One of the professional journals I write book reviews for recently asked their reviewers to suggest the “best” books of the century so far (2000-2024). We each get to submit twelve (12) titles. If you are a book person you understand how impossible this is! I could easily pick twelve favorites in each youth format (picture book, chapter book, young adult, graphic novel, etc.) from this year alone, and it wouldn’t be easy – look at what Betsy Bird is doing over at Fuse8 with her incredible #31Days31Lists. And yet, here’s what I submitted (some officially, through the form, and others by email the next morning when I realized I had to include them, so yes, it’s a few more than twelve):
And what does “best” mean, anyway? Are we using award criteria (Newbery, Caldecott, etc.) or are we talking about the books that are our real favorites, that we read and re-read and recommend and foist on people as gifts?
Meanwhile, over on BlueSky, there’s a #BookChallenge to list twenty books that have been meaningful to you, one per day for twenty days. I’ve started off with children’s classics (The Golden Compass, A Wrinkle in Time, The Giver, The View From Saturday, Bridge to Terabithia), two poetry collections (To A Fault by Nick Laird and The Essential Rumi), speculative nonfiction The World Without Us by Alan Weisman, and picture book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, because some days are like that – even in Australia.
What are your best/favorite/desert-island books?
Jenny Arch 