Best Children's Books of 2009

There is nothing more important for your child’s education than you reading to your child and your child reading independently. There are mountains of good literature to read. Below are a few suggestions, according to an article in Jan/Feb 2010 Instructor magazine, “Best Kids Books of 2010.


K-2 Grades

Duck! Rabbit! By Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Is this black-and-white hero a duck or a rabbit? Readers battle it out in this delightful look at illusion, inspired by a famous 19th-century image, in which one narrator claims to see a duck wading through a swamp, the other a bunny hiding in the grass.
Tsunami! By Kimiko Kajikawa

Everyone seemed to have this strory of sacrifice on their Caldecott radar, by the heroic feats of elderly Ojisan, who saves his village from a deadly tsunami.

The Lion and the Mouse By Jerry Pinkney

Pinkney renders one of Aesop’s fables using no words, only exquisite watercolor and colored pencil. You’ll find so many ways to use his versions in the classroom and at home. Your kids can practice telling stories in their own words and in writing.

3-5 Grades

11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass

Mass, perhaps best known for A Mango-Shaped Space, has a singular talent for high-concept plots, (here 11-year old Amanda wakes again and
again on the morning of her birthday, which makes her stories quick to read but very slow to forget.
The Magician’s Elephant By Kate DiCamillo

DiCamillo latest fable about an orphan on a quest to find his family still has children teary-eyed. No one else cuts right to the hearts of readers young and old like DiCamillo does.
Where The Mountain Meets the Moon By Grace Lin

Lin weaves a rich and ambitious journey for her main character, Minli, who decides to search for the Old Man of the Moon after hearing her father’s legends about him. The beautiful illustrations, the folktale feel, and the fast-paced storytelling add up to an unforgettable adventrue you child will love.
6-8 Grades

Catching Fire By Suzanne Collins

This second installment in Collins’s fast-paced trilogy just as addictive as the first (The Hunger Games), and kids happily passed it from friend to friend. With Katniss’s return to the games and a major cliffhanger, we’re not surprised that kids are hooked.

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

Evocative of so many 12-yeaar old girl stories that have come before it, but completely original in its execution, Stead’s second novel had readers championing it in the blogosphere and beyond. With a deep connection to A Wrinkle in Time, a rich sense of 1979 New York City, and a true heroine at its heart, When You Reach Me promises to reach you as well as your child.


Wild Things By Clay Carmichael

Eleven-year old Zoe is one of the favorite characters of 2009. She calls her eccentric uncle’s sculptures “wild things,” she too is untamed, having gotten by with few adults she can trust. Anyone will be able to relate to the emotional road Zoe must travel.