​Nancy Brashear & Carolyn Angus
Here is our list of favorite books published in 2024 that did not get Children’s Literature and Reading reviews—books we would like to see added to classroom, school, and family library collections. 

​Animal Albums from A to Z. Cece Bell. (2024). Walker.
Readers of all ages will giggle-snort their way through Bell’s zany ABC picture book featuring 26 imaginative “animal albums” inspired by those of animal musicians from the 1940s to 1980s in her personal collection. Double-page spreads spotlight colorful, richly detailed album covers and clever songs (aka poems), such as “Eat Your Vittles, Vivian” performed by “Vampire Bat Vaudeville Revue” for the letter V. (introduction, QR code for songs, more about the animal artists). (PreK Up) 

​The Bard and the Book: How the First Folio Saved the Plays of William Shakespeare from Oblivion. Ann Bausum. Illus. by Marta Sevilla. (2024). Peachtree.
Bausum’s witty narrative filled with fascinating facts and quotations, complemented by photographs and Sevilla’s colorful artwork, is a superb introduction to the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616) and to the First Folio (1623), the book that preserved the bard of Avon’s comedies, histories, and tragedies. (author’s notes, source notes, resources, index) (Gr 6 Up) 

​​The Bletchley Riddle. (Ruta Sepetys & Steve Sheinkin. (2024). Viking.
In 1940, 19-year-old Jakob Novis works at Bletchley Park, Britain’s top-secret WWII codebreaking center. When his 14-year-old sister Lizzie, who refuses to believe that their mother was recently killed in a bombing raid in Poland, joins him and becomes a messenger, the contentious siblings finally team up and are immersed in codes, clues, riddles, and family intrigue amidst increasing personal and national danger in this historical mystery. (photos, historical note) (Gr 6 Up) 

​Cornbread & Poppy for the Win (Cornbread & Poppy #4). Matthew Cordell. (2024). Little, Brown.
In this latest book in Cordell’s early chapter series about best friends who are opposites, the simple text and expressive ink-and-watercolor illustrations humorously depict Poppy and Cornbread’s entry in the Small Rodents Competitive Cycling Championship Classic. Poppy is determined to beat bully Gerald for the Winner’s Cup, but in a pants-splitting grand finale, the unexpected happens.  (PreK-Gr 2) 

​That Curious Thing. Chris Raschka. (2024). Michael di Capua.
In Raschka’s fantasy, when 12-year-old Cleo finds her missing cat, Muffin, in a neighbor’s apartment, she discovers a secret organization of talking cats, PURR (Peace Urgently Requires Reasonableness), whose aether beam plan to solve the energy crisis has been stolen by nemesis KLAW (Cats Loving Awful Warfare). After she and Muffin join PURR, Cleo goes undercover to stop KLAW from sending all dogs into outer space—and discovers a curious thing about herself. (Gr 3-5) 

​Fast Cheetah, Slow Tortoise: Poems of Animal Opposites. Bette Westera. Trans. by David Colmer. Illus. by Mies van Hout. (2024). Eerdmans.
In this playful concept book, 16 pairs of animals are matched to accentuate opposing characteristics introduced through poem titles as antonyms. For example, ”Relaxed”—sloth, “Busy”—ant; “Quiet”—pill bug, “Noisy”—cricket. Free verse poems written in first person are placed on opposite sides of double-spread pages with colorful, mixed media illustrations of animals displaying the behavior or emotion portrayed in the poems. (PreK Up) 

​A Flicker of Hope: A Story of Migration. Cynthia Harmony. Illus. by Devon Holzwarth. (2024). Viking.
Told from the perspective of Lucía, a young Mexican girl, Harmony’s lyrical text, enhanced by Holzwarth’s vibrant illustrations, interweaves stories of the spring migration of monarch butterflies and her father’s journey north as a migrant farm worker. Papá’s promise to return when the monarcas do, leaves Lucía watching the autumn skies for a “flicker of hope,” the homecoming of the mariposas. (glossary, author’s notes) (PreK-Gr 2) 

