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)

All Ages

• A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children; edited by Caroline Kennedy; illustrated by Jon J. Muth (Hyperion)