This year’s award-winning children’s books feature a diverse and fascinating cast of characters: a 12-year-old Parisian orphan who lives in the city’s train station, a young man growing up in Cold War-era Prague, and a 14-year-old British girl who travels with her uncle to the South Pole. While children may not be able to walk a literal mile in these characters’ shoes, they can do even better by reading their heroic tales firs hand. And what’s more rewarding than giving adventure, learning, travel and a role model all in one neatly wrapped package?
1 Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick Press, 2007) $19.99 2008 Newbery Medal
2 Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis (Scholastic Press, 2007) $16.99 2008 Newbery Honor, 2008 Coretta Scott King Award
3 The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt (Clarion Books, 2007) $16 2008 Newbery Honor
4 The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic Press, 2007) $22.99 2008 Caldecott Medal
5 First the Egg by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook Press, 2007) $14.95 2008 Caldecott Honor, 2008 Geisel Honor
6 The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sis (Farrar/Frances Foster, 2007) $18 2008 Caldecott Honor, 2008 Sibert Medal
7 There is a Bird on Your Head by Mo Willems (Hyperion, 2007) $8.99 2008 Geisel Award
8 Brave Story by Miyuki Miyabe, translated from the Japanese by Alexander O. Smith (VIZ Media LLC, 2007) $23.99 2008 Batchelder Award
9 The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean (HarperTeen, 2007) $16.99 2008 Printz Award for Young Adult Literature
10 The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano by Margarita Engle (Holt BYR 2006) $16.95 2008 Belpre Award