​Future Tense: How We Made Artificial Intelligence—and How It Will Change Everything. Martha Brockenbrough. (2024). Feiwel and Friends.
“The future is not what you think.” Brockenbrough offers an accessible exploration of artificial intelligence from its history to present-day acceleration of technological advances and use of AI throughout the world. In the third part of the book, she addresses the future of living with AI and the need for human intelligence to continue to guide its further development. (bibliography, endnotes, index) (Gr 9-12) 

​Godfather Death. Sally Nicholls. Illus. by Júlia Sardà. (2024). Viking.
 In Nicholls’ reimagining of a Grimm’s tale, embellished by Sardà’s classic folk tale style artwork, after rejecting Father God and the Devil, a poor fisherman chooses Death as his son’s godfather because of his equal treatment of humanity. Godfather Death makes the fisherman rich through predictions of living or dying, but when the fisherman changes the verdict of the king’s demise and tries to bargain with Death, he learns he can’t cheat death. (Gr 3 Up) 

​Golden Gate: Building the Mighty Bridge. Elizabeth Partridge. Illus. by Ellen Heck. (2024). Chronicle.
Heck’s stunning artwork rendered in mixed media over red-orange paper and Partridge’s second-person narration give readers an accessible account of the seemingly impossible building of a suspension bridge across the Golden Gate strait from the beginning of construction in 1933 to its opening on May 27, 1937. The afterword provides more details about the Golden Gate Bridge, “one of the most beautiful and most inspiring bridges ever built.” (PreK Up) 

​A Greater Goal: The Epic Battle for Equal Pay in Women’s Soccer—and Beyond. Emily Rusch. (2024). Greenwillow.
Rusch chronicles the history of gender bias and the pay gap for female soccer players from 1985 through current times including the development of the U.S. Women’s National Team, their participation in the Olympics and World Cups, labor and contract negotiations, and a winning lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation for equal pay on September 6, 2022. (resources, source notes, index) (Gr 9-12)

​The Hotel Balzaar (The Norendy Tales #2). Kate DiCamillo. Illus. by Júlia Sardà. (2024). Candlewick.  
Young Marta, whose father is a missing soldier, quietly explores the Hotel Balzaar while her mother cleans rooms. After a mysterious guest, a countess with a pet parrot, departs before telling her the final of seven stories that seem to tie small important things in her life together and circumstances change, Marta realizes that she is now living in the missing story, one of “of love enduring.” (Gr 3-5) 

​How to Know a Crow: The Biography of a Brainy Bird. Candace Savage. Illus. by Rachel Hudson. (2024). David Suzuki institute/Greystone Kids.
In this engaging exploration of the world of the Corvidae family, Savage’s chapters, which focus on the life of a fictional American Crow named Oki, include text boxes of fascinating facts and “Crow Lab” suggestions of activities. Hudson’s mixed media illustration provide eye-catching details of the characteristics and behavior of crows. (author’s note, glossary, resources, index) (Gr 3 Up) 

​Life After Whale: The Amazing Ecosystem of a Whale Fall. Lynn Brunelle. Illus. by Jason Chin. (2024). Neal Porter.
Chin’s stunning, realistic watercolor-and-gouache artwork telling the visual “whale fall” story of a 90-year-old female whale pairs beautifully with Brunelle’s informative narrative text to describe how her death will benefit the ocean ecosystem for the next 100 years. (sections on blue whales, ecosystems, and phases of a whale fall ecosystem; books about whales; websites on whale falls; bibliography) (PreK Up) 

​Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden. Christy Mandin. (2024). Orchard.
When she and her mother move into a neglected house on the edge of Garden Glen, Millie Fleur dislikes the sameness of the town’s tidy gardens all planted with roses. She uses seeds from her old garden to create a “wonderfully weird” garden. When the Rosebud Club declares it unacceptable, Millie Fleur comes up with a plan that results in the townspeople celebrating individuality in their yards too. (“Snapdragons & Spider Plants,” author’s note) (PreK-Gr 2) 

