2004 Notable Books for Children

These books were chosen by a committee of librarians, educators, and other professionals for the Association for Library Service to Children.

Younger Readers

• Ella Sarah Gets Dressed, by Margaret Chodos-Irvine (Harcourt)
• I Face the Wind, by Vicki Cobb; illustrated by Julia Gorton (HarperCollins)
• Surprising Sharks, by Nicola Davies; illustrated by James Croft (Candlewick)
• The Racecar Alphabet, by Brian Floca (Atheneum)
• Diary of a Wombat, by Jackie French; illustrated by Bruce Whatley (Clarion)
• Little One Step, by Simon James (Candlewick)
• What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?, by Robin Page and Steve Jenkins (Houghton Mifflin)
• How I Became a Pirate, by Melinda Long; illustrated by David Shannon (Harcount, Inc.)
• Just a Minute: A Trickster Tale and Counting Book, by Yuyi Morales (Chronicle Books)
• My Name is Yoon, by Helen Recorvits; illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska (Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• One Is a Snail Ten is a Crab: A Counting by Feet Book, by April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre; illustrated by Randy Cecil (Candlewick)
• Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, by Mo Willems (Hyperion)

Middle Readers

• Silent Movie, by Avi; illustrated by C. B. Mordan (Anne Schwartz/Atheneum)
• Mack Made Movies, by Don Brown (Roaring Brook Press)
• The Shape Game, by Anthony Browne (Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• George Washington's Teeth, by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora; illustrated by Brock Cole (Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• Vote!, by Eileen Christelow (Clarion)
• Granny Torrelli Makes Soup, by Sharon Creech; illustrated by Chris Raschka (Joanna Cotler Books/HarperCollins)
• Iqbal: A Novel, by Francesco D'Adamo; translated by Ann Leonori (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
• The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread, by Kate DiCamillo; illustrated by Timothy Basil Ering (Candlewick)
• The City of Ember, by Jeanne DuPrau (Random House)
• Snowed in with Grandmother Silk, by Carol Fenner; illustrated by Amanda Harvey (Dial)
• Bruh Rabbit and the Tar Baby Girl, by Virginia Hamilton; illustrated by James E. Ransome (Bluesky Press/Scholastic)
• Horse Hooves and Chicken Feet: Mexican Folktales, selected by Neil Philip; illustrated by Jacqueline Mair (Clarion)
• Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez, by Kathleen Krull; illustrated by Yuyi Morales (Harcourt)
• The Man Who Made Time Travel, by Kathryn Lasky; illustrated by Kevin Hawkes (Melanie Kroupa/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• Hana's Suitcase: A True Story, by Karen Levine (Albert Whitman)
• The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins, by Bea Uusma Schyffert; translated by Emi Guner (Chronicle Books)
• Locomotion, by Jacqueline Woodson (Putnam)

Older Readers

• Colibrí, by Ann Cameron (Frances Foster Books/Farrar Straus Giroux)
• Jack: The Early Years of John F. Kennedy, by Ilene Cooper (Dutton Children's Books)
• Ben Franklin's Almanac: Being a True Account of the Good Gentleman's Life, by Candace Fleming (Anne Schwartz/Atheneum Books for Young Readers)
• In Defense of Liberty: The Story of America's Bill of Rights, by Russell Freedman (Holiday House)
• Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke; translated by Anthea Bell (The Chicken House/Scholastic)
• Olive's Ocean, by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow Books)
• Keeper of the Night, by Diana Wynne Jones (Greenwillow)
• Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit, by Betsy Harvey Kraft (Clarion)
• Mosque, by David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin)
• Stop the Train!, by Geraldine McCaughrean (HarperCollins)
• An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, by Jim Murphy (Clarion)
• Ruby Electric, by Theresa Nelson (Atheneum)
• Run, Boy, Run, by Uri Orlev; translated by Hillel Halkin (Houghton Mifflin)
• Cuba 15, by Nancy Osa (Delacorte Press)
• East, by Edith Pattou (Harcourt)
• The River Between Us, by Richard Peck (Dial Books)
• The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins)
• Remember the Lusitania!, by Diana Preston (Walker & Company)
• Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve (EOS/HarperCollins)
• Don't Hold Me Back: My Life and Art, by Winfred Rembert (Cricket/Marcato Book)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J. K. Rowling (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
• The Tree of Life: A Book Depicting the Life of Charles Darwin Naturalist, Geologist and Thinker, by Peter Sís (Frances Foster/Farrar Straus and Giroux)
• The Amulet of Samarkand, by Jonathan Stroud (Hyperion Books for Children)

All Ages

• Tell Me a Picture, by Quentin Blake (Millbrook)
• Roller Coaster, by Marla Frazee (Harcourt)
• The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, by Mordicai Mordicai (Roaring Brook Press)
• There's a Frog in my Throat! 440 Animal Sayings a Little Bird Told Me, by Loreen Leedy and Pat Street (Holiday House)
• Kensuke's Kingdom, by Michael Morpurgo (Scholastic)
• Blues Journey, by Walter Dean Myers (Holiday House)
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: A Pop-up Adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Original Tale, by Robert Sabuda (Little, Simon)
• The Hidden Alphabet, by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (A Neal Porter/Roaring Brook Pres )