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Children’s books for holiday gifts 2001

This list of children’s books was compiled by Leda Schubert, library-media consultant for the Vermont Department of Education. These books are some of the best published in 2001. Bookstores are usually happy to order titles not in stock. Names followed by * are Vermonters!

Preschool-Kindergarten

Brown, Margaret Wise. MY WORLD. Illus. by Clement Hurd. HarperCollins. In this companion volume to Goodnight Moon, a little bunny delights in all the familiar things in his daily life.

Hest, Amy. KISS GOOD NIGHT. Illus. by Anita Jeram. Candlewick. Even after hearing a story, being tucked in, and drinking warm milk, Sam is not ready to go to sleep until his mother kisses him good night.

Watson, Clyde. FATHER FOX’S PENNYRHYMES. (reissue). Illus. by Wendy Watson.* HarperCollins. A reissue of a classic, in which 30 poems detail the adventures of Father Fox and his family and friends.

Wells, Rosemary. FELIX FEELS BETTER. Candlewick. Felix feels bad and does not want to eat or play, so his mother takes him to Doctor Duck, who makes everything better.

Zemach, Margot. SOME FROM THE MOON, SOME FROM THE SUN: POEMS AND SONGS FOR EVERYONE. FSG (all ages). An illustrated collection of traditional poems and songs, including “This Little Pig Went to Market” and many others.

Picture Books: Grades K-4

Agee, Jon. MILO’S HAT TRICK. MDC/Hyperion. Milo the Magnificent learns a magic trick from a bear in this funny fantasy.

Bierhorst, John, reteller. IS MY FRIEND AT HOME? PUEBLO FIRESIDE TALES. Illus. by Wendy Watson.* FSG. A collection of traditional tales featuring animal characters originally told in the Hopi pueblos of Arizona.

Christelow, Eileen.* THE GREAT PIG SEARCH. Clarion. Bert and Ethel go to Florida to look for their runaway pigs, and find them in unexpected places.

Christensen, Bonnie.* WOODY GUTHRIE: POET OF THE PEOPLE. Knopf. A picture book biography of folk legend Woody Guthrie, which explains both his music and his politics.

Cole, Brock. LARKY MAVIS. FSG. Having found a tiny baby in a peanut shell, Larky Mavis calls him Heart’s Delight and carries him around as he grows bigger, to the confusion and anger of the adults around her.

Graham, Bob. “LET’S GET A PUP,” SAID KATE. Candlewick. When Kate and her parents visit the animal shelter, an adorable puppy charms them, but it is very hard to leave an older dog behind.

Hurst, Carol Otis. ROCKS IN HIS HEAD. Illus. by James Stevenson. Greenwillow. A young man has a lifelong love of rock collecting that eventually leads him to work at a science museum. Based on the life of the author’s father.

Jenkins, Emily. FIVE CREATURES. Illus. by Tomek Bogacki. FSG. In words and pictures, a girl describes the three humans and two cats that live in her house, and details some of the traits that make them different and alike.

Pollock, Penny. WHEN THE MOON IS FULL: A LUNAR YEAR. Illus. by Mary Azarian.* A year of poems, one for each full moon, complemented by Azarian’s lovely hand-tinted woodcuts. Questions and answers about the moon are included.

Simont, Marc. THE STRAY DOG. HarperCollins. A family befriends a stray dog, names him Willy, and decides to keep him.

For New Readers

Caple, Kathy. WOW, IT’S WORM! Candlewick Brand New Readers. Four funny stories about Worm.

Ehrlich, Amy.* KAZAM’S MAGIC. Illus. by Barney Saltzberg. Candlewick Brand New Readers. Kazam, a magician, makes things appear and disappear in four short stories.

Horowitz, Ruth.* BREAKOUT AT THE BUG LAB. Illus. by Joan Holub. Dial. When a giant cockroach named Max escapes from their mother’s bug laboratory, Leo and his brother receive help from a mysterious stranger who advises them to think like a bug in order to recapture the runaway roach.