​Mountain of Fire: The Eruption and Survivors of Mount St. Helens. Rebecca E. F. Barone. (2024). Henry Holt.
In this compelling narrative nonfiction account of the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington on May 18, 1980, Barone tells stories of victims, survivors, heroes, scientists, and others. She uses quotations from interviews, excerpts from media, and charts to analyze historic, scientific, and political aspects of the deadly and destructive eruption. (QR code for photos, maps, author’s note, characters, lessons learned, bibliography) (Gr 6 Up) 

​Outspoken: Paul Robeson, Ahead of His Time: A One Man Show. Carole Boston Weatherford. Illus. by Eric Velasquez. (2024). Candlewick.
Weatherford’s beautifully crafted first-person free-verse poems, which incorporate quotes and lyrics of spirituals and songs, and Velasquez’s expressive oil portraits based on and inspired by photographs present the life story of African American Paul Robeson (1898-1976) in four acts: Youth, Artist, Activist, and Erased. (timeline, source notes, bibliography, copyright acknowledgments) (Gr 3 Up) 

​Puppet. David Almond. Illus. by Lizzy Stewart. (2024). Candlewick.
In Almond’s magical novel, enhanced by Stewart’s black-and-white cartoonlike illustrations, elderly and lonely puppet master Silvester has just donated his life’s work to a museum. Visiting his old workshop, he creates child-sized Puppet, who comes to life. After meeting and making friends with young Fleur and her mother in the park, he passes on his puppet-making skills to the girl, and they put on a show in the park that brings the community together. (Gr 3-5)  

​Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992: Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire. Paula Yoo (2024). Norton.
Yoo provides a well-researched account of the five-day deadly and destructive 1992 Los Angeles Riots ignited by the acquittal of four LAPD officers for the brutal beating of Rodney King and the history of systemic racism, police inequities, and tensions between Black and Korean communities in Los Angeles. (author’s note, “In Memoriam,” notes, bibliography, index) (Gr 9-12) 

​Shakespeare’s First Folio: All the Plays (Children’s Edition). William Shakespeare. Abridged by Anjna Chouhan. Illus. by Emily Sutton. (2024). Shakespeare Birthplace Trust/Candlewick.
This special children’s edition of Shakespeare’s First Folio was created to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays, Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories & Tragedies (1623). Each of the 36 playscripts is adapted, primarily using Shakespeare’s language, and embellished with Sutton’s beautiful artwork inspired by historic items in the trust’s collection. (Gr 3 Up) 

​The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman. Gennifer Choldenko. (2024). Knopf.
Almost twelve-year-old Hank Hooperman and his three-year-old sister, Boo, are on their own when their unreliable mother, Geri, goes missing. Left with no food and six months of unpaid rent, they might end up in separate foster homes if Hank can’t find her. Following clues that lead him to unexpected help, he makes his biggest mistake ever and learns a stark truth that brings hope for him and his sister. (Gr 3 Up) 

​Ukraine Remember Also Me: Testimonies from the War. George Butler. (2024). Candlewick Studio.
“We dream of peace, freedom, and the joy of being without war.” Ukraine Remember Also Me is a compelling collection of testimonies from Ukrainians following the Russian invasion of their country. Their stories were told as British journalist and artist Butler drew their portraits on visits he made to Ukraine in March 2022 and March-April 2023. (foreword, map, afterword, artwork notes) (Gr 6 Up) 

​​Wild Places: The Life of Naturalist David Attenborough. Hayley Rocco. Illus. by John Rocco. (2024). Putnam.
David Attenborough (b. 1926), who grew up exploring wild places near his home in England, has traveled all over our planet filming nature programs that have been viewed by millions. Recognizing the decrease of wild places, Attenborough is an activist for conservation. “We must rewild the World.” (author’s note, “Rebuilding Our Planet” with a chart of problems and solutions, bibliography) (PreK Up) 

