The NCTE Children's Literature Assembly committee has selected its list of notable children's books in the language arts, titles that "demonstrate uniqueness in the use of language or style; involve word play, word origins, or the history of language; and invite child response or participation." The books will be featured at the NCTE and IRA conventions as well as in the Journal of Children's Literature and Language Arts.
Poetry
- Ringside 1925 by Jen Bryant (Knopf/Random House)
- Hip Hop Speaks to Children: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat by Nikki Giovanni (Sourcebooks)
- Side by Side: New Poems Inspired by Art from Around the World by Jan Greenberg (Abrams)
- The Blacker the Berry by Joyce Carol Thomas, illustrated by Floyd Cooper (Amistad/HarperCollins)
- Zorgamazoo by Robert Paul Westen (Razorbill/Penguin Group)
Historical and Realistic Fiction
- The Savage by David Almond, illustrated by Dave McKean (Candlewick)
- The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti (Scholastic)
- Peeled by Joan Bauer (Putnam/Penguin)
- Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls (Levine/Scholastic)
- Eleven by Patricia Reilly Giff (Lamb/Random House)
Fantasy/Folklore
- There's a Wolf at the Door by Zoe B Alley, illustrated by R.W. Alley (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
- The Secret History of Giants by Ari Berk (Templar/Candlewick)
- The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry (Houghton Mifflin)
- Just in Case by Yuyi Morales (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
- The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas (HarperCollins)
- Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve (Scholastic)
Information/Biography
- A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet (Eerdmans)
- Lincoln Shot: A President's Life Remembered by Barry Denenberg, illustrated by Christopher Bing (Feiwel & Friends/Macmillan)
- Yours for Justice, Ida B. Wells: The Daring Life of a Crusading Journalist by Philip Dray, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn (Peachtree)
- Ain't Nothing but a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry by Scott Reynolds Nelson and Marc Aronson (National Geographic)
- Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem by Jack Prelutsky (Greenwillow/HarperCollins)
- Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories About Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka (Viking/Penguin)
Picture Books
- Artie and Julie by Chih-Yuan Chen (Heryin)
- Minji's Salon by Eun-Hee Choung (Kane/Miller)
- The Black Book of Colors by Menena Cottin, illustrated by Rosana Faria (Groundwood)
- Little Mouse's Big Book of Fears by Emily Gravett (Simon & Schuster)
- A Is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet by Stephen T. Johnson (Simon & Schuster)
- Wabi Sabi by Mark Reibstein, illustrated by Ed Young (Little, Brown)
- Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad by James Rumford (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)
- One Boy by Laura Vaccaro Seeger (Roaring Brook/Macmillan)