From: Steven Engelfried <sengelfried>
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:32:21 -0800 (PST)

One of my favorite picture books of the year is "The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County," by Janice Harrington with illustrations by Shelley Jackson that convey the antics of a girl and her chicken with humor and a perfect sense of mischief. "First the Egg" is another amazing picture book by Laura Seeger, with richly textured pictures and concepts that works on more than one level. And "Diary of a Fly" by Cronin & Bliss may be the funniest book yet in that series, which is saying a lot.
   
  Fiction titles near the top of my list include "Wilderness" by Roddy Doyle (another excellent adult author who seems a natural at YA), which alternates between two very different types of survival stories within the same family. "Emma Jean Lazurus Fell Out of a Tree" by Lauren Tarshis is funny and poignant at the same time, and Emma Jean is an especially interesting first person narrator. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and "A Darkling Plain" (Phillip Reeve) both deserve mention as extremely satisfying series-concluders, as does Scott Westerfield's "Extras," which extends a series I thought was finished with another exciting and thought-provoking installment.
   
  In Non-Fiction, Russell Freedman's "Who Was First?" is a fascinating look at the "discovers" of America with lots of insight into the roles and processes of historians. And I'm not really sure if "Good Masters, Sweet Ladies" by Laura Amy Schlitz fits in non-fiction, and if so where (800s? 900s? 300s?), but it's a fresh and fascinating book that brings a 13th century English village to life with facts, poetry, and prose, plus excellent illustrations Robert Byrd.
   
  - Steven Engelfried, Multnomah County Library
    sengelfried at yahoo.com
    503-844-5711

       
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Received on Wed 12 Dec 2007 12:32:21 AM CST