It’s time once again for those coveted awards, The Juicies, to be handed out!
It’s my Third Annual Orange Marmalade Juicy Book Awards. After an agonizing process of whittling down my long list of 2017 favorites I’ve arrived at a selection of books that best illuminate six core Orange Marmalade values. (I sneak ten more titles in via my Extra Categories awards!) All are linked to my reviews.
Thanks a million, authors, illustrators, and publishing teams, for the gift of your outstanding work!
Imagination
The Juiciest: Chirri and Chirra: In the Tall Grass and The Snowy Day
Kaya Doi/Enchanted Lion Books
Magical, enchanted, curious worlds explored by two tiny girls on bikes. Every impeccable detail refracts charm and delight. Dring! Dring! It’s a world you might create if every wish could be fulfilled. Exquisitely imaginative.
Oh-So-Juicy: The Only Fish in the Sea
Philip C. Stead and Matthew Cordell/Roaring Brook Press
Oh-So-Juicy: Professional Crocodile
Giovanna Zoboli and Mariachiara Di Giorgio/Chronicle Books
Kindness
The Juiciest: Wolf in the Snow
Matthew Cordell/Feiwel & Friends
Matthew Cordell whooshes us straight into this frozen world, and knits our hearts to the fates of one small girl and one wolf pup… without a single word. Wow. I love how he shines a beacon on brave, self-sacrificial kindness, without a whiff of didacticism. Brilliant.
Oh-So-Juicy: King of the Sky
Nicola Davies and Laura Carlin/Candlewick
Oh-So-Juicy: You Hold Me Up
Monique Gray Smith and Danielle Daniel/Orca Book Publishers
Cultural Diversity
The Juiciest: This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from around the World
Matt Lamothe/Chronicle Books
Eminently welcoming illustration work hooks us into these fascinating, real, seven children simply telling us about their lives, melting boundaries, captivating us with how differently we do things yet how much we have in common. Masterful.
Oh-So-Juicy: Her Right Foot
Dave Eggers and Shawn Harris/Chronicle Books
Oh-So-Juicy: Bravo: Poems About Amazing Hispanics
Margarita Engle and Rafael Lopez/Henry Holt & Co Books for Young Readers
Outdoor Play
The Juiciest: Fort-Building Time
Megan Wagner Lloyd and Abigail Halpin/Knopf Books for Young Readers
Imagination meets outdoor play in this joyous, creative array of forts the year round. It makes me so happy to see a racially diverse cast of children playing out of doors. Way too many outdoorsy books have only White characters. Thanks, Abigail.
Oh-So-Juicy: When the Moon Comes
Paul Harbridge and Matt James/Tundra Books
Oh-So-Juicy: This Beautiful Day
Richard Jackson and Suzy Lee/Atheneum – Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Quiet Books
The Juiciest: The Way Home in the Night
Akiko Miyakoshi/Kids Can Press
Miyakoshi’s flannel-soft illustration work accentuates the quietness of this bedtime stroll, the tenderness of mama bunny, the warmth of ordinary lives, the peace of bedtime, the hush of curious thoughts tickling the fancy of one child as he drifts to sleep. Exquisite.
Oh-So-Juicy: City Moon
Rachael Cole and Blanca Gomez/Schwartz & Wade
Oh-So-Juicy: Round
Joyce Sidman and Taeeun Yoo/HMH Books for Young Readers
Love for the Earth
The Juiciest: Many: The Diversity of Life on Earth
Nicola Davies and Emily Sutton/Candlewick
I haven’t reviewed this on my blog yet as I’ve just got my hands on it. As anticipated, it is visually stunning, an explosive celebration of the gobsmacking breadth of glories in our world. Davies is thrifty and respectful with her words, simply guiding us to more wonder, appreciation, and awareness of the critical importance of protecting these treasures.
Oh-So-Juicy: A Walk in the Forest
Maria Dek/Princeton Architectural Press
Oh-So-Juicy: The Blue Hour
Isabelle Simler/Eerdmans Books for Young Readers
Ten Extras for Good Measure
Favorite new Black History read:
Freedom Over Me: Eleven Slaves, Their Lives and Dreams Brought to Life
Ashley Bryan/Atheneum – Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
Most rad book for girls:
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls
Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo/Timbuktu Labs
Best biography of a hero every child ought to know:
Balderdash!: John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children’s Books
Michelle Markel and Nancy Carpenter/Chronicle Books
Dearest fox and most enchanting woodland:
Little Fox in the Forest
Stephanie Graegin/Schwartz & Wade
Best snacks:
Captain Pug: The Dog who Sailed the Seas
Laura James and Eglantine Ceulemans/Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Best old book that was new to me:
Elsie Piddock Skips in her Sleep
Eleanor Farjeon and Charlotte Voake/Candlewick
Most stupendously long fold-out pages:
The Street Beneath My Feet
Charlotte Guillain and Yuval Zommer/words & pictures
Most eloquent slice of history:
Town is By the Sea
Joanne Schwartz and Sydney Smith/Groundwood Books
Snazziest race cars:
Mama Lion Wins the Race
Jon J. Muth/Scholastic
Sweetest dog: It’s a tie between…
My Dog Mouse
Eva Lindstrom/Gecko Press
There Might Be Lobsters
Carolyn Crimi and Laurel Molk/Candlewick
Find the 2016 Juicies here and the 2015 Juicies here.
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I’ve read quite a few of these — and my library card is going to get a work out for the rest! I love this award list you do every year and I think I have a few prior years to check back through too 🙂
Every year I think — how can so many good books keep being created?! And then a new lot comes out 🙂 Happy reading!
My mouse hand is getting a workout trying to pin these! Thanks for the great list – wonderful picks!
🙂 Thanks, Wendy. They are such delights!
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