​The Wild River and the Great Dam: The Construction of Hoover Dam and the Vanishing Colorado River. Simon Boughton. (2024). Christy Ottaviano.
Boughton chronicles the construction of Hoover Dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River that began in 1931 and was completed in 1936. He provides a balanced account of the political, economic, social, and environmental impact of taming the wild river, and addresses the current crisis on the Colorado River. (timeline, “Dams of the Colorado River,” maps, notes, sources, index.) (Gr 6 Up) 

​Witch Hunt: The Cold War, Joe McCarthy, and the Red Scare. Andrea Balis & Elizabeth Levy. Illus. by Tim Foley. (2024). Roaring Brook.
Balis and Levy’s deeply researched exposé with Foley’s expressive black-and-white sketches explores the story of Joseph McCarthy and the histrionic Red Scare and how ordinary people were accused of being communists in a national “witch hunt.” The screenplay-style format includes excerpts from primary sources and “Fly on the Wall” contextual commentary. (author’s note, timeline, source notes, further reading, index) (Gr 6 Up) 

​Nancy Brashear and Carolyn Angus  
As reviewers, we read extensively in all genres and subgenres of books for children and young adults and send each other “you-must-read-this” recommendations. By the end of the year, these lists are long so, as it always seems to be, it was challenging to agree on 20 books for Looking Back at 2024 Fiction.

​The Beginning (Orris and Timble #1). Kate DiCamillo. Illus. by Carmen Mok. (2024). Candlewick.
An unusual friendship begins when Orris, a rat who lives in solitude in a nest behind a hole in the wall of an abandoned barn, hears a cry for help and finds a young snow owl, Timble, with his foot caught in a mousetrap. While talking about “The Mouse and the Lion,” Orris pries open the trap. Timble takes flight only to return wanting to hear the end of the fable. (PreK Up) 

​Being Home. Traci Sorell. Illus. by Michaela Goade. (2024). Kokila.
After saying goodbye to the city, a young girl sets out with her mother on a long road trip across the country to the land of her ancestors that she chronicles with drawings in a journal. Goade’s stunning mixed-media illustrations take on a rosy hue as they are warmly greeted by what was once her “faraway family” and the community of their new home on a Cherokee Nation Reservation. (glossary) (PreK Up) 

​The Boy Lost in the Maze. Joseph Coelho. Illus. by Kate Milner. (2024). Candlewick.
Seventeen-year-old Theo, who wants to locate his unknown father, writes poetry about the Greek mythological hero Theseus for an English project. In chapters written in multiple poetic forms from the viewpoints of Theo, Theseus, and the Minotaur, Coelho recounts the journeys of Theo and Theseus to find their fathers as well as the Minotaur’s story of being misunderstood as a monster. (author’s note on various interpretations of the story of Theseus) (Gr 9-12) 

​Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody (Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody #1). Patrick Ness. Illus. by Tim Miller. (2024). Candlewick.
In this hilarious middle school story, after Principal Wombat appoints monitor lizards Zeke, Daniel, and Alicia to the unpopular position of Hall Monitor, Zeke comes into conflict with Pelicarnassus, the school bully. As this son of an international supervillain dons a giant robot pelican suit and, wielding lasers, diabolically sets out to destroy the animal-diverse middle school, Zeke must find his inner heroism to save it. (Gr 3 Up) 

​Ferris. Kate DiCamillo. (2024). Candlewick.
Love and humor abound in DiCamillo’s middle grade novel in which Emma Phineas (“Ferris”) Wilkey learns the meaning of Grandmother Charisse’s saying “Every good story is a love story” as she deals with troubling events in her unconventional family during the summer before fifth grade. Enlisted to help the ghost her grandmother sees nightly find peace and be reunited with her loved one, Ferris comes up with a plan that involves and reunites the entire Wilkey family. (Gr 3 Up) 

