Publisher Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008: Children's Fiction

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“May you live in interesting times” is a quote commonly attributed to Confucius, probably erroneously, but Robert F. Kennedy did use it in a speech in 1966, adding a rueful twist: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times....” Regardless of your thinking on these current times, they are certainly anything but boring, and we feel the same about the books published this year.

Once again, we take the opportunity near year's end to review the year in books, highlighting the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's. There were the authors we expected to deliver, and they did: Louise Erdrich with The Plague of Doves, Richard Price with Lush Life, Jhumpa Lahiri with Unaccustomed Earth, Lydia Millet with How the Dead Dream. A breakthrough surprise about cricket, Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, delighted us, while Tim Winton's Breath took ours away. We listened to our elders in How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People; thought about our planet with The Soul of the Rhino; examined our history in The Hemingses of Monticello and Abraham Lincoln: A Life; and, thanks to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, we even considered Jesus for President.

1. Chains By Laurie Halse Anderson
   
   
   (children books (Ages 9-12), children books, teens)
   
   "A young slave in New York City offers readers a provocative view of the Revolutionary War, within the context of a fast-moving, emotionally involving story; an NBA finalist."
   
   


2. The Astonishing Life Of Octavian Nothing, Traitor To The Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom On The Waves By M.t. Anderson
   
   
   (children books, literature and fiction, teens)
   
   "With an eye trained to the hypocrisies and conflicted loyalties of the American Revolution, Anderson resoundingly concludes the finely nuanced bildungsroman begun in his National Book Award–winning novel."
   
   


3. The Penderwicks On Gardam Street By Jeanne Birdsall
   
   
   (children books (Ages 9-12), children books, adventure)
   
   "Even better than the National Book Award–winning original, this vivid sequel finds the four Penderwick sisters plotting to foil their aunt's matchmaking schemes for their widowed father. "
   
   


4. Masterpiece By Elise Broach
   
   
   (children books (Ages 9-12), children books, sci-fi, teens)
   
   "With overtones of The Borrowers and Chasing Vermeer, this inventive mystery about a boy, a beetle and an art heist is packed with seductive themes: hidden lives and secret friendships, miniature worlds lost to disbelievers. "
   
   


5. Graceling By Kristin Cashore
   
   
   (adventure, children books, sci-fi, teens)
   
   "An exquisitely drawn romance, political intrigue, a take-charge heroine and a magnificently imagined fantasy realm—this riveting debut offers something for almost everyone, adults as well as teens."
   
   


6. The Hunger Games By Suzanne Collins
   
   
   (adventure, children books, sci-fi, teens)
   
   "In a dystopian fantasy that blends elements of classical mythology, a kill-or-be-killed competition and reality television, the author explodes a series of surprises, all the while challenging readers to consider how far her heroine can go while retaining her humanity. "
   
   


7. Little Brother By Cory Doctorow
   
   
   (children books, teens)
   
   "Filled with sharp dialogue and detailed descriptions of how to counteract real-life surveillance, this techno-thriller imagines a teen arrested and held in a Guantanamo-like setting by an out-of-control Department of Homeland Security after a terrorist attack."
   
   


8. Bog Child By Siobhan Dowd
   
   
   (children books, sci-fi, teens)
   
   "The discovery of a child's ancient corpse launches this multilayered novel about moral choices, set in Northern Ireland amid the Troubles in 1981."
   
   


9. Dark Dude By Oscar Hijuelos
   
   
   (children books, literature and fiction, teens)
   
   "The smooth, jazzy flow of the narration—along with very funny writing—sweeps readers through a '60s-era story about a Cuban-American teenager in search of his identity. "
   
   


10. Tender Morsels By Margo Lanagan
    
    
    (sci-fi, children books, teens)
    
    "Dense, atmospheric prose holds readers to a cautious pace in an often dark fantasy that explores the savage and gentlest sides of human nature and how they coexist. "
    
    


11. Savvy By Ingrid Law
    
    
    (children books (Ages 9-12), children books, sci-fi, teens)
    
    "A cinematic and vibrant debut novel introduces a family whose members are each endowed with a different supernatural gift, or “savvy,” on their 13th birthdays. "
    
    


12. The Disreputable History Of Frankie Landau-banks By E. Lockhart
    
    
    (children books, teens)
    
    "Big ideas—about class and privilege, feminism and romance, wordplay and thought—are an essential part of the fun in this sparkling, mischievous novel, an NBA finalist, about a sophomore girl who decides to infiltrate an all-male secret society at an elite boarding school."
    
    


13. Sunrise Over Fallujah By Walter Dean Myers
    
    
    (children books, history, teens)
    
    "Written from the point of view of the rank-and-file, this pointed novel allows American teens to grapple intelligently and thoughtfully with the war in Iraq."
    
    


14. Nation By Terry Pratchett
    
    
    (children books, sci-fi, teens)
    
    "In a superb mix of alternate history and fantasy, Pratchett balances the somber and the wildly humorous as his protagonists, lone survivors of disasters, suffer profound crises of faith."
    
    


Source:
http://www.publishersweekly.com

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