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ALA Award Winners - Children's
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You Are (Not) Small
by Anna Kang and Christopher Weyant2015 Geisel Medal Winner!
Two fuzzy creatures can't agree on who is small and who is big, until a couple of surprise guests show up, settling it once and for all!
The simple text of Anna Kang and bold illustrations of New Yorker cartoonist Christopher Weyant tell an original and very funny story about size--it all depends on who's standing next to you.
The Watermelon Seed
by Greg PizzoliWith perfect comic pacing, Greg Pizzoli introduces us to one funny crocodile who has one big fear: swallowing a watermelon seed. What will he do when his greatest fear is realized? Will vines sprout out his ears? Will his skin turn pink? This crocodile has a wild imagination that kids will love. With bold color and beautiful sense of design, Greg Pizzoli's picture book debut takes this familiar childhood worry and gives us a true gem in the vein of I Want My Hat Back and Not a Box.
Winner of the 2014 Theodore Suess Geisel Medal.
Up, Tall And High!
by Ethan LongThree side-splitting stories in one great picture book! In three laugh-out-loud situations, an irresistible cast of colorful birds illustrate the concepts of "up," "tall" and "high. " First, a short peacock proves that he may not be tall, but he definitely isn't small. Then, a resourceful bird helps his penguin friend find a way to fly. Finally, two birds want to live in the same tree, but what goes up must come down! Each short story features a flap that reveals a surprise twist. With fun fold-outs, easy-to-read text, and a hilarious cast of characters, these stories beg preschoolers and emerging readers to act them out again and again.
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Tales For Very Picky Eaters
by Josh Schneider2012 Winner of the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award! James is a very picky eater. His dad has to get creative--very creative--in order to get James to eat foods he thinks he doesn't like. He presents James with a series of outlandish scenarios packed with fanciful and gross kid-friendly details--like pre-chewed gum as an alternative to broccoli and lumpy oatmeal that grows so big it eats the dog--in an effort to get James to eat. But it is eventually James himself who discovers that some foods are not so bad, after all, if you're willing to give them a try. This irreverently hilarious early reader, it explores a universal point of contention between parent and child in a playful, satisfying way.
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Bink and Gollie
by Alison Mcghee and Kate DiCamilloMeet Bink and Gollie, marvelous companions who can always agree to put on their roller skates. In other matters, however, (such as which socks to wear, the buying of goldfish, or venturing to the Andes Mountains), compromise is required. But even if one sees a tree house as halfway up and the other as halfway down, these girls are always the best of friends.
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!
by Geoffrey HayesIn the second comic-book-style title to star brother and sister mice Benny and Penny, the fussy duo track down a mysterious new kid who may have climbed over the fence into their yard and stolen Benny's pail (a no-no).
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Are You Ready to Play Outside? (An Elephant and Piggie Book)
by Mo WillemsMeet Elephant Gerald and Piggie. Gerald is careful. Piggie is not. Piggie cannot help smiling. Gerald can. Gerald worries so that Piggie does not have to. Gerald and Piggie are best friends. In Are You Ready to Play Outside? Piggie can't wait to go play in the sunshine. But will a rainy day ruin all the fun?
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Zelda and Ivy, the Runaways
by Laura Mcgee KvasnoskyIn three short notes, two fox sisters run away from home, bury a time capsule, and take advantage of some creative juice.
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Henry And Mudge And The Great Grandpas
by Cynthia Rylant and Suçie StevensonHenry (and of course Mudge) loves to visit Great Grandpa Bill. He lives in a house with a lot of other grandpas who like to play with a little boy and his dog. But when Henry discovers a swimming pond near the grandpas' house, he finds out how much fun the grandpas really can be.
Winner of the Theodore Seuss Geisel Medal
Don't Throw It To Mo!
by David A. AdlerWinner of the 2016 Theodor Seuss Geisel Award Mo Jackson is a little boy with a big passion for sports. He may not be the biggest, the strongest, or the fastest player, but he won't let that stop him from playing!
Mo is the youngest kid on the Robins, his football team. His classmates don't mind, but the kids on their rival team tease him for being a "butterfingers" who's too tiny to catch the ball. But Mo's coach has a plan to turn Mo's little size into a big win for the Robins!
