Book Links' “Lasting Connections of 2011” includes THE SILVER BOWL, A FULL MOON IS RISING, and THE GREAT MIGRATION

BOOK LINKS has announced the annual annotated “Lasting Connections” list, spotlighting the editors’ selections of the 30 best 2011 picture books, novels and informational titles for K-8 libraries and classrooms. “Lasting Connections” is considered an essential collection development tool for children’s librarians, school library media specialists and K–8 educators. “It’s tough to choose only 30 selections from among the excellent fiction and informational youth books published each year,” said BOOKLIST Books for Youth Editorial Director Gillian Engberg.

The following titles are on this list, and the annotations are included here:

Language Arts

THE SILVER BOWL, by Diane Stanley (Harper)

Molly, a young scullery maid in the castle of King Edmund, sees visions and hears voices that offer glimpses of the future, but she hides her gift for fear of being viewed as a madwoman or witch. Then she learns that her visions hold important information about a curse on the royal family, and she is plunged into a wild, fantastical adventure. With rich detail, taut suspense, and the creative use of fairy-tale tropes, Stanley creates an enthralling story that will make a terrific classroom read-aloud.

Science

A FULL MOON IS RISING, by Marilyn Singer (Lee & Low)

In this picture-book collection, veteran children’s poet Singer offers a moving, informative “lunar journey” around the world. Each spread features an evocative verse vignette that often neatly folds scientific information into the lyrical lines, as in a scene of ghostly divers moving silently over a reef as the coral prepare to spawn under the full moon. Cairns’ watercolor images echo the words’ celebratory tone with joyful colors and compositions. More lunar information opens and closes this creative choice for cross-curricular sharing that taps into the moon’s mysterious, awe-inspiring allure.

Social Studies

THE GREAT MIGRATION, by Eloise Greenfield and illustrated by Jan Spivey Gilchrist (HarperCollins)

Greenfield was among the more than a million African Americans who left their homes in the South and moved to the North between 1915 and 1930. Each spread in this powerful poetry collection looks at a different stage in the Great Migration, and the beat in Greenfield’s free verse amplifies the feeling of momentum, down to the rhythm of the train that is felt in a northbound passenger’s questions: “Will I make a good life / for my family, / for myself? / The wheels are singing, / ‘Yes, you will, / you will, you will!’” Greatly enhanced by Gilchrist’s moving mixed-media collages, this title offers a personal look at a pivotal moment in U.S. history.

Please join us in congratulating Diane Stanley, Marilyn Singer, Eloise Greenfield, and Jan Spivey Gilchrist.