Our 2017 Best Children's & Teen Books of the Year

This has been a fantastic year for children's books! Here are our favorites for 2017; scroll down to see Shelf's reviews of all the wonderful books that brought joy to child and teen readers.

Picture Books
Stolen Words by Melanie Florence, illus. by Gabrielle Grimard (Second Story Press)
Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Eric Velasquez (Candlewick Press)
A Different Pond by Bao Phi,‎ illus. by Thi Bui (Capstone)
Her Right Foot by Dave Eggers,‎ illus. by Shawn Harris (Chronicle)
Why Am I Me? by Paige Britt,‎ illus. by Selina Alko and Sean Qualls (Scholastic)
The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse by Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen (Candlewick)
Buddy and Earl Go to School by Maureen Fergus,‎ illus. by Carey Sookocheff (Groundwood)
Now by Antoinette Portis (Roaring Brook)
Town Is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz,‎ illus. Sydney Smith (Groundwood)
Silent Days, Silent Dreams by Allen Say (Arthur Levine/Scholastic)

Middle Grade Books (Ages 9-12)
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team by Steve Sheinkin (Roaring Brook)
The Stars Beneath Our Feet by David Barclay Moore (Knopf)
Pablo and Birdy by Alison McGhee,‎ illus. by Ana Juan (Atheneum)
A Properly Unhaunted Place by William Alexander,‎ illus. by Kelly Murphy (McElderry/Simon & Schuster)
Sputnik's Guide to Life on Earth by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Walden Pond/HarperCollins)
Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar (Paulsen/Penguin)
The Doorman's Repose by Chris Raschka (New York Review Children's)
The Secret of Nightingale Wood by Lucy Strange (Chicken House/Scholastic)
The Lotterys Plus One by Emma Donoghue,‎ illus. by Caroline Hadilaksono (Arthur Levine/Scholastic)
Wicked Bugs (Young Readers Edition): The Meanest, Deadliest, Grossest Bugs on Earth by Amy Stewart,‎ illus. by Briony Morrow-Cribbs (Algonquin)

Teen Books
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Balzer + Bray)
You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham (Little, Brown)
The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco (Sourcebooks Fire)
Crossing Ebenezer Creek by Tonya Bolden (Bloomsbury)
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Tegen/Harper)
Landscape with Invisible Hand by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
A Skinful of Shadows by Frances Hardinge (Abrams Amulet)
Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager,‎ illus. by Zoe More O'Ferrall (HarperCollins)
The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

--Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness
Powered by: Xtenit