December Notes: all Fanfare, all the time

December's Notes from the Horn Book is full of Fanfare goodness, with glowing recommendations of 26 of the year's best-of-the-best books for children and young adults -- plus an interview with honoree Megan Whalen Turner.


The December Notes is available online at the Horn Book website, but make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on upcoming issues.

Drumroll, please!

We're delighted to announce the 2010 Horn Book Fanfare list, our picks for the best children's and young adult books of the year.

Picture Books

Mirror, written and illustrated by Jeannie Baker (Candlewick)

Me and You, written and illustrated by Anthony Browne (Farrar)

I Know Here, written by Laurel Croza, illustrated by Matt James (Groundwood)

April and Esme, Tooth Fairies, written and illustrated by Bob Graham (Candlewick)

The Village Garage, written and illustrated by G. Brian Karas (Ottaviano/Holt)

Nini Lost and Found, written and illustrated by Anita Lobel (Knopf)

Fiction

Forge, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Atheneum)

Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher (Dial)

Happy Birthday, Sophie Hartley, by Stephanie Greene (Clarion)

Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same! written and illustrated by Grace Lin (Little, Brown)

The Sky Is Everywhere, by Jandy Nelson (Dial)

Big Nate: In a Class by Himself, written and illustrated by Lincoln Peirce (HarperCollins)

As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow)

The Dreamer, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Peter Sís (Scholastic)

Revolver, by Marcus Sedgwick (Roaring Brook)

The White Horse Trick, by Kate Thompson (Greenwillow)

A Conspiracy of Kings, by Megan Whalen Turner (Greenwillow)

One Crazy Summer, by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad/HarperCollins)

Folklore

Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, written and illustrated by Salley Mavor (Houghton)

Poetry

Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, written by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen (Houghton)

Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse, written by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Josée Masse (Dutton)

Nonfiction

They Called Themselves the KKK: The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Houghton)

The War to End All Wars: World War I, by Russell Freedman (Clarion)

Ballet for Martha: Making Appalachian Spring, written by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan, illustrated by Brian Floca (Porter/Flash Point/Roaring Brook)

Kakapo Rescue: Saving the World’s Strangest Parrot [Scientists in the Field], written by Sy Montgomery, photographs by Nic Bishop (Houghton)

The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery, written by Steve Sheinkin (Flash Point/Roaring Brook)

Read more about each of these excellent titles -- plus an interview with honoree Megan Whalen Turner -- in the December Notes from the Horn Book, coming next week. Sign up for the newsletter and view Fanfare lists since 1938 on our website.