PW's list of Best Books of the Year

I love "Best of the Year" lists! It is so much fun to see what books have been selected; which titles I celebrate and which titles I think are missing from the list. Here are the books Publishers Weekly listed as Best Books of the Year in the Children’s Fiction Category:

• Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street by Jeanne Birdsall
  
• Masterpiece by Elise Broach
  
• Graceling by Kristin Cashore
• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
• Bog Child by Siobhan Dowd
• Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos
• Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
• Sunrise over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers
• Nation by Terry Pratchett

Here are the titles PW listed in the Children’s Nonfiction Category:

• The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir by Cylin Busby & John Busby
• What the World Eats by Faith D'Aluisio with photos by Peter Menzel
• Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out by National Children's Book and Literary Alliance with an introduction by David McCullough
• The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West by Sid Fleischman
• We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson
• Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson with Marc Aronson

Some of these titles are not eligible for the Newbery Award - or our Mock Newbery Award - because they do not fit the official criteria, but I would love to hear your comments on any of these titles!