50 of the best!

A panel of distinguished judges from the world of children’s publishing has chosen their favourite 50 children’s books of 2008.

Which children’s book did they think was the best this year? Was it a picture book, a novel, an information book or a poetry book?

With so many wonderful titles out there, it’s quite hard to choose. But deciding which books were the very best of all those published in 2008 was the task which faced a panel of distinguished judges who spent a day at Scholastic’s offices in Leamington Spa recently.

The panel included poet and author, Andrew Fusek Peters, Alison Green (publisher of Alison Green Books), children’s book consultant Wendy Cooling, award-winning school librarian Anne Dawson and deputy headteacher and educational writer, David Tomlinson.

Five categories

Each judge was asked to select the 10 best books of 2008 in one of the following categories:

Picture books (Alison Green)

Stories and poems for 5- to 7-year-olds (Andrew Fusek Peters)

Information books (David Tomlinson)

Stories and poems for 7- to 9-year-olds (Anne Dawson)

Stories and poems for 9- to 11-year-olds (Wendy Cooling)

Their choices – and their thoughts on each book selected – were published in the November issue of Read Me, which was provided to subscribers of Child Education PLUS, Junior Education PLUS and Literacy Time PLUS.

Commenting on Best Books 2008, Publishing Director of Scholastic Educational Magazines, Helen Freeman, said: “A focus on books seems all the more relevant during the National Year of Reading. As the campaign year draws to an end, we hope the children in your school have been left with an enthusiasm for reading that will stay with them for life … and we hope that this selection of picture books, stories, poems and information books will inspire your reading choices.”

Top five

From the 50 best books chosen, the judges were also asked to pick their favourite book of the bunch. They chose:

Gervelie’s Journey: A Refuge Diary by Anthony Robinson and Annemarie Young, illustrated by June Allen (Frances Lincoln)

Varmints (Part One) by Helen Ward, illustrated by Marc Craste (Templar Publishing)

The Oxford Book of Children’s Poetry Michael Harrison and Christopher Stuart Clarke (Oxford University Press)

Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis and Gwen Millward (Puffin)

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (Scholastic)

Competition

Readers of Read Me are also being given the chance to enter a competition to win a complete set of this year’s 50 Best Books. To enter, children are being invited to think about storybook characters in a whole new light and use them to inspire and create a magazine style ‘Agony Aunt’ page. For more details see p17 of Read Me, November 2008.