Marching with Aunt Susan, is an excellent introduction to the fight for women's rights. It's a story so full of hope and determination, as told through the voice of a young girl, Bessie, who resents not being allowed to do all the active things her brothers do. When Miss Susan B. Anthony comes to town, Bessie discovers the cause with her mother's blessing. Unlike typical happy-ever-after picture books, the story here does not end with a win. The vote that year fails, but the book goes on to give young people a fuller sense of the history of the suffrage movement and how the vote for women came to be. The design of the book is right on the mark and the endpapers with newspaper clippings and photographs are most attractive. Too bad the art in this beautifully written story makes everyone look especially unattractive caricatures. 7-10

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Children of the Greatest Generation are likely to be drawn to this handsome picturebook, wanting to bring their grandchildren a story of two of the most famous leaders of WWII. Barry Moser's watercolor images of that time are full of vitality and capture the relationship that bloomed as the two iconic figures to plan how they would join forces and win the war that would go on for three and a half more years. It begins soon after America was attacked by Japan and Winston Churchill finds a way to cross the war torn Atlantic to reach the man who would be his staunchest ally in the trials ahead. There is not really much story here for typical kids of picturebook age and slightly older kids who may be learning about WWII for the first time will not generally want to do so in a picture book. So it remains, who is this book for anyway? If you are a WWII buff, it will be for you. Why not?

Age: Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

What could be better that one great book? How about a set of five paperbacks packaged in a box that will take young readers on all the adventures shares by the Borrowers? If you didn't read them when you were growing up, make this set your ticket and read them aloud after dinner -- a chapter a night. From the original book featuring the little Borrowers to their journeys Aloft, Afloat, Afield and Avenged. This is a gift for the family to enjoy on the long winter nights ahead. Marked for 9-12, but younger kids of 7 and 8 will enjoy hearing these stories read aloud and then rereading them later when they can better handle longer chapter books.

Age: Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

With so many people out of work this book, set in the Great Depression may well resonate with young people today. It's Christmas 1931 and Henry and his out-of-work father go to New York to sell Christmas trees to earn a little money. They have no money for heat or blankets. When they get to New York City they unload their trees on the site where Rockefeller Center is being built and the men working on the site take a liking to them. At the end of the day Henry's dad leaves a tree that the construction workers decorate; the first of the many glorious trees that will stand on that site. Before he leaves, Henry finds a pinecone near the tree and takes it home. The next day several of the workers show up at Henry's home with scrap lumber. Together they construct a small house and Henry plants the pinecone. Click forward. Henry is now an old man. He is living in the house and the little pine cone has become a giant tree. Henry ends up donating his giant tree for Rockefeller Center when he learns that the tree will be turned into wood for a needy family's Habitat for Living Home. The story of the Christmas of 1931 and the real first tree is told in the author's notes. This is one of those big beautiful holiday books with lush illustrations and heartfelt story. 6 & up.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

A fascinating collection of animal homes are shown in this young science book. From treetop chimps to spiders in underwater bubbles, Irene Kelly shows the great variety of places animals live in. The art is playful but realistic enough to inform and the text is lively while conveying a sense of how and why the animals live where they do.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Lise Lunge-Larsen begins and ends each of these classic myths by connecting them to the way we use a name or word from the stories in our every day lives. She connects words we speak to these ancient tales. Her storytelling style keeps the stories short but pithy. The art has some cartoonish elements, including comic book style bubbles. It all adds up to an easier read than more serious myth collections. For those who take their myths seriously, these will not replace classics like the D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths. That said, it is an interesting way into the classics.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Did you know cavewomen dyed their hair blonde to attract a caveman? It seems there was a lot of competition for a caveman, since so many perished while hunting. But that is just one of dozens of entries with amusing illustrations that comb through the ages and the strange ways and reasons people did what they did to their hair. That blonde looks strangely like Marilyn Monroe. But that is just one of the odd ways that hair styles tell about the times. It's not just about women and their hair styles. There are all kinds of oh-so-strange remedies such as goat pee and pigeon poop that men chose to cure baldness. As non-fiction books go, this one tries hard to be "hip" and informative with large dollops of humor added, like styling mousse or glittery highlights for a bit of sparkle. 

Age: Later School Years, Tweens. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Surviving the death of a parent is hard at any age--but for a child it is almost impossible to imagine. The Scar opens with the harsh reality as the young narrator says, "Mom died this morning." What follows after the opening bitterness are the boy's fears about how he will not be able to remember her voice, her smell, her essence. In his efforts to hold on to her he closes the windows and worries about who will take care of him and his dad. This is a disquieting book that packs a whirlwind of emotions into each page and stage of grief. It is a book that just might help with the healing for some families that are going through such a loss.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Out in the desert a boy is learning his fathers craft of finding "tears" in the twisted trees. He is leaving how to collect these "tears" of sap that are filled with resin that can be sold in the market for medicine and soothing the skin. In this mysterious and hauntingly beautiful story set more than 2,000 years ago, the boy and his father arrive in the market as three men were searching for one special gift they would take with them to a special child. Unlike any other stories of the Magi, this one sneaks up and surprises. It is rather a darker tale than most as we learn that the Third Gift is also used for funerals to cleanse the departed and burn as a scent. The big resin tear found by the boy was also a gift to celebrate a birth--they were to become the gift of Myrrh brought with the gold and frankincense. The art work is in graceful harmony with the quiet telling of a memorable story.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.

Although it is a fictional account of the events in New Orleans, when Hurricane Katrina struck, the voice of the narrator, a 10-year old boy named Louis, who plays a coronet, captures some of the terror of that time. Colin Bootman's moving paintings combine perfectly with Myron Uhlberg's believable narrative that tells the story of one family's experiences as they drift into the watery world of the floods and the chaos of the dome where they went seeking shelter. Although 10 seems old for a narrator of a picture book, this feels totally on the mark. His Mama calls him her baby, but in the end it is Louis who proves he is anything but a baby. 7-11.

Age: Early School Years, Later School Years. Award Year: 2011. Click here to purchase the product on Amazon.com.