| The Bulletin
of the
Center for Children's Books
| Blue Ribbons are
chosen annually by the Bulletin staff and represent what we
believe to be the best of the previous year's literature for youth. See
the Blue Ribbon Archive for other lists from
1990 through the present. Please feel free to copy, download, or link to
these lists. We ask only that you cite the source.
|
| 1995 Blue Ribbons
|
Along with the discussion of the books themselves, our annual in-office
debate over Bulletin Blue Ribbons always includes much wrangling over the
definition of the list itself: what makes a book a Blue Ribbon winner?
Ooops--not winner, how about "selection," or "choice," or "recipient"?
Is it a list of the best books, the most interesting books, the most
exciting books? All of the above? Two out of three? After the weeks of
wrangling that went on over both the nature and contents of this year's
list, I am tempted to indulge in recursive self-justification: the books
that got on the Blue Ribbon list are the ones that belong on the Blue
Ribbon list. That said, the twenty-nine books listed below were the ones
this year that most caught and sustained our attention. May they do the
same to yours.
In the five years that the Bulletin has been
presenting this list there has been no attempt to balance the list in
terms of genre or reading level, a decision that is readily apparent
below, with fifteen entries in the fiction division, nine picture books
(three of them in one series), and only five works of nonfiction. It is
also the shortest list we've had. Thus, more questions: was it a bad year
for nonfiction? was it just a bad year? where's the poetry? Does the
Bulletin know what it's talking about? and so on. None of these
questions can be answered without looking at a lot more lists and making
one of your own. Then we'll talk; meanwhile, start your engines.
--Roger Sutton, Editor
FICTION
- Cameron, Ann. The Stories Huey
Tells; illus. by Roberta Smith. Knopf. (December)
- Coman,
Carolyn. What Jamie Saw. Front Street. (December)
- Conly,
Jane Leslie. Trout Summer. Holt. (January 1996)
- Curtis,
Christopher Paul. The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963. Delacorte.
(January 1996)
- Gantos, Jack. Jack's New Power: Stories from a
Caribbean Year. Farrar. (December)
- Hahn, Mary Downing.
Look for Me by Moonlight. Clarion. (April)
- Hartnett,
Sonya. Sleeping Dogs. Viking. (January 1996)
- Johnson,
Angela. Humming Whispers. Jackson/Orchard. (April)
- Lynch,
Chris. Slot Machine. HarperCollins. (October)
- Mahy,
Margaret. The Other Side of Silence. Viking. (January 1996)
- Mills, Claudia. Dinah Forever. Farrar. (November)
- Pausewang, Gudrun. Fall-Out. Viking. (September)
- Stevens, Diane. Liza's Blue Moon. Greenwillow. (March)
- Vande Velde, Vivian. Companions of the Night. Yolen/Harcourt.
(July)
- Williams-Garcia, Rita. Like Sisters on the
Homefront. Lodestar. (September)
PICTURE BOOKS
- Perkins, Lynne Rae.
HomeLovely; written and illus. by Lynne Rae Perkins. Greenwillow.
(September)
- Raschka, Chris. Can't Sleep; written and
illus. by Chris Raschka. Jackson/Orchard. (October)
- Schoenherr,
John. Rebel; written and illus. by John Schoenherr. Philomel.
(December)
- Scieszka, Jon. Math Curse; illus. by Lane
Smith. Viking. (October)
- Wells, Rosemary. Edward in Deep
Water; Edward Unready for School; Edward's Overwhelming
Overnight; written and illus. by Rosemary Wells. Dial. (November)
- Wooldridge, Connie Nordhielm, ad. Wicked Jack; illus. by Will
Hillenbrand. Holiday House. (December)
- Yolen, Jane. The Ballad
of the Pirate Queens; illus. by David Shannon. Harcourt. (April)
NONFICTION
- Colman, Penny. Rosie the
Riveter: Women Working on the Home Front in World War II. Crown.
(July)
- Feelings, Tom. The Middle Passage: White Ships, Black
Cargo; illus. by Tom Feelings. Dial. (December)
- McMillan,
Bruce. Nights of the Pufflings; written and illus. with
photographs by Bruce McMillan. Houghton. (March)
- Murphy, Jim.
The Great Fire. Scholastic. (May)
- Rochman, Hazel, and
Darlene Z. McCampbell, comp. Bearing Witness: Stories of the
Holocaust. Kroupa/Orchard. (October)
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