Children’s books by current writers which are both well-written and captivating. We use 1975 as the cut off date for calling something ‘contemporary’ or classic; however, contemporary generally means today’s kids can identify with the characters.
Published: 1996 Theme: Self-discovery Best for: 12 and up "She was not much in the habit of thinking, only of howling her bitter, lonely anger at her exile from all she knew and understood- her homeland, the Folk, and their paths crisscrossing the moor." Neither the human world nor the fairy world is perfect; in this profound book, you get to see both their flaws, and their glory...
Published: 2009 Theme: Time and Time-travel Best for: 10 and up “It’s the jumping, from one diamond to the next, that we call time, but like I said, time doesn’t really exist. All the diamonds on the ring are happening at the same time….All the diamonds exist at once." Here's a children's book that attempts to bring the question of Time to a child's mind, simply to evoke profound inquiry, and, have some fun...
Published: 2013 Theme: Growing up Best for: Girls 8 to 10 "As she handed me back my most worn-out underwear, I realized she wasn't going to be at camp with me at all. Not even to help me put my things away...Or tuck me in, under my thin sleeping bag." In this children's book, we go away with Eleanor to summer camp, which starts out dreadful, and ends up wonderful. It's a great book for any young girl going off to sleep-away camp for the first time
Published: 2013 Theme: Baseball Best for: 5 to 8 "Marty got her love of baseball from her Great Grandma Martha (Gigi), who loved baseball more than anything. Gigi followed the game faithfully and even kept her own scorebook. She taught Marty everything she knew." This children's book is all heart, even as it goes about its mission of explaining the rules of baseball to young boys and girls...
Published: 1992 Theme: Folk Tale Best for: 5 to 8 "Rich you will surely be," answered the fortune-teller, staring into the crystal ball on the table. "On one condition: that you earn large sums of money." In this beautifully illustrated children's book, we laugh aloud as a naive man becomes a fortune teller. The illustrations of Africa are superb.
Published: 2012 Theme: Against Stereotyping Best for: 9 and up "The whole idea that he might try to walk away from puzzles-even for a day- suddenly seemed ridiculous. A weekend of puzzle games at some famous person's mansion? How could Winston not jump at this?" The most recent book in the Winston Breen series, this one has some wonderful elements in it that surpass the previous books, including culture (music), and pathos (end of life.)
Published: 2009 Theme: Integrity Best for: 9 and up "Let me tell you what's going to happen. You're going to face six puzzles. The first team to send me the answers to all six puzzles will win fifty thousand dollars for their school." In addition to lots of puzzles to solve, this book presents the ethical dilemma: is it ethical to win at all costs?
Published: 2002 Theme: Baseball Best for: Baseball fans, ages 10 and up "I looked at my mother. A few minutes ago, she was refusing to give me permission to travel through time because it was so dangerous. Now she was asking me to go..". This book is a cross between fantasy-- time travel; and historical fiction-- we go back to Shoeless Joe's time...
Published: 2008 Theme: Finding yourself Best for: 11 and up "The big deal is that we'll be living in the middle of nowhere! There will be NOTHING around us for miles and miles. No people. No restaurants. No stores. No movie theaters. NOTHING. Who lives like that?" In this very thoughtful children's book, we watch two teen girls, and a teen boy, go through terrific transformation, discovering who they really are...
Published: 2014 Theme: Fantasy Best for: 9 to 11 "Celie was the one the Castle loved best. She was the one who had raised and trained a griffin. She was the one who had found the broken piece of the Eye and restored it to is rightful place..." This book is written simply enough for a good reader in the third or fourth grade to easily manage the book, yet it is a complex fantasy.
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