2006 Notable Books for Children

These books were chosen by a committee of librarians, educators, and other professionals for the Association for Library Service to Children.

Younger Readers

Terrific, by Jon Agee (Hyperion/Michael di Capua)
Elephants Can Paint Too!, by Katya Arnold (Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz)
Hi! Fly Guy, by Tedd Arnold (Scholastic/Cartwheel)
I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!, by Karen Beaumont; illustrated by David Catrow (Harcourt)
A Splendid Friend, Indeed, by Suzanne Bloom (Boyds Mills Press)
Willa and the Wind, by Janice Del Negro; illustrated by Heather Solomon (Marshall Cavendish)
Mercy Watson to the Rescue, by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Chris Van Dusen (Candlewick)
Leaf Man, by Lois Ehlert (Harcourt)
Oscar's Half Birthday, by Bob Graham (Candlewick)
Traction Man Is Here!, by Mini Grey (Knopf)
Siesta, by Ginger Foglesong Guy; illustrated by René King Moreno (Greenwillow)
Jitterbug Jam: A Monster Tale, by Barbara Jean Hicks; illustrated by Alexis Deacon (Farrar)
The Hello, Goodbye Window, by Norton Juster; illustrated by Chris Raschka (Hyperion/Michael di Capua)
On Earth, by G. Brian Karas (Putnam)
You and Me Together: Moms, Dads, and Kids Around the World, by Barbara Kerley (National Geographic)
Doña Flor: A Tall Tale about a Giant Woman with a Great Big Heart, by Pat Mora; illustrated by Raúl Colón (Random/Knopf)
Zen Shorts, by Jon J. Muth (Scholastic)
Yum! Yuck! A Foldout Book of People Sounds, by Linda Sue Park and Julia Durango; illustrated by Sue Ramá (Charlesbridge)
Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride, by Marjorie Priceman (Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz)
And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell; illustrated by Henry Cole (Simon & Schuster)
Clara and Asha, by Eric Rohmann (Roaring Brook)
Henry and Mudge and the Great Grandpas, by Cynthia Rylant; illustrated by Suçie Stevenson (Simon & Schuster)
Stars Beneath Your Bed: The Surprising Story of Dust, by April Pulley Sayre; illustrated by Ann Jonas (Greenwillow)
Walter Was Worried, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook)
White is for Blueberry, by George Shannon; illustrated by Laura Dronzek (Greenwillow)
Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa, by Erica Silverman; illustrated by Betsy Lewin (Harcourt)
Amanda Pig and the Really Hot Day, by Jean Van Leeuwen; illustrated by Ann Schweninger (Dial)
Leonardo the Terrible Monster, by Mo Willems (Hyperion)
Squashed in the Middle, by Elizabeth Winthrop; illustrated by Pat Cummings (Henry Holt)

Middle Readers

Poems to Dream Together/Poemas para soñar juntos, by Francisco X Alarcón; illustrated by Paula Barragán (Lee & Low)
Whales on Stilts, by M. T. Anderson; illustrated by Kurt Cyrus (Harcourt)
Whittington, by Alan Armstrong; illustrated by S.D. Schindler (Random House)
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf)
The Journey that Saved Curious George: The True Wartime Escape of Margret and H.A. Rey, by Louise Borden; illustrated by Allan Drummond (Houghton)
Toulouse-Lautrec: The Moulin Rouge and the City of Light, by Robert Burleigh (Abrams)
The Prairie Builders: Reconstructing America's Lost Grasslands, by Sneed B. Collard; photographs by Sneed B. Collard (Houghton)
Genius: A Photobiography of Albert Einstein, by Marfé Ferguson Delano (National Geographic)
The Game of Silence, by Louise Erdrich (HarperCollins)
Rosa, by Nikki Giovanni; illustrated by Bryan Collier (Holt)
Nicholas, by René Goscinny; translated by Anthea Bell; illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé (Phaidon)
Queen Sophie Hartley, by Stephanie Greene (Clarion)
The Trouble Begins, by Linda Himelblau (Delacorte)
Babymouse: Queen of the World!, by Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm; illustrated by Matthew Holm (Random House)
Goha the Wise Fool, by Denys Johnson-Davies; illustrated by Hag Hamdy Mohamed Fattouh and Hany El Saed Ahmed (Philomel)
Martin Bridge, Ready for Takeoff!, by Jessica Scott Kerrin; illustrated by Joseph Kelly (Kids Can Press)
A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms, edited by Paul B. Janeczko; illustrated by Chris Raschka (Candlewick)
Precious and the Boo Hag, by Patricia C. McKissack and Onawumi Jean Moss; illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker (Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz)
The Girl from Chimel, by Rigoberta Menchú with Dante Liano; illustrated by Domi; translated by David Unger (Groundwood)
The King of Mulberry Street, by Donna Jo Napoli (Random House/Wendy Lamb)
Always Remember Me: How One Family Survived World War II, by Marisabina Russo (Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz)
Dinosaurs: Encyclopedia Prehistorica, by Robert Sabuda and Matthew Reinhart (Candlewick)
Kamishibai Man, by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin/Walter Lorraine)
Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems, by Joyce Sidman; illustrated by Beckie Prange (Houghton Mifflin)
Central Heating: Poems about Fire and Warmth, by Marilyn Singer; illustrated by Meilo So (Knopf)
Kibitzers and Fools: Tales My Zayda Told Me, by Simms Taback (Viking)
Gorilla Doctors: Saving Endangered Great Apes, by Pamela S. Turner (Houghton Mifflin)
Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan, by Mary Williams; illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Lee & Low)
The Librarian of Basra: A True Story from Iraq, by Jeanette Winter (Harcourt)
Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburgh Pirates, by Jonah Winter; illustrated by Raúl Colón (Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz)
Show Way, by Jacqueline Woodson; illustrated by Hudson Talbott (Putnam)

