Not all deserving books bring home ALA awards. Our annual Mind the Gap Awards pay tribute to our favorite books that didn’t win. Here’s how we reviewed our 2023 winners. Every Dog in the Neighborhood by Philip C. Stead; illus. by Matthew Cordell Primary Porter/Holiday 40 pp. g 6/22 ...
Fiction and Poetry Winner Warrior Girl Unearthed by Angeline Boulley High School Holt 400 pp. 5/23 9781250766588 $19.99 e-book ed. 9781250766595 $11.99 Boulley returns to Sugar Island, Michigan, in 2014, ten years after the events of the multi-award-winning Firekeeper’s Daughter (rev. 5/21). This novel’s protagonist is Daunis’s sixteen-year-old niece, Perry...
The Three Billy Goats Gruff retold by Mac Barnett; illus. by Jon Klassen Preschool, Primary Orchard/Scholastic 48 pp. 10/22 9781338673845 $18.99 Frequent collaborators Barnett and Klassen serve up a delectable rendition of the oft-retold folktale. The bare-bones narrative “clip clops” along with abundant humor and plenty of verbal delights, repetition,...
Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport by Caren Stelson; illus. by Selina Alko Primary, Intermediate Carolrhoda 40 pp. 2/23 9781541598683 $19.99 In this quiet but immediate nonfiction picture book, Stelson (A Bowl Full of Peace, rev. 7/20) tells the story of the 669 children evacuated...
Let’s Go! [I Like to Read: Comics]by Michael Emberley; illus. by the authorPreschool, Primary Holiday 40 pp.1/23 9780823446520 $14.99e-book ed. 9780823455096 $8.99Emberley’s crew of critters (I Did It!, rev. 9/22) returns for another exciting early-reader comic. This fast-paced story begins before its title page with a caped reptile launching a...
Nell Plants a Tree by Anne Wynter; illus. by Daniel MiyaresPreschool, Primary Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins 40 pp.1/23 9780062865779 $17.99Wynter (Everybody in the Red Brick Building, rev. 11/21) presents a loving brown-skinned family through the generations in a story that explores, by providing glimpses into the past, how long it takes...
The Last Plastic Straw: A Plastic Problem and Finding Ways to Fix It [Books for a Better Earth] by Dee Romito; illus. by Ziyue Chen Primary Holiday 40 pp. 2/23 9780823449491 $18.99 e-book ed. 9780823455133 $11.99 A fascinating history of straws morphs into a call to action. The first two-thirds...
Unraveller by Frances HardingeMiddle School, High School Amulet/Abrams 432 pp.1/23 9781509836970 $19.99e-book ed. 9781647005627 $15.54In a magical land where anger grows like an egg inside certain people until it bursts into a destructive curse, quick-tempered Kellen has a special talent: through persistent sleuthing and his own lively intuition, he can...
Once upon a Book by Grace Lin and Kate Messner; illus. by Grace LinPreschool, Primary Little, Brown 40 pp.2/23 9780316541077 $18.99Cold sleet is falling, and the protagonist of this home-and-back-again adventure tale, Alice, is stuck inside, bored. Then she spots a book on the floor and starts to read: “Once...
Bomb (Graphic Novel): The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin; illus. by Nick BertozziMiddle School, High School Roaring Brook 256 pp.1/23 9781250206732 $24.99Paper ed. 9781250206749 $17.99Sheinkin’s work of award-winning narrative nonfiction (Bomb, rev. 11/12) is here sharpened by the author’s own graphic adaptation—and portrayed through...