Paterson, Katherine.* MARVIN ONE TOO MANY. Illus. by Jane Clark Brown. HarperCollins. Marvin cannot read, but he eventually learns with some help from his father. The third book about Marvin and his family.

Grades 2-4

Anderson, M.T. HANDEL, WHO KNEW WHAT HE LIKED. Illus. By Kevin Hawkes. Candlewick. A picture book biography of Handel, a great composer who had lots of opinions.

Creech, Sharon. LOVE THAT DOG. HarperCollins. A young student, who comes to love poetry through a personal understanding of what different famous poems mean to him, surprises himself by writing his own inspired poem.

De Paola, Tomie. ON MY WAY. Putnam. De Paola continues his autobiography, describing the summer between kindergarten and first grade, in this engaging tale.

Fritz, Jean. LEONARDO’S HORSE. Illus. By Hudson Talbott. Putnam. Leonardo Da Vinci dreamed of a 24-foot bronze horse, but it took several other people and more than 500 years for his dream to come true. An unusual story with innovative design.

Haas, Jessie.* RUNAWAY RADISH. Greenwillow. When Radish the pony grows too big for the girls who own him, he goes to live at a horse camp where there are always new children for him to train.

Janeczko. A POKE IN THE EYE: A COLLECTION OF CONCRETE POETRY. Illus. by Chris Raschka. Candlewick. Poems that wriggle, curve, and are shaped are brilliantly interpreted and enriched by artist Chris Raschka.

Williams, Vera B. AMBER WAS BRAVE, ESSIE WAS SMART. Greenwillow. Two sisters help each other deal with life while their mother is working and their father is in jail. Poems and pictures tell their story.

Grades 5-8

An, Na. A STEP FROM HEAVEN. Front St. A young Korean girl and her family find it difficult to learn English and adjust to life in America.

Crossley-Holland, Kevin. ARTHUR: THE SEEING STONE. Scholastic. In late 12th century England, a 13-year-old boy named Arthur recounts how Merlin gives him a magical seeing stone which shows him images of the legendary King Arthur, the events of whose life seem to have many parallels to his own. First of a trilogy.

Cummins, Julie. TOMBOY OF THE AIR: DAREDEVIL PILOT BLANCHE STUART SCOTT. HarperCollins. A biography of Blanche Stuart, who was bold, courageous, and would be an unusual woman in any time. Illustrated with photographs.

Horvath, Polly. EVERYTHING ON A WAFFLE. FSG. Eleven-year-old Primrose, who lives in a small fishing village in British Columbia, recounts her experiences and all that she learns about human nature and the unpredictability of life in the months after her parents are lost at sea.

Grades 7 up

Brashares, Ann. THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS. Delacorte. Four very different girls, best friends since birth, make a friendship pact involving a pair of jeans. The jeans give each girl strength and help them take chances.

Hesse, Karen.* WITNESS. Scholastic. A series of poems expresses the views of various people in a small Vermont town during the 1920s, when the Ku Klux Klan is trying to infiltrate the town.

Naidoo, Beverley. THE OTHER SIDE OF TRUTH. HarperCollins. Smuggled out of Nigeria after their mother’s murder, Sade and her younger brother are abandoned in London when their uncle fails to meet them at the airport. They are fearful of their new surroundings and worried about the fate of their journalist father. Winner of England’s Carnegie Medal.

Nelson, Marilyn. CARVER: A LIFE IN POEMS. Front St. A series of 59 poems about the life of George Washington Carver, set against the cultural and political life of his time.

Schmidt, Gary D. STRAW INTO GOLD. Clarion. Pursued by greedy villains, two boys on a quest to save innocent lives meet the banished queen whose son was stolen by Rumpelstiltskin eleven years earlier, and she provides much more than the answer they seek.

Wolff, Virginia Euwer. TRUE BELIEVER. Atheneum. Living in the inner city amidst guns and poverty, 15-year-old LaVaughn learns from old and new friends and inspiring mentors that life is what you make it. A sequel to Make Lemonade.

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