Best Books of 2009

People are already starting to compile end-of-the-year "best" lists, and I thought everyone here might be interested.

The New York Times has a list of the 10 best illustrated children's books of 2009, as seen here. We have almost all of these in our library.

Publisher's Weekly put out a more extensive list, with a wider range of books for all ages, illustrated and not. It can be seen here.

Booklist Online also made a list, seen here.

The ALA also put out its 2009 Teen's Top Ten list. This list was voted on by teens, not librarians or other adults. I find it particularly illuminated for that reason. It can be viewed here.

Take a look. See what you think. Were you surprised by any of the choices? Is there a title you think should have been included that was instead passed over?

Holiday Books

What better way to get into the spirit of the season than to read some nice, heartwarming holiday stories? This librarian says, "Of course, there IS no better way!" :P

I was utterly charmed when I first read Jane O'Connor's most recent offering, Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas. Nancy is as winning as ever as she enthusiastically helps her family prepare for Christmas. But an accident involving a tree topper threatens to ruin the holiday. Can Nancy bounce back? The illustrations by Robin Glaser are stunning in their beautiful, whimsical detail as well. You might want to go out and purchase a copy, because kids are going to want to look at this one again and again.

Elementary school age kids will love Barbara Robinson's classic The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. It tells the story of how the neighborhood misfits, the Herdman children, manage to land starring roles in the church's Christmas pageant. Their humorous and sometimes poignant reactions to the story of Christmas, which they have never heard before, will make kids and adults alike laugh and ponder the true meaning of the holiday. Plus, it includes one of the best quotes ever: "HEY! Unto you a child is born!"

Thoughtful older readers may appreciate Jacqueline Woodson's Newbery Honor book Feathers. Frannie, a sixth-grader in an all-black school in 1971, is startled with the rest of her class when a boy with white skin joins their class. The boy is almost immediately nicknamed Jesus Boy. Also, her friend Samantha is becoming more and more religious. Frannie has a lot to think about as the Christmas season approaches.


Also, if you are thinking about buying some books as presents, the Center for Children's Books at the University of Illinois has recently published its 2009 Guide Book to Gift Books, available here.

Christmas Events

Join us for Christmas events at the library! On Saturday, December 5th, there will be a Christmas storytime and craft for kids ages 3-6 at 10 a.m. We will hear Christmas stories and make candy cane Christmas ornaments to go with the parade's candy cane theme. There is limited space for this, so if you are interested you MUST register.

Santa will also be visiting the library on Monday, December 7th at 11 a.m. We will hear Christmas stories and all the kids will receive candy canes. Parents, bring your cameras! Registration isn't necessary for this one.

Celebrating Food

I don't know about you, but I have food on my mind for the entire month of November, in anticipation of Turkey Day. At Allerton Library we have lots of books about food for kids of all ages.

The picture book crowd will like Amy Krouse Rosenthal's Little Pea, about a small pea who hates eating candy for dinner, but looks forward to a dessert of spinach. Mathmatically-inclined youngsters might also like Matthew McElligott's Bean Thirteen, which is about two grasshoppers--one superstitious, one not--who try to divide up thirteen beans for their dinner guests. It proves difficult, but it all works out in the end.

Older kids might like to try out our selection of cookbooks in our juvenile non-fiction section. We have a couple of Paula Deen's cookbooks for kids, a Ratatouille-themed cookbook, a few international cookbooks, and at least one gross foods cookbook. Kids can (with an adult's help) make quiche, potato salad, mini pizzas, and more.


Kids who are reading the Rebecca Caudill books (grades 4-8) might want to try Rose Kent's book Kimchi and Calamari. It tells the story of Joseph, a Korean-born boy who was adopted by an Italian-American family. Joseph is asked to do a family history project for school, and ends up trying to satisfy his curiosity about his birth family while trying not to let his birth parents feel bad about it. Food is more of a metaphor in this book, but you still get lots of sensory imagery and flavor while reading it.

The Kidlitosphere

There are a huge number of children's librarians who, like me, maintain blogs. This month's issue of School Library Journal has featured 10 of them, in addition to mentioning the site Kidlitosphere, which is a gateway people can use to find more. Among the featured blogs are: Bookshelves of Doom, Editorial Anonymous, Read Roger, and Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Take a look! See if you like 'em. But, don't forget to keep coming back here. :P

Scary Stories

Halloween is this weekend, and kids looking for a scary story should look no farther than the library! We have scary stories for kids of all ages. Even little ones will probably like the picture book Wolf's Coming! by Joe Kulka. In that story, several animals run and hide from a wolf, who stalks across the fields and into a house. It turns out that the animals were planning a surprise birthday party for the wolf, and the illustrations turn from dark and menacing to bright and cheery at the end.

Older kids can't go wrong with the classic Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. Not only is that book (and its sequels) packed with ghostly tales for the elementary school set, but it's also graced with some of the creepiest illustrations I've ever seen. Great spooky fun.




Middle school kids will probably really like the Cirque du Freak series by Darren Shan, starting with Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare. Teenage Darren sneaks out of the house one night to go see a traveling freak show, and ends up becoming more involved with the performers than he ever thought he would be. The series is packed with creepy characters and has some blood and gore, but no sex or language, making it a pretty good choice for that age group.

Older teens can sink their teeth into the popular House of Night series by P.C. Cast once they're done with the Twilight books but want more vampire stories. In this series, starting with Marked, teen Zoe Redbird is marked as a vampire fledgling one day at school. She must go to live at the House of Night with other vampires and vampire fledglings, or else her body will reject the Change into a full vampire and she will die. And, as if starting out at a new school isn't stressful enough, Zoe starts to notice suspicious things at the House of Night.

We have all these books and more at the library, so come check them out!

Spotlight on Easy Readers

Learning how to read is an exciting adventure, and here at Allerton Library we are glad to make it as enjoyable as we can with a great selection of easy readers. Kids who are just starting out will probably enjoy the Fly Guy series, starting with Hi! Fly Guy, by Tedd Arnold. A boy named Buzz decides to keep a fly as a pet when the fly does all kinds of tricks for him, including saying Buzz's name. The words are large and easy to sound out, and the pictures are amusing.


Once kids have mastered those, they may want to try the Biscuit books by Alyssa Capucilli. They are all stories about a puppy named Biscuit. They are a little like the old Spot books, but a little more complex and much more cute and modern. The Elephant and Piggy books by Mo Willems are also a good bet. Starting with Today I Will Fly!, these books give the easy reader genre a nice graphic-novel spin, with all the text in speech bubbles.

The Henry and Mudge books by Cynthia Rylant are also definitely worth a look, once readers have grown tired of Biscuit, Elephant, and Piggy. This series is about a boy named Henry and his enormous, goofy dog Mudge. There is also a Puppy Mudge series for the Fly Guy crowd.



For more advanced readers who aren't yet ready for chapter books, you can't beat the classics like Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel and Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. Funny and touching, these books have stood the test of time for a good reason.

We have all these and more at the library, in our special Easy Reader section behind the chapter books. Check them out!