Set in a Paris Train station in the 1930's, this is an award-winning fantasy about a boy who is orphaned and then abandoned by an uncle who leaves the boy to repair the clocks in the railway station. The boy manages to find food enough to live and spends his time repairing a broken automaton, that his father had found and tried to repair with the help of a girl named Isabelle, who has been raised by Georges Méliès, a creator of early films and special effects, including the automaton that he is trying to repair. As Selznick describes the book, “.. this is not exactly a novel, and it's not quite a picture book, and it's not really a graphic novel, or a flip book, or a movie, but a combination of all these things." Also available as an audio ($19.95)10 & up.

Age: Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Truly, one of the most extraordinary pop-up books ever! In fact, pop-up is too ordinary a word to describe the artistry in each spectacular scene Robert Sabuda has designed in his Chanukah Lights. Like his Twelve Days of Christmas, here are eight distinctive locales where the flame of the shamash candle lights up the many places where Jews have lit their menorahs and celebrated the miracle of the lights-from a desert tent, a refugee ship, a tenement building, and other remarkable sites. In each location a menorah is shining through. This is one of those beautiful books that you will want to share, but stay in control of, so that it will not be destroyed. It's a treasure that is sure to bring on ooohs! and aaahs! from all ages. It is certainly more for older children than little ones, those who have begun to learn about the history of the Jews. Properly cared for it can become a traditional keepsake to be shared each night of the Festival of Lights.  All Ages.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

If you have a budding perfectionist in your house, this is a book to share!  Beatrice Bottomwell NEVER makes mistakes...until she does -  and it happens in a very, very public space. The concept of perfection is address with humor that will touch a chord with many kids (and their parents).  The resolution is, of course, that no one can be perfect--and that a well-rounded life includes some mistakes and an even bigger dose of laughter. We hope that Beatrice is a new storybook character that will take on other childhood issues. 

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Magnificent art and storytelling are blending in this moving tale of the Taken; those who whose freedom was stolen and sold into slavery. It is the story of Musafa, the son of Dinga, a blacksmith, who takes with him the memory of his father and the skills he taught the boy. This beautiful story speaks to the big idea, that "Loved ones are never forgotten when we continue to tell their stories." Though it is done in a picture book format, this is an epic tale told poetically and illustrated with a power to match. The problem may be that older students who are ready for the story are often reluctant to open a picture book. That would be a serious loss for them.   8 & up.

Age: Later School Years, Tweens, Teens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Ever since the original book with it's mysterious illustrations with strange titles first appeared in 1984, it has set off the imaginations of young and old readers alike. Indeed, teachers and parents have used the pages of that book as a springboard to storytelling. Now, the torch has been passed to fourteen well-known authors. Each has used an illustration and given us their original story to go with the art. Some are funny, some scary, and all written by creative minds such as Jules Feiffer, Kate DiCamillo, Lois Lowry, Jon Sciezka, Walter Dean Myers and more. This does not replace having kids spin their own stories, but this is an interesting collection that may well inspire the young writer in your midst.

Age: Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Caldecott winner, Allen Say has often created stunningly beautiful auto-biographical picture books about his childhood in Japan. His paintings in books such as Grandfather's Journey, Tree of Cranes, and Tea with Milk, among others, are memorable works of great beauty. Though his stories are always about children, often the stories are more adult than not. Now, with Drawing from Memory, Say tells us the story of how he became an artist. In the telling, we really do get to meet the school-aged boy who was single minded from the start about his dream of becoming the gifted artist that he is. Instead of the double page paintings that grace his picture books, the illustrations here are mostly small drawings, sketches, pen and ink drawings, cartoon frames and photographs. The story is told in the first person and Say comes across with a warmth and sense of humor that had to sustain him through some personally difficult times. Although this is marked for 10 and up, it is a moving story that middle school and even high school students, with aspirations in the arts, will find engaging. It is heartening to find a book where a young person recognizes how important the adults in his life were to him. So often in children's books we do not see the strong positive influence of adults portrayed. In fact the parents are often disposed of on page one. Here the reader learns that although Say's father was not there for him, the void was filled by a very significant other. It is a story that will speak not just to aspiring artists but children struggling with estranged parents and their own feelings. A gem!

Age: Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Using her comic strip style, Marcia Williams make these ancient tales of Egypt totally accessible to young Egyptologists. She retells nine tales that introduce readers to Ra rising from the waters of the Nile, the curse of Tut's tomb, and Cleopatra's story along with many others. Like her collection of Greek Myths for Children, this is a good starting place before a visit to one of the many great museum collections or a traveling Tut show. Putting some of the stories in place gives the art and history a fuller dimension. They say 6 & up--we'd say more like 8 & up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Set in the segregated South, this handsome picture book takes young readers into the world of Jim Crow as Michael, an African American boy and his grandmother wait for a bus and sit on bench until a white boy and his mother arrive and Michael and Grandma must get up and give them the seats. When the bus finally arrives they must go to the back of a bus and when they get off both boys race for the water fountains-one marked colored and one marked white. For Michael, the idea that the white water must be better becomes a gnawing obsession that leads him to dare to taste the forbidden 'white water' and discover that the water from both come from the same pipe. It is a discovery that changes the way he thinks about himself and the segregated world that treated him as a second-class person. In telling and showing the conditions of that time and place, White Water may shock young readers of today, but it manages to capture so many of the affronts that were part of life in the south.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Talk about tall tales--this is one of the best we've seen in years! For those who have ever visited New York City or dream of doing so (that's a pretty all inclusive list, we think) this will tickle the funny bone and bring back memories of the iconic sites. Only, Kevin Hawkes has made his young traveler bigger than life. When Toddie arrives in Grand Central Station he is pretty impressed with the sight--especially the stars on the ceiling that his Mom tells him not to touch! Young Toddie who stands almost as tall as the great hall of Grand Central is ready to follow the trail of most typical sightseeing tourists in the Big Apple. Of course, the New Yorkers in the busy scenes are too busy to pay attention to a boy who happens to be so tall that at the Museum of Natural History he pets a giant T-Rex on the head saying, "Nice Doggie!" When his parents and Toddie get separated the giant boy finds friends in the park, where aerial views have the look of Gulliver and the Lilliputians. Hawkes has made good use of the family's New England accent--though this may go over the heads of kids who have never heard such regional speech. It won't matter. It's all great fun with some pathos thrown in when night begins to fall and Toddie wants his parents. There's even a small lesson about bringing home souvenirs to cap this tall tale off with a laugh. We hope the lovable Toddie will have further adventures!

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.