 | Let it Shine: Three Favorite Spirituals by Ashley Bryan
Buy new: $12.74 / Used from: $0.42 Will someone PLEASE give this man a *gold* Caldecott medal?
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 | That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell
Buy new: $11.55 / Used from: $1.47 Best read-aloud of the year. Brush up on your Monty Python voices for best results.
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 | Different Like Coco by Elizabeth Matthews
Buy new: $11.55 / Used from: $5.75 A picture book biography of Coco Chanel? Heck yeah!
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 | Me and the Pumpkin Queen by Marlane Kennedy
Buy new: $11.51 / Used from: $6.39 Such a sweetie pie. If you've never given a thought to gaint pumpkins before, you'll change your tune by the end of this one.
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 | A Crooked Kind of Perfect by Linda Urban
Buy new: $10.88 / Used from: $1.58 The world needs more books like this: contemporary, funny, and full of heart -- all at a 4th grade reading level.
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 | No Talking by Andrew Clements
Buy new: $12.23 / Used from: $0.01 Clements's best book since Frindle. This may be sacrilege, but I like it even BETTER than Frindle.
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 | The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Buy new: $14.61 / Used from: $12.99 Easily the most innovative book of the year. It deserves some shiny stickers!
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 | The Aurora County All-Stars by Deborah Wiles
Buy new: $12.00 / Used from: $0.01 My Newbery hopes for this one have been crushed (it was previously published serially) but that doesn't keep Aurora County from being my favorite middle grade book of the year.
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 | Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale
Buy new: $12.21 / Used from: $3.27 I just can't decide whether to love Shannon Hale or be bitterly jealous of her...
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 | The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
Buy new: $10.40 / Used from: $0.31 Beware: it's funny on the surface, but Wednesday Wars will jump up and grab you by the heart when you least expect it.
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 | Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier
Buy new: $11.55 / Used from: $0.46 This one took me by surprise. I'm not the sort of person who has time or inclination for 400-page fantasies, but Wildwood Dancing captivated me.
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 | Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande
Buy used from: $1.85 A voice like Speak, characters like Joan Bauer's -- what more do you want in a YA?
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 | Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Buy new: $9.17 / Used from: $6.00 Clever, compelling, thought-provoking.
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 | Boy Toy by Barry Lyga
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $0.01 A story that moves you beyond the gawking and shuddering and right into understanding. Intense, but wow.
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 | Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz
Buy new: $10.66 / Used from: $2.69 Take this book under your wing. It deserves oodles of friends and lots of attention, but seems to fly under the rader.
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 | The Arrival by Shaun Tan
Buy new: $10.75 / Used from: $8.99 Took me two or three readings to "get" this, but when I did -- wow.
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 | The Plain Janes (Minx) by Cecil Castellucci
Buy new: $9.99 / Used from: $1.75 Add this to the VERY short list of graphic novels I like a whole lot. (That makes 3 in total.)
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 | Lottery by Patricia Wood
Buy new: $5.88 / Used from: $0.01 BEST adult book I've read since The Boy Who Loved Anne Frank. I've put about half a dozen under the Christmas tree.
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 | Laura Ingalls Wilder: A Writer's Life (South Dakota Biography) by Pamela Smith Hill
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $6.72 A fine, straightforward adult biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by an author of children's historical fiction.
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Listmania!
