Top Five List Continued

Okay, here's the recap. In my last post I began the excruciating task of picking my 5 favorite books of 2011. I had to leave for a meeting before I finished, so here are my last two choices. (If you want to know what the other three are, you'll need to check out my last post!)

Can We Save the Tiger, written by Martin Jenkins and illustrated by Vicky White - No surprises here. Did you honestly think I'd make a favorite book list and leave out science? I loved a lot of nonfiction picture books this year, but I was especially impressed with Jenkins take on endangered species. The language is compelling, yet easy enough for children' to understand. Jenkins does a fine job emphasizing the importance of conservation efforts and recognizing this complicated work. Good science and fabulous illustrations make for a terrific read.

The House Baba Built: An Artist's Childhood in China by Ed Young - This is a moving memoir provides a unique look at Young's early years in Shanghai. Not a straightforward narrative, but rather an episodic look at growing up in a fantastical house (where kids roller-skated on the roof and rode bikes in an empty swimming pool) during years of depression, occupation, and war. Young's illustrations are beautiful collages constructed of sketches, painting, paper, and photographs.

2011 Recommendations - Top Five Lists

Are you looking for some of the best reads from 2011? The staff members at Powell's each selected their top 5 titles of the year. There are picture books, middle grade novels, young adult titles and plenty of adult fiction in here. It's a fascinating collection of lists that has given me some new titles to start of 2012. Hop on over and take a look at Staff Top 5s of 2011.

If asked to select your 5 favorite reads of 2011 could you do it? I'm going to try and I hope you'll join me. Here is my list (in no particular order).

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness, inspired by an idea from Siobhan Dowd - I read this one on the plane ride home to see my mom. Big Mistake. I sobbed through the last portion of the book, probably frightening those around me. Given what I know about the untimely death of Dowd, it made the tale even more moving. 

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor - I loved Karou and her relationship with Brimstone and got swept up in the mystery surrounding Karou's history. I was enchanted with Prague, the art, the chimaera, and Akiva (of course!). However, the kicker for me came at the end of the book. Just as I thought things were winding up -- no way! I should have seen it coming, and darn, now I must wait for book 2!

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto by Paul Janeczko - Heartbreaking, shocking, and brutally honest, Janezcko's poems pack an emotional punch. There is beauty in this collection, even though readers repeatedly experience loss and death. The humanity and strength of the victims, the depravity of the SS, and the horror that was the Holocaust  is evident in Janezcko's carefully chosen words. Reading this is like watching a train wreck—you want to look away, but can't. I wanted to stop reading, but couldn't put it down. 

Okay, I've got to head out to a meeting. Books 4 and 5 when I return. Until then, won't you join me in listing your top five of 2011?