School Library Journal has released its "Best Books 2008" list.
It is notable for the large number of nonfiction titles (science! history! the arts!), which is a wonderful spur for fiction addicts like me who tend to avoid nonfiction titles all year - until they appear on "Best of..." lists and/or win awards. We'll see how many of them I can wedge into my reading schedule.
All the usual suspects are present on the picture book list, plus a few surprises (at least to me) - I'll have to check out Fern's Buffalo Music, McGill's Way Up and Over Everything and Rosoff's Jumpy Jack and Googily.
The fiction list doesn't include Appelt's The Underneath, Law's Savvy or Anderson's Chains - perhaps these titles have received so much attention that the SLJ book review editors decided they didn't need to be on yet another list. And no one has put O'Connor's Greetings from Nowhere on a "Best of" list, a book that apparently only I really loved. Otherwise I was happy to see many of my favorites. In fact, two of the books I reviewed for SLJ made the list - Hardinge's Well Witched and Ibbotson's The Dragonfly Pool.
Yum - these Best of 2008 lists are truly feasts, giving us plenty to savor over the long Thanksgiving weekend and the rest of 2008.
I am stunned by the omission of Chains and The Underneath. Did they not get starred reviews originally?
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the book lists.
ReplyDeleteI attended the Bookexpo in L.A. and though I was registered for the ALA conference in Anaheim I didn't attend. So your blog has been informative. I have a girl too. She is my Thanksgiving!
Best to you and your family.
Theadora
And best to yours, Theadora - happy reading!
ReplyDelete