​The First State of Being. Erin Entrada Kelly. (2024). Greenwillow.
In August 1999, 12-year-old Michael Rosario’s biggest worry is increasing his stash of food for the possible worldwide Y2K malfunction of computers. But that is before he, Gibby, his sitter, and Mr. Mosley, the apartment custodian, meet strange teenager Ridge, whose EGG spatial teleporting device malfunctions so he cannot return to his own timeprint of 2199 until it is fixed. Their lives all intertwine in ways that must not change the future while they live in the present, “the first state of being.” (Gr 3 Up) 

​The Gale. Mo Yan. Adapted by Guan Xiaoxiao. Trans. by Ying-Hwa Hu. Illus. by Zhu Chengliang. (2024). Simon & Schuster. 
A seven-year-old boy accompanies his grandfather, Yeye, to the meadow to cut satintail grass for the first time. Soon the boy is chasing birds and crickets and taking a nap, but Yeye awakens him and they struggle to get the heavily-laden wheelbarrow home as a fierce gale overtakes them (beautifully portrayed with movement-filled acrylic images), scattering their harvested grass. Returning empty-handed, the boy learns the importance of perseverance. (translated from Chinese; excerpt from the original novella) (PreK Up) 

​Here & There. Thea Lu. Trans. by Thea Lu. (2024). Eerdmans.
Dan is the owner of a café in a small coastal town that he never leaves. Aki lives on a boat sailing from place to place. Both feel lonely at times. This beautifully crafted picture book ends with their lives connecting, at least for a time, with a dramatic double gatefold picturing a special day in which the café is filled with Dan and Aki sharing a meal and stories with others. (translated from Chinese) (PreK Up) 

​The House Before Falling into the Sea. Ann Suk Wang. Illus. by Hanna Cha. (2024). Dial.
Kyung, a young Korean girl, comes to understand the importance of her family’s home in the southeastern town of Busan, “the house before falling into the sea,” as a safe haven for refugees fleeing more than 200 miles from the north. Cha’s emotive mixed media illustrations complement Wang’s narrative in this picture book set during the Korean War (1950-1953). (author’s and illustrator’s notes, questions to consider, glossary, meanings of names) (PreK Up) 

​Kareem Between. Shifa Saltagi Safadi. (2024). Putnam.
Safadi’s evocative verse novel tells the coming-of-age story of Syrian American Kareem, a seventh grader who, after making some poor decisions in an attempt to get a chance for a spot on the football team, struggles to fit in and make friends, to stand up against racist bullying at school, and to deal with family problems related to the “Muslim Travel Ban” executive order on travel from predominately Muslim countries signed by President Donald J. Trump in 2017. (author’s note) (Gr 6 Up)  

​Max in the House of Spies: A Tale of World War II (Operation Kinderspion #1). Adam Gidwitz. (2024). Dutton.
When Jewish 11-year-old Max leaves Berlin for England in 1939 on the Kindertransport, he finds himself traveling with two mischievous and snarky spirits only he can see and hear on his shoulders: Stein, a Jewish dybbuk, and Berg, a German kobold. Determined to return to Berlin, Max comes up with a clever plan to do so by becoming a spy for the British. (author’s note, bibliography) (Gr 3 Up)  

​Olivetti. Allie Millington. (2024). Feiwel and Friends.
In this imaginative mystery told in alternating chapters from the viewpoints of 12-year-old Ernest Brindle, a loner and a lover of words, and Olivetti, the family’s old manual typewriter that has been replaced by a laptop, Tapestries, memories composed by Beatrice (Mom), live on in Olivetti. When Beatrice disappears, Olivetti realizes that these memories are vital to finding her and breaks the typewriter code as a “protector of memories” to communicate with Ernest by typing out Beatrice’s stored words. (Gr 6-8) 

