Bulletin Blue Ribbons 2007

Bulletin Blue Ribbons 2007

Each year the Blue Ribbons process is familiar yet surprising. This year we struggled with the series issue—what to do with the Harry Potters or Hungry Cities, wherein the final volume concluded a remarkable literary achievement without necessarily being in the top literary rank independently—and decided that in future we would attempt to address that situation with a culminating series review when we felt the overall achievement warranted. Then we turned our gaze to our sparse field of nonfiction and decided that we'd rather sacrifice list length than standards. What is strong this year are visuals: not only does the fiction list contain three graphic novels, but also nonfiction is dominated by graphic and picture-book narratives. So there's good news on the state of illustration—let's hope that the words take up the challenge.

Fiction:

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; illus. by Ellen Forney. Little. Gr. 7-10 (October)

Bang-Campbell, Monika. Little Rat Makes Music; illus. by Molly Bang. Harcourt. Gr. 2-3 (September)

Clement-Moore, Rosemary. Prom Dates from Hell. Delacorte. Gr. 7-10 (July/August)

Hest, Amy. Remembering Mrs. Rossi; illus. by Heather Maione. Candlewick. Gr. 2-4 (March)

Leavitt, Martine. Keturah and Lord Death. Front Street, 2006. Gr. 7-9 (March)

Peet, Mal. Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal. Candlewick. Gr. 9-12 (May)

Sfar, Joann. The Professor's Daughter; tr. by Alexis Siegel; illus. by Emmanuel Guibert. First Second/Roaring Brook. Gr. 7-12 (July/August)

Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society; illus. by Carson Ellis. Tingley/Little. Gr. 6-9 (May)

Tan, Shaun. The Arrival; illus. by Shaun Tan. Levine/Scholastic. Gr. 6 up (January 2008)

Varon, Sara. Robot Dreams; illus. by Sara Varon. First Second/Roaring Brook. Gr. 3-8 (November)

Nonfiction:

Debon, Nicolas. The Strongest Man in the World: Louis Cyr; written and illus. by Nicolas Debon and with photographs. Groundwood/House of Anansi. Gr. 3-6 (May)

Levine, Ellen. Henry's Freedom Box; illus. by Kadir Nelson. Scholastic. 6-9 yrs (April)

Lutes, Jason. Houdini the Handcuff King; illus. by Nick Bertozzi. Hyperion. Gr. 4-8 (June)

Schlitz, Laura Amy. Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village; illus. by Robert Byrd. Candlewick. Gr. 6-9 (September)

Sís, Peter. The Wall: Growing Up behind the Iron Curtain; written and illus. by Peter Sís. Foster/Farrar. Gr. 5-10 (October)

Picture Books:

Boelts, Maribeth. Those Shoes; illus. by Noah Z. Jones. Candlewick. 5-9 yrs (December)

Broach, Elise. When Dinosaurs Came with Everything; illus. by David Small. Atheneum. 6-9 yrs (October)

Gravett, Emily. Orange Pear Apple Bear; written and illus. by Emily Gravett. Simon. 3-6 yrs (June)

Issa, Kobayashi. Today and Today; comp. and illus. by G. Brian Karas. Scholastic. Gr. 3-6 (May)

Perkins, Lynne Rae. Pictures from Our Vacation; written and illus. by Lynne Rae Perkins. Greenwillow. Gr. 2-5 (July/August)

Pinkwater, Daniel. Bad Bears Go Visiting: An Irving & Muktuk Story; illus. by Jill Pinkwater. Houghton. Gr. 2-4 (June)

Townsend, Michael. Billy Tartle in Say Cheese!; written and illus. by Michael Townsend. Knopf. Gr. 2-4 (September)

Van Fleet, Matthew. Dog; illus. with photographs by Brian Stanton. Wiseman/Simon. 2-5 yrs (February)

Watt, Mélanie. Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend; written and illus. by Mélanie Watt. Kids Can. Gr. 2-4 (June)