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Richie's Picks: THE BEST OF 2009  

 
"Everything's gonna be  alright
Everything's gonna be alright 
Everything's gonna be  alright
Everything's gonna be alright
No woman no cry
No woman no  cry
I seh little darlin' 
Don't shed no tears
No  woman no cry"
 
It's been a good year and a tough year.  I  was talking with publishing 
friends while we were all in Philadelphia  last month for the NCTE annual 
convention, telling them how I  have hard-working friends who have ended up 
losing their homes in  the worst economic meltdown since my mom was a kid.  The 
publishing  friends with whom I was conversing might not have personally 
known  someone who was losing a home, but recent downsizing throughout the 
publishing  field means that most everybody knows people who have lost jobs.   I 
expect that we will be seeing the pain of this economic situation  reflected 
in a fair number of tales that are published  for children and young adults 
in the coming years.  
 
Being that I'm a natural pessimist like my mom was, and  thus am feeling 
little reason to assume a quick rebound in  the economy and job markets, I am 
concerned that the new old issue of  blaming immigrants and other 
"outsiders" for our problems will  be increasingly echoing in the real world, 
giving 
us yet another  reason for badly wanting our children, students, patrons, and 
young  neighbors to all be practiced and critical readers.  
 
Spending nights at a hostel while in Philadelphia, and  chatting with 
Europeans visiting the States, I did sense that a  measure of good will toward 
the U.S. has been building over the  past year.  (I pause to contemplate how 
the tides of  history could have, instead, sent Barack running around the 
country  doing the big book tour...and I then begin thinking how  wonderful it 
would be if all our amazingly talented children's author and  illustrators 
were earning some of the big  bucks that somehow -- thanks to the inherent 
wisdom of  our economic system -- flow, instead, to the best-selling author 
from  Alaska.)  
 
"Good-o," as Sammy Tillerman might say.  Now that the  moon is full, my 
list is painfully pared, and I've guaranteed some grouchy  emails to listserv 
administrators, here are my favorites of 2009:
 
As anyone whose had to listen to me lately knows, my book of  the year is 
WHEN YOU REACH ME by Rebecca Stead  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/WHEN-YOU-REACH-ME).  I live  for finding one like 
this, a book filled with wonder 
and possibilities  that is crafted so well that my enjoyment steadily 
increases with each  rereading; a book that makes my heart repeatedly melt when I 
recall  such details as the photo under the mailbox.
 
Another book with which I am seriously in love is POP by  Gordon Korman 
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/POP).  Korman has written a  lot of great, 
typically humorous, stories.  POP is a standout --  a great sports story, a 
great guy story, a significant story for middle  school kids about "the long 
run"; an absolute gem of a book that ranks  right up there with the very best 
of Spinelli and Hiaasen. 
 
Kekla Magoon should handily win the William C. Morris YA Debut  Award for 
THE ROCK AND THE RIVER  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/THE-ROCK-AND-THE-RIVER), a powerful and  complex 
historical novel which, audience-wise, 
comfortably straddles the  children's and YA  (ALSC and YALSA) overlap.  Set in the 
tumult of  1968 Chicago, Sam Child's coming-of-age story provides readers  a 
real understanding of the Black Panther Party that I wish I had  found a 
long time ago.
 
Helen Frost is so amazing in how she builds an engaging  and 
well-researched piece of historical fiction through poetry in THE CROSSING  STONES 
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/CROSSING-STONES).  We talk about  trying to do 
cross curricular stuff with poetry.  It would  be great to take this into 
American history classes paired up  with Ann Bausum's nonfiction work WITH 
COURAGE AND  CLOTH. 
 
Hoo-boy!  And Grandma Dowdell.  I just  loved the gift of yet another 
go-round with her in Richard Peck's  A SEASON OF GIFTS  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/A-SEASON-OF-GIFTS).
  
Then, turning to YA, I begin with the breathtaking  time-ticking-down tale 
of THE ORANGE HOUSES  (http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/THE-ORANGE-HOUSES) in 
which Paul Griffin  creates three equally powerful young characters on the 
margins of society who  each serve as selfless catalysts in forever altering 
the lives of the other two.  As with his first book, TEN MILE RIVER, I love 
the counterbalancing here of grit  and heart, of predators and nurturers.
 
MARCELO IN THE REAL WORLD by Francisco X. Stork  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/MARCELO-IN-THE-REAL-WORLD) deserves all  the 
positive attention that 
it is receiving.  I love the legal  intrigue and quest for justice, the 
friendship that develops between  Marcelo and Jasmine, and the fact that 
Jasmine's character is as fully developed  as is his.
 
JUMPING OFF SWINGS by Jo Knowles  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/JUMPING-OFF-SWINGS) is a solid  contemporary 
movingly-edgy-on-an-eighth-grade-sort-of-level tale, told in  turn by four teens 
who have grown up together in  the 
neighborhood.  It is a story about family dynamics,  friendships, 
thoughtlessness, acceptance, and (relating also to MARCELO) to the  lost innocence 
of 
childhood.
 
Two picture books in which the main characters don't speak --  at least not 
our language --really stand out this year.  In my book,  THE LION AND THE 
MOUSE by Jerry Pinkney  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/THE-LION-AND-THE-MOUSE) is the numero  uno picture 
book of the year.  But that takes nothing 
away from my  love for OTIS by Loren Long 
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/OTIS).   OTIS  is an outstanding picture book tale 
of two farm friends --  the 
little, old tractor and the little brown calf -- that playfully alludes  to 
some of the most famous picture books of generations  past.  I've had very 
enthusiastic crowds of kids  doing Otis's "put-put-puttedy-chuffing" in unison 
as I've read the  book aloud. 
 
