The Best Books of 2007 (So Far) - A Fuse #8 Production

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Elizabeth Bird

The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
September 7, 2007

MotherReader has good ideas. Ideas like having bloggers post their favorite children's literary picks of 2007 (so far). I'm game. I'll play. Sarah Miller already posted hers, after all. So here's what I think stands out thus far. These are, in my opinion, the top of the top. Please bear in mind, however, that there's a lot that I haven't read or reviewed yet. This is just what I've seen in 2007 that I think makes for Must Reading. A lot of my 5 star reviews didn't make the final cut, so do not cry if something you love isn't listed here.

Picture Books
Coffelt, Nancy. (Little Brown & Co.). Fred Stays With Me!
Freedman, Deborah. (Knopf – Random House imprint). Scribble.
Harrington, Janice. N. (Melanie Kroupa Books – FSG imprint). The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County.
Lee, Suzy. (Kane/Miller). The Zoo.
Levine, Ellen. Illus. Nelson, Kadir. (Scholastic). Henry’s Freedom Box.
Morales, Yuyi. (Roaring Book Press). Little Night.
Newgarden, Mark and Cash, Megan Montague. (Harcourt). Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug.
Thompson, Lauren. Illustrated by Jonathan Bean. (Simon & Schuster). The Apple Pie that Papa Baked.

Early Readers
Every single Elephant and Piggie book by Mo Williams that you can get your hands on. (Hyperion)

Young Readers
Kinney, Jeff. (Abrams Books for Young Readers). Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
Orr, Wendy. (Henry Holt and Company). Mokie and Bik.
Paros, Jennifer. (Viking). Violet Bing and the Grand House
Pennypacker, Sara. (Hyperion). The Talented Clementine.
Perkins, Mitali. (Charlesbridge). Rickshaw Girl.

Fiction
Bauer, A.C.E. (Random House). No Castles Here.
Carman, Patrick. (Little Brown & Co.) Atherton: The House of Power.
Clements, Andrew. (Simon & Schuster). No Talking.
Curtis, Christopher Paul. (Scholastic). Elijah of Buxton.
Davies, Jacqueline. (Houghton Mifflin). The Lemonade War.
Gantos, Jack. (FSG). I Am Not Joey Pigza.
Moses, Sheila. (McElderry – S&S). The Baptism.
Park, Linda Sue and others. (Scholastic). Click.
Schmidt, Gary D. (Clarion – Houghton Mifflin). The Wednesday Wars.
Selznick, Brian. (Scholastic). The Invention of Hugo Cabret.
Tarshis, Lauren. (Dial). Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree.
Taylor, Laini. (G.P. Putnam’s Sons – Penguin imprint). Faeries of Dreamdark:
Blackbringer.
Urban, Linda. (Harcourt, Inc.). A Crooked Kind of Perfect.
Wilson, N.D. (Random House). Leepike Ridge.
Wolf, Joan M. (Clarion – A Houghton Mifflin imprint). Someone Named Eva.

Graphic Novel
Abadzis, Nick. (First Second). Laika.
Tan, Shaun. (Arthur A. Levine – Scholastic, Inc.). The Arrival.

Non-Fiction
Bertholf, Bret. (Little Brown and Company). The Long Gone Lonesome History of Country Music.
McCarthy, Meghan. (Knopf – RH). Strong Man.
Schlitz, Laura Amy. (Candlewick). Good Masters! Fair Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village.
Stauffacher, Sue. (Knopf). Nothing But Trouble: The Story of Althea Gibson.

Poetry
Lear, Edward. (KCP Poetry – An imprint of Kids Can Press). The Owl and the Pussycat.

All right. Now's your chance. What egregious omissions have I committed?

Posted by Elizabeth Bird on September 7, 2007 | Comments (12)

September 7, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
MotherReader commented:

Love your lists! Some great choices on there - especially where they overlap with mine;^) I realized that I am way behind on my reading in middle-grade fiction, so I'm counting on others favorites to set me straight. Thanks for playing.

September 7, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Alison commented:

The Magic Rabbit, by Annette LeBlanc Cate. So cute!

September 7, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
John P commented:

That would be *Andrew Clements* for NO TALKING--unless you're scooping the world on a pseudonym.

September 7, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Kelly Fineman commented:

Poetry collection: Animal Poems by Valerie Worth, illustrated by Steven Jenkins Nonfiction: Tracking Trash by Loree Griffin Burns

September 7, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Fuse #8 commented:

Whoopsie doo! Poor Andrew. Wonder where that David came from.

September 8, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Elaine Magliaro commented:

Regarding poetry: I agree with Kelly Fineman. Valerie Worth's second posthumous book ANIMAL POEMS is a fine collection from a master poet. Other poetry books published in 2007 that I like: Joyce's Sidman's THIS IS JUST TO SAY: POEMS OF APOLOGY AND FORGIVENESS; Douglas Florian's COMETS, STARS, THE MOON, AND MARS; Janet Wong's TWIST: YOGA POEMS (illustrated by Julie Paschkis); HERE'S A LITTLE POEM FOR YOU, a terrific anthology for very young children compiled by Jane Yolen and Andrew Fusek Peters and illustrated by Polly Dunbar; and TODAY & TODAY: HAIKU BY ISSA--with poems selected and illustrated by G. Brian Karas. All these poetry books have been well illustated, too.

September 8, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Jennifer Schultz commented:

Have you ever been to a party where everyone else is having a great time and raving about it and everything, but you're not feeling it? Because that's how I feel about Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree. It's not that I have a lukewarm feeling about it. I really disliked it, and I've been trying to figure out what that means, because I've only read raves.

September 8, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Jennifer Schultz commented:

....Not that I don't recognize the quality of the writing. It is very clever. I'm talking about my emotional reaction.

September 8, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Fuse #8 commented:

Oh sure. We all have those. *sotto voice* I'm not the hugest biggest fan of "The Wall" by Peter Sis. Don't let it get around though.

September 8, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Jennifer Schultz commented:

I have The Wall on request (it's here, but not shelf-ready yet).

September 10, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
ssl commented:

I wish you had included links to the reviews you posted for the titles in this list. Is this something you're not able to do since it sends readers away from this site? Just curious.

September 10, 2007
In response to: The Best Books of 2007 (So Far)
Fuse #8 commented:

No, I really wanted to do it but there's an entirely different problem involved. SLJ only allows for 7,000 characters per post. When I include links to anything, that ups the number of characters by a ridiculous amount. I could have posted this with links had I broken up my post into four or five pieces, but I didn't really have the time (breaking posts up is a laborious process) and I like having it all in one spot. At the end of the year I'll be doing the best of the best of the best and when that happens I'll link my reviews to every single thing there, character limit be damned. If you would like to read my reviews of any of these books (there's only one that I didn't do on my blog) just Google the term "Fuse #8" and the title you would like to see. That's actually the fastest way I've found to find my old titles and it almost always works.