Q: A recent concern raised by several people is that our library is attempting to “indoctrinate” children with the materials we provide. What are your thoughts on how to respond? Like accusations that libraries are …
Just Right Jillian
The girls in Jillian’s fifth-grade class try hard to look alike. They wear the same bland, neutral colors and ho-hum hairstyles on the same days each week. Jillian, bored by this unofficial uniform, longs to be herself—and speak up more, too—but she’s afraid to stand out.
Star Fishing
“It’s the kind of night when you just can’t fall asleep. You feel as though everyone in the world is asleep but you.” A small child dressed in bunny pajamas is wide awake in the peaceful calm of a deep-blue-hued bedroom, longing to play.
I Must Betray You
When 17-year-old Cristian Florescu is called to his school office and confronted by a member of the Romanian secret police, the Securitate officer tells Cristian that he and his family won’t be punished for the illegal American dollar Cristian possesses if he’s willing to become an informer.
Maizy Chen’s Last Chance
Eleven-year-old Maizy Chen travels from Los Angeles with her single mom to spend the summer in Last Chance, Minnesota. They are there to help with the family’s Chinese restaurant, the Golden Palace, because her grandfather is ill.
Love, Violet
There’s only one classmate who makes “Violet’s heart skip,” and that’s brown-skinned Mira. In Violet’s imagination, she “astound[s] Mira with heroic feats” and embarks on adventures with her.
CCBC Choices 2022 Now Available
CCBC Choices 2022, the most recent edition of the CCBC’s annual best-of-the-year list, is now available. CCBC Choices 2022 recommends 273 books for children and teens published in 2021. The fully annotated booklet, available as …
Observations on Publishing in 2021
As books came into the library, and as we read throughout the year, we made note of several big-picture observations that struck us.
Garlic & the Vampire
Brought to life with a number of other vegetables by kind Witch Agnes, Garlic (a personified garlic head on a human-like body) is most comfortable in the security of her garden plot, growing garlic for the humans in the village.
On the Trapline
“Kiskisiw means ‘he remembers.’” A young Cree boy leaves the city and travels north by plane with his grandfather to see the trapline where Moshom spent the early years of his life.