Richie's Picks: THE BEST OF 2011

It has been another stellar year for children's and young adult literature.  It is excruciatingly difficult to narrow down the list of books I've discussed this year.  And there are so many more great ones that I've read but not yet gotten to write about (like A BALL FOR DAISY and BLUEFISH).  Nevertheless, the year is slip-sliding away, so here goes:

Five books that I am sharing with preschoolers:

PRESS HERE by Herve Tullet, Handprint/Chronicle Books, April 2011, 56p., ISBN: 978-0-8118-7954-5

PRUDENCE WANTS A PET by Cathleen Daly and Stephen Michael King, ill., Roaring Brook, June 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-1-59643-468-4  

STUCK by Oliver Jeffers, Philomel, November 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-399-25737-7

STOP SNORING, BERNARD! by Zachariah O'Hora, Henry Holt, April 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-8050-9002-4 

CAT SECRETS by Jef Czekaj, Balzer+Bray/Harpercollins, January 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-06-192088-2

Five books that I am sharing with 5-8 year olds:

ME...JANE by Patrick McDonnell, Little Brown, April 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-316-04546-9

NEVILLE by Norton Juster and G. Brian Karas, ill, Schwartz & Wade, October 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-375-86765-1

RED SLED by Lita Judge, Atheneum, November 2011, 36p., ISBN: 978-1-4424-2007-6

BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY: THE TRUE STORY OF THE PUPPETEER OF MACY'S PARADE by Melissa Sweet, Houghton Mifflin, November 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-547-19945-0 

STARS by Mary Lyn Ray and Marla Frazee, ill., Beach Lane Books, October 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-1-4424-2249-0

My favorite new holiday story: 

THE MONEY WE'LL SAVE by Brock Cole, Farrar Straus Giroux, October 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-374-35011-6

Two notable picture books about the natural world:

ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD by George Ella Lyon and Katherine Tillotson, Atheneum, March 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-1-4169-7130-6 

AFTER THE KILL by Darrin Lunde and Catherine Stock, ill., Charlesbridge, July 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-1-57091-743-1 

And, by a landslide, my environmental book of the year:

MEADOWLANDS: A WETLANDS SURVIVAL STORY by Thomas F. Yezerski, Farrar Straus Giroux, March 2011, 40p.. ISBN: 978-0-375-34913-4

This one is for that school library employee -- who stood up in Copperfield's when Susan Patron was appearing there during her victory tour for LUCKY -- and announced that she'd never put THAT book in HER library with THAT word:

WHO HAS WHAT? ALL ABOUT GIRLS' BODIES AND BOYS' BODIES by Robie H. Harris and Nadine Bernard Westcott, ill. Candlewick Press, September 2011, 32p., ISBN: 978-0-7636-2931-1

A trio of outstanding picture books for middle grade children that tell real stories:

DREAM SOMETHING BIG: THE STORY OF THE WATTS TOWERS by Dianna Hutts Aston and Susan L. Roth, ill., Dial, August 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-8037-3245-2 

THE INCREDIBLE LIFE OF BALTO by Meghan McCarthy, Knopf, August 2011, 40p., ISBN: 978-0-375-84460-7

DRAWING FROM MEMORY by Allen Say, Scholastic Press, September 2011, 64p., ISBN: 978-0-545-1686-6

And the final picture book of the year.  The big one.  And I mean it in every way:

WONDERSTRUCK by Brian Selznick, Scholastic Press, September 2011, 640p., ISABN: 978-0-545-02789-2 

My favorite children's fiction for 2011

OKAY FOR NOW by Gary D. Schmidt, Clarion, April 2011, 368p., ISBN: 9780547152608

JEFFERSON'S SONS: A FOUNDING FATHER'S SECRET CHILDREN by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Dial, September 2011, 368p., ISBN: 978-0-8037-3499-9

INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN by Thanhha Lai, HarperCollins, February 2011, 272p., ISBN: 978-0-06-196278-3 

DIVERGENT by Veronica Roth, Katherine Tegen Books/HarperCollins, May 2011, 496p., ISBN: 978-0-06-202402-2 

My favorite young adult fiction:

BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruta Sepetys, Philomel, March 2011, 312p., ISBN: 978-0-399-25412-3

I'LL BE THERE by Holly Goldberg Sloan, Little Brown, May 2011, 393p., ISBN: 978-0-316-12279-5 

STAY WITH ME by Paul Griffin, Dial, September 2011, 304p., ISBN: 978-0-8037-3448-7

HIDDEN by Helen Frost, Frances Foster Books/FSG, May 2011, 160p., ISBN: 978-0-374-38221-6 

RECOVERY ROAD by Blake Nelson, Scholastic Press, March 2011, 320p., ISBN: 978-0-545-10729-7

And my favorite nonfiction of 2011:

FLESH & BLOOD SO CHEAP: THE TRIANGLE FIRE AND ITS LEGACY by Albert Marrin, Knopf, February 2011, 192p., ISBN: 978-0-375-86889-4 

AMELIA LOST: THE LIFE AND DISAPPEARANCE OF AMELIA EARHART by Candace Fleming, Schwartz & Wade, March 2011, 128p., ISBN: 978-0-375-84198-9; Libr. ISBN: 978-0-375-94598-4

BOOTLEG: MURDER, MOONSHINE, AND THE LAWLESS YEARS OF PROHIBITION by Karen Blumental, Roaring Brook, May 2011, ISBN: 978-1-59643-449-3