Now that holiday gift-giving is here, it's hard to put difficult or deeply educational children's
books on a best-of-the-year list; this selection favors books that an affectionate grandparent
might stuff in a stocking or bundle for the last night of Hanukkah.
For the picture-book crowd, "Every Friday" by Dan Yaccarino (Henry Holt, ages 3-8)
celebrates a weekly ritual when a father and son spend the morning together and go out
to breakfast. On the humorous side, there is "Grumpy Bird" by Jeremy Tankard
(Scholastic, ages 3-5), a hilarious story about a bird that gets up on the wrong side of
the bed. Parents will treasure its illustrations long after the kids have moved
on. "Knuffle Bunny Too" (Hyperion, ages 4-7) continues Mo Willems' brilliant
streak of insight into the struggles of children coping with the dimwittedness
of well-meaning adults.
For beginning readers, Willems also has the "Elephant and Piggie"/ series (Hyperion).
These are among the rare books, like Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" stories
(HarperTrophy, ages 4-8), that offer great stories in few words and are rewarding
to the hesitant reader and the patient listener. For reading aloud, Natalie Babbitt's
prose in "Jack Plank Tells Tales" (Michael di Capua, ages 9-12) is everything
you could want: playful, smart, deeply in love with storytelling possibilities. For those
who like to be read to, there is a stunning audio version
of "The One and Only Shrek! Plus Five Other Stories," by the incomparable
William Steig, read by Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci (Macmillan Books for Young
Listeners). The actors' subtle voices add immeasurably to what is already perfection.
J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" (Arthur A. Levine) doesn't
need my endorsement, but any list of the year's best children's books would be laughable
without it. It's the rare Potter fan who would still be in need of this final volume in the
series, though, so "The Dangerous Book for Boys" by Conn Iggulden and
Hal Iggulden (Collins, all ages) or "Daring Book for Girls" by Andrea J. Buchanan
and Miriam Peskowitz (Collins, all ages) may be more imaginative presents.
For older readers, "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick
(Scholastic, ages 9-12) combines visual and verbal storytelling in an imaginative,
cinematic way. Sherman Alexie's "Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian," illustrated
by Ellen Forney (Little, Brown, ages 12 and up), about an aspiring Native American
cartoonist's attempt to get off the reservation, has an operatic range, from hilarious
to tragic. "Bone by Bone by Bone" by Tony Johnston (Roaring Brook Press,
ages 12 and up) is a fierce little gem of Southern-style storytelling. Walter Dean
Myers' "What They Found: Love on 145th Street" (Random House/Wendy Lamb
Books, 12 and up) tells surprising linked tales of the forms love takes in a Harlem
neighborhood. Finally, a reprint of the British children's classic "Uncle" by J.P. Martin
(New York Review Books, all ages), a writer who makes Roald Dahl look restrained,
would make a great gift for literary eccentrics of any age.