The Wonderful Fluffy Little Squishy
by Beatrice AlemagnaEddie is five and a half, and thinks she is the only one in her family who isn’t really good at something. So when she hears her little sister say “birthday—Mommy—fluffy—little—squishy,” it’s extra important for her to find this amazing present before anyone else does. So, gregarious, charming, clever little Eddie goes all around the neighborhood to all her fabulous friends—the florist, the chic boutique owner, the antiques dealer, and even the intimidating butcher—to find one. It’s a magical adventure that draws on Eddie’s special gifts, ones that she herself learns to appreciate. Beatrice Alemagna was born in Italy in 1973. At the age of eight, she decided that whatever the cost she would become a "painter and writer of novels" when she grew up.
My Family for the War
by Anne C. VoorhoeveWinner of the Mildred L. Batchelder medal for most oustanding children's book in translation. Escaping Nazi Germany on the kindertransport changes one girl's life forever At the start of World War II, ten-year-old Franziska Mangold is torn from her family when she boards the kindertransport in Berlin, the train that secretly took nearly 10,000 children out of Nazi territory to safety in England. Taken in by strangers who soon become more like family than her real parents, Frances (as she is now known) courageously pieces together a new life for herself because she doesn't know when or if she'll see her true family again. Against the backdrop of war-torn London, Frances struggles with questions of identity, family, and love, and these experiences shape her into a dauntless, charming young woman. Originally published in Germany, Anne Voorhoeve's award-winning novel is filled with humor, danger, and romance.
A Time of Miracles
by Y. Maudet and Anne-Laure BondouxBlaise Fortune, also known as Koumaïl, loves hearing the story of how he came to live with Gloria in the Republic of Georgia: Gloria was picking peaches in her father's orchard when she heard a train derail. After running to the site of the accident, she found an injured woman who asked Gloria to take her baby. The woman, Gloria claims, was French, and the baby was Blaise.
When Blaise turns seven years old, the Soviet Union collapses and Gloria decides that she and Blaise must flee the political troubles and civil unrest in Georgia. The two make their way westward on foot, heading toward France, where Gloria says they will find safe haven. But what exactly is the truth about Blaise's past?
Bits and pieces are revealed as he and Gloria endure a five-year journey across the Caucasus and Europe, weathering hardships and welcoming unforgettable encounters with other refugees searching for a better life. During this time Blaise grows from a boy into an adolescent; but only later, as a young man, can he finally attempt to untangle his identity.
Bondoux's heartbreaking tale of exile, sacrifice, hope, and survival is a story of ultimate love.
A Faraway Island
by Annika ThorTorn from their homeland, two Jewish sisters find refuge in Sweden. It's the summer of 1939. Two Jewish sisters from Vienna—12-year-old Stephie Steiner and 8-year-old Nellie—are sent to Sweden to escape the Nazis. They expect to stay there six months, until their parents can flee to Amsterdam; then all four will go to America. But as the world war intensifies, the girls remain, each with her own host family, on a rugged island off the western coast of Sweden. Nellie quickly settles in to her new surroundings. She’s happy with her foster family and soon favors the Swedish language over her native German. Not so for Stephie, who finds it hard to adapt; she feels stranded at the end of the world, with a foster mother who’s as cold and unforgiving as the island itself. Her main worry, though, is her parents—and whether she will ever see them again. From the Hardcover edition.
Moribito
by Nahoko UehashiYou've never read a fantasy novel like this one! The deep well of Japanese myth merges with the Western fantasy tradition for a novel that's as rich in place and culture as it is hard to put down.Balsa was a wanderer and warrior for hire. Then she rescued a boy flung into a raging river -- and at that moment, her destiny changed. Now Balsa must protect the boy -- the Prince Chagum -- on his quest to deliver the great egg of the water spirit to its source in the sea. As they travel across the land of Yogo and discover the truth about the spirit, they find themselves hunted by two deadly enemies: the egg-eating monster Rarunga . . . and the prince's own father.
The Pull of the Ocean
by Jean-Claude Mourlevat and Y. MaudetLoosely based on Charles Perrault's "Tom Thumb" seven brothers in modern-day France flee their poor parents' farm, led by the youngest who, although mute and unusually small, is exceptionally wise.
The Shadows of Ghadames
by Joelle StolzIN THE LIBYAN CITY of Ghadames, Malika watches her merchant father depart on one of his caravan expeditions. She too yearns to travel to distant cities, and longs to learn to read like her younger brother. But nearly 12 years old, and soon to be of marriagable age, Malika knows that--like all Muslim women--she must be content with a more secluded, more limited life. Then one night a stranger enters her home . . . someone who disrupts the traditional order of things--and who affects Malika in unexpected ways."I was enchanted by this story of a brave Berber girl who dares to dream and its filigree of details about harem life, ancient trade routes, goddesses and healers. The real beauty of The Shadows of Ghadames is that it transcends the exotic to explore universal truths about the condition of being human."--Suzanne Fisher Staples, author of Newbery Honor Book,Shabanu: Daughter of the WindFrom the Hardcover edition.
