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2008 Teacher's Choices Booklist


Teachers’ Choices began in 1989 as an annual project of the International Reading Association. Each year, teachers, reading specialists, and librarians from different regions of the United States select 30 great books for
readers ages 5 to 14 from new publications donated by North American publishers. At least 6 teachers or librarians in each region read each book, and some books are read by as many as 200 people in a single region.

A few years ago, I was the southeast regional coordinator for Teacher's Choices, so I know first hand how much time and dedication goes in to the selection process, especially the teachers reading and reviewing the books.

This year's winners are (a downloadable bookmark is available here):

Primary Winners

Ain’t Nobody a Stranger to Me by Ann Grifalconi. Jerry Pinkney, Ill.

D Is for Drinking Gourd: An African American Alphabet by Nancy I. Sanders. E.B. Lewis, Ill.

Guess What Is Growing Inside This Egg by Mia Posada

Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine. Kadir Nelson, Ill.

How Many Seeds in a Pumpkin? by Margaret McNamara. G. Brian Karas, Ill.

Library Mouse by Daniel Kirk

The Orange Shoes by Trinka Hakes Noble. Doris Ettlinger, Ill.

Over in the Jungle: A Rainforest Rhyme by Marianne Berkes. Jeanette Canyon, Ill.

The Rainforest Grew All Around by Susan K. Mitchell. Connie McLennan, Ill.

A Seed Is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston. Sylvia Long, Ill.

Intermediate Winners

A Friendship for Today by Patricia C. McKissack.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.

The Mutiny on the Bounty by Patrick O’Brien.

Nic Bishop Spiders by Nic Bishop.

One Thousand Tracings: Healing the Wounds of World War II by Lita Judge

A Song for Harlem by Patricia C. McKissack

Sweet Land of Liberty by Deborah Hopkinson. Leonard Jenkins, Ill.

This Is Just to Say: Poems of Apology and Forgiveness by Joyce Sidman. Pamela Zagarenski, Ill.

The Titanic: An Interactive History Adventure by Bob Temple

When Is a Planet Not a Planet? The Story of Pluto by Elaine Scott

Advanced Winners

The Brothers’ War: Civil War Voices in Verse by J. Patrick Lewis

Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance by Eleanora E. Tate.

Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam by Cynthia Kadohata

I Am Rembrandt’s Daughter by Lynn Cullen

Napoleon: The Story of the Little Corporal by Robert Burleigh

On My Journey Now: Looking at African-American History Through the Spirituals by Nikki Giovanni.

Reaching for Sun by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

Sequoyah: Inventor of Written Cherokee by Roberta Basel

Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

Tracking Trash: Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Science of Ocean Motion by Loree Griffin Burns

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