Outstanding Books of 1997 to 2007
From the 1998 to 2008 editions of The Best Children's Books of the Year
Under Five | Five to Nine | Nine and Up | Twelve and Up | Special Interests
This list contains books that received stars for outstanding merit in the 1998 through 2008 editions of The Best Children's Books of the Year published by the Children's Book Committee at Bank Street College. The books on the list were all published between 1997 and 2007. We are pleased to offer this compilation as a free service and we hope that this list will be useful to you as you look for exciting and appealing suggestions for gifts for, or to read with, the young people in your life.
Because we continually seek to improve the usefulness of The Best Children's Books of the Year to our readers, several headings have changed over time. For example, where once we used the heading "Parents and Children" to indicate books on more sensitive topics that are best shared with a child by the adult in his or her life, we now use the heading "Parenting" and all books listed under the former heading have been included here.
Similarly, at one time science books were subdivided under the headings Natural Science and Physical Science. We no longer make that distinction and all science books have been grouped together under the heading "Science."
Many books fit in more than one category. In such cases, the committee considered both the overall needs of the list as well as the overriding theme of the book. In general, each book is in the category it was assigned to in the original edition of the list, even though today we might have placed it elsewhere.
Until this year (the 2009 edition) books for teenage readers were only listed on our web site. Thus this list has few titles specifically for children older than fourteen, and those that do appear are included in the Twelve and Older section.
Most of the books on this list are likely to be available in your public or school library. They may also be available for purchase in either the original edition, in paperback, or a reprint edition.