There are plenty of other exceptional picture books this  year.  A second 
pair of award-caliber favorites not to be  missed are:
 
ALL THE WORLD by Liz Garton Scanlon  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/ALL-THE-WORLD) and TSUNAMI! by Kimiko  Kajikawa 
and Ed Young 
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/TSUNAMI!). 
  
I'm betting that you'll be hearing plenty about Doug Florian's  
DINOTHESAURUS: PREHISTORIC POEMS AND PAINTINGS  
(http://richiepicks.pbworks.com/DINOTHESAURUS%3A-PREHISTORIC-POEMS-AND-PAINTINGS)  
for a long time to come.   This 
is the perfect illustrated  collection for combining fun poetry with science 
and having kids clamoring for  more (and maybe writing some of their own).
 
Bouncing like a Baryonyx (BARE-ee-ON-icks) down to  the nonfiction, I 
always find it exciting to learn from  some great, new kid's book (such as 
DINOTHESAURUS) about stuff from  the past that I'd missed out on knowing all these 
years.
 
One such book is ALMOST ASTRONAUTS: THIRTEEN WOMEN  WHO DARED TO DREAM by 
Tanya Lee Stone  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/ALMOST-ASTRONAUTS%3A-13-WOMEN-WHO-DARED-TO-DREAM). 
  For me, this one did to John Glenn what THE 
WEDNESDAY WARS did to Micky  Mantle.  Why did I never hear about these women 
before?  
 
Meanwhile, I am still thinking about how I could have so  easily been born 
into a different family in a different part of the US in  1955, and had 
grown up having to put my safety on the line as did the  children in MARCHING 
FOR FREEDOM: WALK TOGETHER CHILDREN AND DON'T YOU GROW  WEARY by Elizabeth 
Partridge  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/MARCHING-FOR-FREEDOM%3A-WALK--TOGETHER%2C-CHILDREN%2C-AND-DON'T-YOU-GROW-WEARY).
 
Since reading THE GREAT AND ONLY BARNUM: THE TREMENDOUS,  STUPENDOUS LIFE 
OF SHOWMAN P.T. BARNUM by Candace Fleming  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/THE-GREAT-AND-ONLY-BARNUM), I'm able to  draw a 
straight line between this 
guy's bag of  tricks and so many tools still employed in advertising and  show 
business in the twenty-first century.  And then, we are  left with such a 
conundrum regarding the exploitation  of circus animals -- the reality is 
that we hope that such  exploitation will actually lead to public sentiment 
rallying for  saving endangered mammal species in distant places.  It's a  
tough and relevant issue.    
 
The most exciting piece of nonfiction  writing I experienced this year was 
CHASING LINCOLN'S KILLER by James  Swanson  
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/CHASING-LINCOLN'S-KILLER).  This is  an adaptation 
of his adult book 
MANHUNT, but I never even hear about, no  less read, adult books, so this was all 
new to me.  It is superb  storytelling -- an absolute thriller of a tale -- 
and, once again, I  just cannot believe that nobody taught me this stuff 
when I was growing  up. 
 
Okay, I take that back.  Technically, I did read one book  that was 
published for adults, being that Norton does not have a children's  division.  (But 
it could have as easily been published by someone's teen  division.)  In 
either case, I was jumping up and down when  the National Book Award judges 
named STITCHES by David Small an  NBA finalist 
(http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/STITCHES%3A-A-MEMOIR).   This is the graphic novel 
of the year and my 
favorite one since  Craig Thompson's BLANKETS. 
 
I conclude with two picture book biographies.  The  first is a very cool 
and beautifully illustrated dramatization of  Edna Lewis's childhood,  BRING 
ME SOME APPLES AND I'LL MAKE YOU A PIE:  A STORY ABOUT EDNA LEWIS by Robbin 
Gourley. 
 
And the final one brings me back to the song at the  beginning of this 
piece.  I AND I: BOB MARLEY is the exceptional and  beautiful picture book 
biography in verse by Tony Medina and Jesse  Joshua Watson that I was turned onto 
by my library school students last  summer.
 
I would like to conclude with a tribute to the late Karla  Kuskin who died 
earlier this year.  I devoured and reread Karla's  earlier books of poems in 
the mid-Sixties as a young reader.  Then,  when I was enrolled in Early 
Childhood Education classes in the  late-Eighties and needed to visit the 
library and compile a box of poems  for circle times, I once again -- to my 
everlasting joy --  rediscovered Karla's poetry.  Here is one of her poems that  
I first read as a nine-year-old and later shared with kids throughout my  
years at the childcare center:
 
"Where Would You Be?" by Karla  Kuskin from THE ROSE ON MY CAKE (Harper & 
Row, 1964)
 
 
"Where would you be on a night like  this 
With the wind so dark and  howling? 
Close to the light 
Wrapped warm and tight 
Or there where the cats are  prowling? 
Where would you wish you on such a  night 
When the twisting trees are  tossed? 
Safe in a chair 
In the lamp-lit air 
Or out where the moon is  lost? 
Where would you be when the white  waves roar 
On the tumbling storm-torn  sea? 
Tucked inside 
Where it's calm and dry 
Or searching for stars in the furious  sky 
Whipped by the whine of the gale's  wild cry 
Out in the night with me?" 
With wishes for  peace and happiness in 2010.
    
Richie  Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/) 
_http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks_ 
(http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks) 
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator _http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/_ 
(http://groups.yahoo.com/middle_school_lit/) 
_http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks_ (http://www.myspace.com/richiespicks) 

FTC  NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he 
 will Pick their books.  You can figure that any review was written  after 
reading and dog-earring a free copy received.  Richie retains these  review 
copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his  booktalks at schools 
and  libraries.



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