| The second in our annual series on the best children's books of the year includes several new features. We have added the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction to our list of awards covered, and we have included the complete School Library Journal Best Books list. Also, many of the books appear under more than one genre/subject in the listings and in the index. Thanks to a very thoughtful review in Booklist Reference Books Bulletin, we have added review citations to the listings. Journals cited are Booklist, The Bulletin, Horn Book, Kirkus Reviews, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. |
| We were able to do this thanks to a wonderful Web site, maintained by Follett, called Titlewave. It is filled with all sorts of information useful to teachers and librarians, especially in collections development. It can be found at http://www.titlewave.com. |
| Other aspects of this annual remain the same. The awards covered here are: Newbery, Caldecott, Coretta Scott King, Batchelder, Pura Belpre (awarded every other year), Boston Globe Hornbook, and the National Book Award. The lists are: ALA Notables, BCCB Blue Ribbons, Booklist Editor's Choice, Hornbook Fanfare, New York Times Best Illustrated and Notable Children's Books, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. |
| The distinction between the types of books can be fuzzy. We decided that a book was a picture book if it has a picture at least on every other page, does not have chapters, and has no more than 48 pages (with some exceptions). We call a book YA (young adult) if it is for children older than 12, and we provide PG warnings if it contains sex, drugs, rough language, or gore. This is not intended to encourage censorship, but merely to give readers useful information. Sex often refers simply to sexual situations; language can mean only one off-color word (we did not include "Hell" or "damn" in that category), and gore can mean anything bloody. It is our personal belief that most high school students are moving on to adult books, so we feel that books that are inappropriate for children younger than 15 are not really children's books. We include them here if they are on one of the lists but note in the reviews that they really don't belong on a children's list. |
| The Genre/Subject listing gives us the opportunity to roughly categorize the books by their content. We use contemporary fiction as a catch-all category for books that do not fit into any of the other genres but that deal with topical themes. |
| Some have asked us to indicate which books are available in paperback. We decided not to do this because most of these books are quite new, and any information about publication in other formats would already be out of date by the time this edition is released. For those who are seeking paperbacks, we recommend that you look in our previous year's edition, as many of the books listed there will be out in paperback. |
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