christopher Wormell, illus. Running Press

Middle Readers

  • "My Light," by Molly Bang, illus. Scholastic/Blue Sky

  • "César: ¡Sí, Se Puede! = Yes, We Can!" by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Illus. by David Diaz, Marshall Cavendish

  • "The Crow-Girl," by Bodil Bredsdorff, Tr. from the Danish by Faith Ingwersen, Farrar

  • "The Big House," by Carolyn Coman, Illus. by Rob Shepperson, Front Street

  • "Millions," Frank Cottrell Boyce, HarperCollins

  • "Doodler Doodling," by Rita Golden Gelman, Illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky, Greenwillow

  • "Technically, It's Not My Fault: Concrete Poems," by John Grandits, illus. Clarion

  • "What Is Goodbye?" by Nikki Grimes, Illus. by Raúl Colón, Hyperion

  • "The People Could Fly: The Picture Book," by Virginia Hamilton, Illus. by Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon, Knopf

  • "The Cats in Krasinski Square," by Karen Hesse, Illus. by Wendy Watson, Scholastic

  • "Merlin and the Making of the King," by Margaret Hodges, Illus. by Trina Schart Hyman, Holiday

  • "The Star of Kazan," by Eva Ibbotson, Illus. by Kevin Hawkes, Dutton

  • "Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance," by Marthe Jocelyn, Candlewick

  • "Walt Whitman: Words for America," by Barbara Kerley, Illus. by Brian Selznick, Scholastic

  • "Sélavi, That Is Life: A Haitian Story of Hope," by Youme Landowne, illus. Cinco Puntos

  • "Fish," by L.S. Matthews, Delacorte

  • "The Tarantula Scientist," by Sy Montgomery, Photos by Nic Bishop, Houghton

  • "Remember: The Journey to School Integration," by Toni Morrison, illus. Houghton

  • "Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen," by Marissa Moss, Illus. by C.F. Payne, Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman

  • "The Little Gentleman," by Philippa Pearce, Illus. by Tom Pohrt, Greenwillow

  • "The Boy, the Bear, the Baron, the Bard," by Gregory Rogers, illus. Roaring Brook/Neal Porter

  • "Sequoyah: The Cherokee Man Who Gave His People Writing," by James Rumford, illus. Houghton

  • "George vs. George: The American Revolution as Seen from Both Sides," by Rosalyn Schanzer, illus. National Geographic

  • "Science Verse," by Jon Scieszka, Illus. by Lane Smith, Viking

  • "Ellington Was Not a Street," by Ntozake Shange, Illus. by Kadir Nelson, Simon & Schuster

  • "The Train of States," by Peter Sís, illus. Greenwillow

  • "Coming on Home Soon," by Jacqueline Woodson, Illus. by E.B. Lewis, Putnam

Older Readers

  • "The Fire-Eaters," David Almond, Delacorte

  • "With Courage and Cloth: Winning the Fight for a Woman's Right to Vote," by Ann Bausum, National Geographic

  • "Al Capone Does My Shirts," by Gennifer Choldenko, Putnam

  • "Daniel, Half Human: and the Good Nazi," by David Chotjewitz, Tr. from the German by Doris Orgel, Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson

  • "Bucking the Sarge," by Christopher Paul Curtis, Random/Wendy Lamb

  • "Boy O'Boy," by Brian Doyle, Douglas & McIntyre/Groundwood

  • "Remember D-Day: The Plan, the Invasion, Survivor Stories," by Ronald J. Drez, illus. National Geographic

  • "The Sea of Trolls," by Nancy Farmer, Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson

  • "The Oracle Betrayed," by Catherine Fisher, Greenwillow

  • "The Voice That Challenged a Nation: Marian Anderson and the Struggle for Equal Rights," by Russell Freedman, Clarion

  • "The Race to Save the Lord God Bird," by Phillip M. Hoose, Farrar/Melanie Kroupa

  • "Is This Forever, or What?
    Poems & Paintings from Texas," Ed. by Naomi Shihab Nye, Greenwillow

  • "Bird," by Angela Johnson, Dial

  • "Kira-Kira," by Cynthia Kadohata, Simon & Schuster/Atheneum

  • "The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place," by E.L. Konigsburg, Simon & Schuster/Atheneum

  • "Heck Superhero," by Martine Leavitt, Front Street

  • "Indigo's Star," by Hilary McKay, Simon & Schuster/Margaret K. McElderry

  • "A Dream of Freedom: The Civil Rights Movement from 1954 to 1968," by Diane McWhorter, illus. Scholastic

  • "Here in Harlem: Poems in Many Voices," by Walter Dean Myers, Holiday

  • "Fortune's Bones: The Manumission Requiem," by Marilyn Nelson, Front Street

  • "Airborn," by Kenneth Oppel, HarperCollins/Eos

  • "The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts," by Richard Peck, Dial

  • "A Hat Full of Sky," by Terry Pratchett, HarperCollins

  • "Becoming Naomi León," by Pam Muñoz Ryan, Scholastic

  • "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy," by Gary D. Schmidt, Clarion

  • "The Schwa Was Here," by Neal Shusterman, Dutton

  • "The Shadows of Ghadames," by Joëlle Stolz, Tr. from the French by Catherine Temerson, Delacorte

  • "So B. It," by Sarah Weeks, HarperCollins/Laura Geringer

All Ages

  • "A Child's Christmas in Wales," by Dylan Thomas, Illus. by Chris Raschka, Candlewick

  • "Under the Spell of the Moon:
    Art for Children from the World's Great Illustrators," Ed. by Patricia Aldana, Tr. by Stan Dragland, Douglas & McIntyre/Groundwood

For the annotated 2005 list and past Notable Children's Book lists, please visit the ALSC Web site.

More information about all of ALSC's Children's Notable Lists is available on the Web site at
www.ala.org/alsc, click on "Awards & Scholarships" and "Children's Notable Lists."

Members of the 2005 Notable Children's Books Committee are: Maureen White, chair, University of Houston at Clear Lake, Houston; Carolyn Angus, George Stone Center for Children's Books, Claremont, Calif.; Jerene Battisti, Renton (Wash.) Public Library; Peg Ciszek, Niles (Ill.) Public Library; Lisa Falk, Los Angeles Public Library; Ginny Moore Kruse, Madison, Wis.; Susan Link, Colony Bend Elementary School, Sugar Land, Texas; Micki Nevett, Westmere School, Albany, N.Y.; Maria Salvadore, Washington; Vicky Smith, McArthur Public Library, Biddeford, Maine; and Karin Snelson, Seattle.

ALSC is a network of over 3,700 children's and youth librarians, children's literature experts and publishers committed to improving and ensuring the future of the nation through exemplary library service to children, their families, and others who work with children.