​The Spaceman. Randy Cecil. (2024). Candlewick.
As a tiny spaceman steps out of his tiny spaceship onto what he thinks is a rather “ordinary planet,” he expects to have another ordinary day at his job of collecting, labeling, and filing soil samples before moving on to the next planet. But then a winged creature comes along and flies away with his tiny ship. In giving chase, the little alien encounters various creatures, including a potential best friend, and considers staying on this “extraordinary planet”—Earth. (PreS Up) 

​Telephone of the Tree. Alison McGhee. (2024). Rocky Pond.
Through a first-person narrative of spare, lyrical passages, almost-11-year-old Ayla reveals how much she misses her best friend, Kiri, who is far away, and cannot wait for her to come home. After friends and strangers start talking to their loved ones on the old-fashioned dial telephone that appeared in her tree, Ayla begins to accept that Kiri is “gone forever” and can finally begin to heal from the loss of her dead friend with the help of a supportive family and community. (author’s note) (Gr 3 Up) 

​Ten Little Rabbits. Maurice Sendak. (2024). Harper.
With a wave of a wand, a young magician makes rabbits appear one by one from his top hat. Then overwhelmed by 10 little rabbits, he makes them vanish one by one until there are none. The magician takes a bow, dons his hat, and departs from the stage with a satisfied smile. “ALL DONE.” The illustrations, done in the pen-and-ink style of Sendak’s mini Nut Shell Library books, were photographed from a pamphlet originally published in 1970 for a museum fundraiser. (PreS Up) 

​Tree. Table. Book. Lois Lowry. (2024). Clarion.
In this moving intergenerational story, 11-year-old Sophia (Sophie) Winslow’s best friend is 88-year-old Sophie Gershowitz. Learning that the elder Sophie’s son is coming to take her to see a doctor because she has been forgetting things, young Sophie worries about losing her best friend. As she attempts to protect Sophie Gershowitz by prepping her for upcoming cognitive testing, young Sophie discovers more about her friend and making memories through the stories she tells of her childhood in WWII Poland. (Gr 3 Up) 

​Thunder City (Mortal Engines). Philip Reeve. (2024). Scholastic.
In this action-packed stand-alone steampunk novel set in the world of Traction Cities where towns devour each other to survive, Tamzin Pook, renowned fighter of Revenants (non-human killing machines) in Mortmain’s Amusement Arcade, is enlisted by Miss Torpenhow, Max Angmering’s former history tutor, to help rescue him from a Paris prison cell guarded by a Revenant so that he can save the peaceful mobile town of Thorbury from destruction following the assassination of his father, the mayor. (Gr 6 Up)

​Twenty-four Seconds from Now . . .: A LOVE Story.  Jason Reynolds. (2024). Caitlyn Dlouhy.
In Reynold’s unique crafting of a YA romance story, high school seniors Neon Benton and Aria Wright, are planning to celebrate the two-year anniversary of their relationship by making love for the first time. Told from Neon’s point of view, complete with honest, heartfelt, and humorous advice from family and friends about sex, the book begins with “right now” while he is having a panic attack in Aria’s bathroom before the story backtracks in 24 “before” segments (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months) to finally return to “now” and the next twenty-four seconds. (Gr 9-12) 

​Two Together. Brendan Wenzel. (2024). Chronicle.
“Two together headed home. / Cat and dog. / Bell and Bone. / For a moment. / For a day. // Two together on their way.” The style of Wenzel’s expressive multi-media artwork that complements his spare, rhythmic text with its repetitive refrain of “Two together. . .” changes to represent the different perspectives of Bell and Bone as they explore the various sights, smells, and sounds they experience on a day full of adventuring before returning home together. (PreK-Gr 2)  

​When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary. Alice Hoffman. (2024). Scholastic.
When We Flew Away begins with ten-year-old Anne Frank’s family living in the Netherlands and follows her to age 13 during the insidious transformation of that country from neutral to deadly as Hitler orders Jews to concentration camps. Anne pursues her identity as a writer, while negotiating relationships and losses amidst the Holocaust when the Frank family is forced into hiding. (Gr 3 Up)