Run, Boy, Run
by Uri Orlev"'Srulik, there's no time. I want you to remember what I'm going to tell you. You have to stay alive. You have to! Get someone to teach you how to act like a Christian, how to cross yourself and pray. . . . The most important thing, Srulik,' he said, talking fast, 'is to forget your name. Wipe it from your memory. . . . But even if you forget everything-even if you forget me and Mama-never forget that you're a Jew.'"And so, at only eight years old, Srulik Frydman says goodbye to his father for the last time and becomes Jurek Staniak, an orphan on the run in the Polish countryside at the height of the Holocaust. With the danger of capture by German soldiers ever-present, Jurek must fight against starvation, the punishing Polish winters, and widespread anti-Semitism as he desperately searches for refuge. Told with the unflinching honesty and unique perspective of such a young child, Run, Boy, Run is the extraordinary account of one boy's struggle to stay alive in the face of almost insurmountable odds-a story all the more incredible because it is true.
The Thief Lord
by Cornelia Funke and Christian BirminghamTwo orphaned brothers, Prosper and Bo, have run away to Venice, where crumbling canals and misty alleyways shelter a secret community of street urchins. Leader of this motley crew of lost children is a clever, charming boy with a dark history of his own: He calls himself the Thief Lord.
Propser and Bo relish their new "family" and life of petty crime. But their cruel aunt and a bumbling detective are on their trail. And posing an even greater threat to the boys' freedom is something from a forgotten past: a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself.
Winner of Pacific Northwest Library Association’s Young Reader’s Choice Award
How I Became an American
by Karin Gundisch and James SkofieldIn 1902 in a small German town a traveler turns up singing songs about America. The land sounds like paradise, and young Johann Bonfert is excited when his own family plans a life overseas. They set out from a small town in Central Europe in search of a better life in America. But for ten-year-old Johann, the journey across the Atlantic to Youngstown, Ohio, is much more than a change of home and homeland. Johann's whole family is changing, with new jobs, a new language, and new struggles. Everything is different in America. Rich people want to stay thin, the milk cows have American names, and the very air, which at home smelled of hay and rain, here smells only of soot. But finally, as he writes about his new life and begins to realize just how far he has come, "Johnny" also begins to feel that at last he is an American. Through the plain-spoken, affecting voice of Johann, prize-winning author Karin Gundisch and celebrated translator James Skofield capture the stark truths faced by German-speaking immigrants and the heartening family bonds that saw them through--experiences as true today as they were a hundred years ago." This book is full of a young boy's thoughts and dreams and very interesting details about the way people lived in the United States and Germany over a hundred years ago. It contains lyrics of songs used to encourage and discourage immigration, short versions of German children's stories and a few footnotes.
Samir and Yonatan
by Daniella Carmi and Yael LotanSamir, a Palestinian boy, worries about entering a Jewish hospital in Israel for a knee operation because Jewish soldiers are the enemy who killed his older brother. His healing is more than physical. On the children's ward, Yonatan becomes Samir's friend and offers him new ways of thinking.
Thanks to My Mother
by Schoschana RabinoviciSusie Weksler was only eight when Hitler's forces invaded her Lithuanian city of Vilnius. Over the next few years, she endured starvation, brutality, and forced labor in three concentration camps. With courage and ingenuity, Susie's mother helped her to survive--by disguising her as an adult to fool the camp guards, finding food to add to their scarce rations, and giving her the will to endure. This harrowing memoir portrays the best and worst of humanity in heartbreaking scenes you will never forget. Winner of the Mildred L. Batchelder AwardAn ALA Notable BookAn NCSS-CBC Notable Children's Trade Book in the Field of Social Studies
The Apprentice
by Pilar Molina LlorenteA story about a young boy who wishes to become a painter. Even though his father doesnt like that, he is forced to send his child to be apprenticed by Maestro Cosimo de Forli who is jealous of the boy.
The Man from the Other Side
by Hillel Halkin and Uri OrlevA Pole, 14-year-old Marek helps his stepfather smuggle goods into the Jewish ghetto, enduring trips through the foul sewers not from altruism but in order to reap lucrative profits. When Marek decides to help another Jew, his actions lead him into the ghetto during the peak of the uprising. "The author's refusal to exaggerate gives the story unimpeachable impact".--Publishers Weekly.