Older Readers

Photo by Brady: A Picture of the Civil War, by Jennifer Armstrong (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)
Let Me Play: The Story of Title IX, the Law That Changed the Future of Girls in America, by Karen Blumenthal (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Maritcha: A Nineteenth-Century American Girl, by Tonya Bolden (Abrams)
Shakespeare's Secret, by Elise Broach (Holt)
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two, by Joseph Bruchac (Dial)
The Tequila Worm, by Viola Canales (Random House/Wendy Lamb)
Sweetgrass Basket, by Marlene Carvell (Dutton)
Chicken Boy, by Frances O'Roark Dowell (Simon & Schuster/Atheneum)
Our Stories, Our Songs: African Children Talk about AIDS, by Deborah Ellis (Fitzhenry and Whiteside)
Our Eleanor: A Scrapbook Look at Eleanor Roosevelt's Remarkable Life, by Candace Fleming (Simon & Schuster/Anne Schwartz)
Understanding the Holy Land: Answering Questions about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, by Mitch Frank (Viking)
Children of the Great Depression, by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
Inkspell, by Cornelia Funke; translated by Anthea Bell (Scholastic/Chicken House)
The Legend of the Wandering King, by Laura Gallego García; translated by Dan Bellm (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine)
Good Brother, Bad Brother: The Story of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth, by James Cross Giblin (Clarion)
The Witch's Boy, by Michael Gruber (HarperTempest)
Guys Write for Guys Read, edited by Jon Scieszka (Viking)
Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale (Bloomsbury)
Flush, by Carl Hiaasen (Knopf)
An Innocent Soldier, by Josef Holub; translated by Michael Hofmann (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine)
Totally Joe, by James Howe (Simon & Schuster/Ginee Seo)
The Forbidden Schoolhouse: The True and Dramatic Story of Prudence Crandall and Her Students, by Suzanne Jurmain (Houghton Mifflin)
Leonardo da Vinci, by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Boris Kulikov (Viking)
Day of Tears: A Novel in Dialogue, by Julius Lester (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)
The Mzungu Boy, by Meja Mwangi (Groundwood/House of Anansi)
A Wreath for Emmett Till, by Marilyn Nelson; illustrated by Philippe Lardy (Houghton Mifflin)
A Maze Me: Poems for Girls, by Naomi Shihab Nye; illustrated by Terre Maher (Greenwillow)
Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow)
The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (Hyperion)
Eyes of the Emperor, by Graham Salisbury (Random House/Wendy Lamb)
Under the Persimmon Tree, by Suzanne Fisher Staples (Farrar/Frances Foster)
Harry Sue, by Sue Stauffacher (Knopf)
Hans Christian Andersen: His Fairy Tale Life, by Varmer Hjørdis; translated by Tiina Nunnally; illustrated by Lilian Brøgger (Groundwood)
Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley, by Sally M. Walker (Carolrhoda)
The Illustrated Mum, by Jacqueline Wilson (Delacorte)
Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time, by Lisa Yee (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine)
When I Was a Soldier, by Valérie Zenatti; translated by Adriana Hunter (Bloomsbury)
Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin (Farrar)