Skip to main content

Display: Starred Children's Fiction 2016


All the books in this display received starred reviews in 4 or 5 different national review sources during 2016.

5 stars: 
The Girl Who Drank the Moon 
By Kelly Barnhill
Algonquin Young Readers, 2016. Fiction. 388 p.
An epic fantasy about a young girl raised by a witch, a swamp monster, and a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Together they must unlock the powerful magic buried deep within themselves.

The Inquisitor’s Tale, or, the Three Magical Children and their Holy Dog 
By Adam Gidwitz
Dutton Children’s Books, 2016. Fiction, 363 p.
Crossing paths at an inn, thirteenth-century travelers tell the tale of a junior monk, a Jewish refugee boy, a psychic peasant girl and a loyal greyhound who join forces on a chase through France to escape persecution.

Garvey’s Choice 
By Nikki Grimes
Wordsong, 2016. Fiction 108 p.
Garvey's father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading--anything but sports. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey's life changes. Through chorus Garvey finds a way to accept himself, and a way to finally reach his distant father.

When the Sea Turned to Silver 
By Grace Lin
Little, Brown and Co. 2016. Fiction, 370 p.
Pinmei, a storyteller's granddaughter, must find the Luminous Stone that Lights the Night to rescue her grandmother, who has been kidnapped by the Tiger Emperor.

Wolf Hollow
By Lauren Wolk
Dutton Children’s Book, 2016. Fiction. 291 p.
Twelve-year-old Annabelle must learn to stand up for what's right in the face of a manipulative and violent new bully who targets people Annabelle cares about, including a homeless World War I veteran.

4 Stars:

The Wild Robot
By Peter Brown
Little, Brown and Company, 2016. Fiction. 279 p.
Roz the robot discovers that she is alone on a remote, wild island with no memory of where she is from or why she is there. Her only hope of survival is to try to learn about her new environment from the island's animal inhabitants.

Raymie Nightingale 
By Kate DiCamillo
Candlewick Press, 2016, Fiction, 272 p.
Raymie Clarke decides that if she can win the Little Miss Central Florida Tire competition, then her father, who left town two days before with a dental hygienist, will see Raymie's picture in the paper and (maybe) come home.

Full of Beans
By Jennifer Holm
Random House, 2016, Fiction, 195 p.
In the 1930’s ten-year-old Beans Curry, a member of the Keepsies, the best marble playing gang in Key West, Florida, engages in various schemes to earn money while "New Dealers" from Washington D.C. arrive to turn Key West into a tourist resort.

The Best Man 
By Richard Peck
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2016. Fiction. 232 p.
Archer has four important role models in his life--his dad, his grandfather, his uncle Paul, and his favorite teacher, Mr. McLeod. When Uncle Paul and Mr. McLeod start dating, Archer's sixth-grade year becomes one he'll never forget.

Pax 
By Sara Pennypacker
Harper Collins, 2016. Fiction. 276 p.
After being forced to give up his pet fox, Pax, a young boy named Peter decides to set out on a quest to get his best friend back.

Ghosts 
By Raina Telgemeier
Scholastic, 2016. Comics. 239 p.
Catrina and her family have moved to the coast of Northern California for the sake of her little sister, Maya, who has cystic fibrosis. Cat’s life becomes complicated when she is told that her new town is inhabited by ghosts, and Maya sets her heart on meeting one.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Review: A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall

A Strange Thing Happened in Cherry Hall By Jasmine Warga New York: Harper, 2024. Fiction. 211 pages. A painting has been stolen from the Penelope L. Brooks Museum and sixth-grader Rami Ahmed is worried he's the main suspect. His mother works at the museum as the lead custodian and Rami spends a lot of time hanging out at the museum while she works. On the day the painting went missing, the only people there were the security guard Ed, the cleaning crew, and Rami. Then, a mysterious girl appears in the museum. She floats around from room to room and only Rami can see her -- and she looks exactly like the girl from the missing painting. To prove his innocence and help figure out who the floating girl is, Rami partners up with an aspiring sleuth at school named Veda and the two dive into unexpected situations as they try to solve the mystery. This is a cozy mystery that is focused mostly on characters and ambiance and only a little on the mystery itself. Don't read this book if yo...

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: The Amazing Generation

The Amazing Generation: Your Guide to Fun and Freedom in a Screen-Filled World Written by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price  Illustrated by Cynthia Yuan Cheng New York: Rocky Pond Books, 2025. Informational. 226 pages.  In a kid-friendly adaptation of his best-selling book, The Anxious Generation , Jonathan Haidt teams up with Catherine Price, author of How to Break Up With Your Phone , to bring the power of good information directly to the hands of those that this issue affects most directly — kids on the cusp of getting their own smartphones. The book presents information about the drawbacks of having a smartphone and social media too soon in clear and easy-to-understand language, with eye-catching graphics and pop-outs. Throughout the book, quotes from real teens and young adults, called screen "rebels" by the authors, emphasize the points the authors are trying to make. Fictional characters are featured throughout in a graphic novel story, which further emphasizes the po...