Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Rants and Raves2016’s Most Noteworthy Books
How did we choose?● Used MLA Awards Criteria: At least 2 starred reviews from reputable
journals like BCCB, Booklist, Horn Book, Kirkus, SLJ
● Ignored the big Award Winners - you’ll read them anyway
● Focused on titles that made an impact
● And then, those titles we want to forget
The Night Gardenerby Terry Fan
Glorious and elegant illustrations
A drab and gray town is transformed when the Night Gardener ushers in beauty and color via fantastical topiaries.
Themes: Community, Beauty and Art
Witty and droll
A hungry lion surrounded by a group of cute little animals who one by one inexplicably keep disappearing while the lion remains.
Hand to: Fans of the absurd, think Jon Klassen.
A Hungry Lion or A Dwindling Assortment of Animalsby Lucy Ruth Cummins
The Typewriterby Bill Thomson
Visual storytelling at its best
Three children find a typewriter at a closed carousel and discover it has the magical ability to manifest whatever they type.
Best for: One on one sharing or classroom discussion.
My Friend Maggieby Hannah E. Harrison
Moral lesson without being pedantic
Paula and Maggie are best friends. When a group of mean girls start making fun of Maggie, Paula abandons her friend to hang with the cool kids.
Themes: Friendship, bullying and forgiveness
Ida, Alwaysby Caron Levis and Charles Santoso
Difficult subject matter
Based on the true story of two Polar Bears, Ida and Gus, who lived in the Central Park Zoo. Ida gets sick and eventually dies leaving Gus alone.
Purchase it-Tender introduction to grief at right speed.
School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex
Best overall picture book
You think you’re afraid to start school? Try being the school! Delightful story of a newly constructed school and his fears about his first day.
Bonus points: School sprays a bratty kid in the face with his drinking fountain.
Rambling tale trying to parallel “things you learn in school” with Frank and his dog Lucky’s everyday experiences. Yawn.
Frank and Lucky Get Schooled by Lynne Rae Perkins
The Riddlemasterby Kevin Crossley-Holland
Three kids want to go to an island to look for treasure but have to answer seven riddles to get safe passage. You, dear reader, will fall asleep before they answer them.
The Wild Robotby Peter Brown
A new look at how we make friends
The animals think Roz is a monster but her survival mode doesn’t allow her to be violent. She learns their languages and they become friends. Then RECCO 1 shows up.
Great for: Read aloud or hesitant readers
It Ain’t So Awful Falafelby Firoozeh Dumas
Almost-teens have the same feelings today as they had in the 80’s
You’re the new kid with the name no one can pronounce and from a country no one’s ever heard of...until it’s all over the news.
Theme: Kids just want to fit in.
All Rise For The Honorable Perry T. Cookby Leslie Connor
Not too sad, not too sweet mystery
If prison has always been your home, where your mom and inmate family lives, would you be happy about being forced out and into a foster home -even if it is with your best friend’s family?
Theme: Even children can be heroes.
Nameless Cityby Faith Erin Hicks & Jordie Bellaire
Action-packed graphic novel
When Kai goes out into the city alone, he meets Rat. And then she disappears. While she is training him in rooftop running, they overhear a plot that threatens the General of All Blades and their city.
Give to: Regular Joes or Comic Book Pros
Ghostby Jason Reynolds
Not Just a Sports Book
Ghost knows how to run. He’s been running from anger, fear and trouble for 3 years. Now he has the chance to run with an elite track team...if he doesn’t blow it.
Theme: None of us is all good or all bad.
Flying Lessons and Other StoriesEdited by Ellen Oh
Culturally diverse and inclusive - WNDB
Several cultures and various circumstances are represented in these stories and while we note the differences, we see the similarities in our hopes and dreams, our friends and families.
Theme: Mirrors & Windows for Middle Schoolers
Tru and Nelleby G. Neri
The chinaberry tree at the beginning of each chapter and the large font don’t disguise this collection of stories into a book for children.
Full of BeansBy Jennifer L. Holm
Spanky and Our Gang characters speak a lot of slang that the author interprets in a bunch of disjointed stories that finally gets to the point.
We Are The Antsby Shaun David Hutchinson
Sci-fi/LBGTQ/WTF
The depiction of teenage angst/ love/ issues is spot-on, and the characters feel fully fleshed-out. Narrator may or may not be (probably is, although maybe not) unreliable. Sad, weird, funny. Not really a romance?
Give to: fans of dark comedy, smart fiction, ugly crying in private
Meet-cute teen romance with a serious core
Funny, fully-developed and flawed characters, branching off in all directions. Even minor characters play a major role in this Altman-esque dissection of what it means to love someone else
Give to: fans of Eleanor & Park, goofy romantics, cold-hearted rationalists
The Sun Is Also A Starby Nicola Yoon
Paper Girlsby Brian K. Vaughan and Cliff Chiang
Tough girls delivering papers in Spielberg-ish 1980’s creepy sci-fi horror suburban nightmare
Time-and-space travel and great sci-fi, great cast of characters, weird icky Vaughan tech, and a mostly underplayed 80's setting.
Give to: fans of Stranger Things, E.T., The Woods
Trashedby Derf Backderf
Graphic semi-nonfiction loosely based on the author’s real-life stomach-churning/hilarious experiences as a garbage collector
Full of sobering facts about trash and ridiculous stories about “the crap job of all crap jobs”.
Give to: fans of raunchy comedy, teens who like gross stuff mixed in with their facts
Still Life with Tornadoby A.S. King
Twisty, turny magical realism about some very difficult topics
Definitely NOT a unreliable narrator, Sarah really IS hanging out with older and younger versions of herself. Why? How? And what does it have to do with her family’s dark secrets? (Answer: a lot.)
Give to: postmodernists, artists, fans of A.S. King
The Serpent Kingby Jeff Zentner
No-BS realistic teen fiction
The rarest of teen books; one about normal kids in a crappy small town wasteland, quietly struggling with sadness/pain and the realization that darkness is part of us, hidden just below the surface.
Give to: everybody. Seriously, you should all read this book.
Thanks For The Troubleby Tommy Wallach
Weird, honest, and unsettling genre-bending fantasy/magical realism
Deeply cynical and almost disturbingly morose, Thanks for the Troubleputs forth the premise that the older we get, the less and less happy we are
Give to: fans of...John Irving?, people that hate manic pixie dream girls, suspenders of disbelief
The Hatersby Jesse Andrews
I didn’t hate it.
How To Get Involved
MLA call for volunteershttp://www.milibraries.org/volunteers/call-for-volunteers/general-information/
