What a wonderful year for children's and young adult books! (Admittedly, we always feel that way.) Here are our favorites for 2016; see today's Shelf Awareness for Readers for the reviews. (And in case you missed it, see our picks for the Adult Best Books of 2016 here.)
Picture Books
When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons by Julie Fogliano, illus. by Julie Morstad (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook)
The Night Gardener by Terry Fan, illus. by Eric Fan (Simon & Schuster)
Dario and the Whale by Cheryl Lawton Malone, illus. by Bistra Masseva (Albert Whitman)
Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie, illus. by Yuyi Morales (Little, Brown)
Yaks Yak: Animal Word Pairs by Linda Sue Park, illus. by Jennifer Black Reinhardt (Clarion)
The Liszts by Kyo Maclear, illus. by Júlia Sardà (Tundra)
The Airport Book by Lisa Brown (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook)
If I Was a Banana by Alexandra Tylee, illus. by Kieran Rynhart (Gecko Press)
Frank and Lucky Get Schooled by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow/HarperCollins)
Daytime Visions: An Alphabet by Isol (Enchanted Lion)
Middle Grade Books (Ages 9-12)
As Brave As You by Jason Reynolds (Caitlyn Dlouhy/Atheneum)
All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins)
Wolf Hollow by Lauren Wolk (Dutton)
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown (Little, Brown)
Sea Change by Frank Viva (Toon Graphics)
Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick)
The Bolds by Julian Clary, illus. by David Roberts (Carolrhoda)
Some Writer! The Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
The Secret Horses of Briar Hill by Megan Shepherd (Delacorte)
Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi (Dutton)
Teen Novels
The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner (Crown)
My Name Is Not Friday by Jon Walter (David Fickling/Scholastic)
Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit (Knopf)
The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (Delacorte)
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (Simon Pulse)
The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock (Wendy Lamb/Random House)
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys (Philomel)
My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier (Soho Teen)
Still Life with Tornado by A.S. King (Dutton)
Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett (Candlewick)