Brainstorm 98: Top 10s of 2016 (Part 4: Special Guest)

The Elementary Media Center Specialist I work with, Sarah Foit, is my special guest for this post. She's going to give you even more great reading ideas (and sometimes re-emphasize a book is a must read). She’s sharing her top 10s of her 2016 reads, which may have been published in any year, she just read them this year. Books are listed in no particular order. Clicking the title will take you to Sarah’s review of the book, or my review if she doesn’t have a review of the book on GoodReads. Hope you find some more great reads!

This will be the last Brainstorm of 2016. See you back here in 2017 with more reading recommendations. Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Top 10 Juvenile Nonfiction Reads (including Poetry, Fables & Folktales)

The Big Book of Superheroes by Bart King, ill. by Greg Paprocki

Treaties, Trenches, Mud and Blood (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales) by Nathan Hale

One Dead Spy (Nathan Hale’s Hazardous Tales) by Nathan Hale

The Gettysburg Address: a Graphic Adaptation by Jonathan Hennessey, ill. by Aaron McConnell

Some Writer!: the Story of E.B. White by Melissa Sweet

The Pandas and Their Chopsticks: and other stories by Demi

Alpha by Isabelle Arsenault

My First Book of Korean Words: an ABC Rhyming Book by Kyubyoung Park & Henry J. Amen IV, ill. by Aya Padron

Instructions by Neil Gaiman, ill. by Charles Vess

How to Be a World Explorer (Not-for-Parents) by Joel Levy, ill. by James Gulliver Hancock


Top 10 Fiction Picture Books

Leave Me Alone! by Vera Brosgol

Steve, Raised by Wolves by Jared Chapman

The Snow Rabbit by Camille Garoche

Woolbur by Leslie Helakoski, ill. by Lee Harper

Mother Bruce by Ryan T. Higgins

The Race by Édouard Manceau

The Tea Party in the Woods by Akiko Miyakoshi

If You Plant a Seed by Kadir Nelson

This Is Sadie by Sara O’Leary, ill. by Julie Morstad

Ooko by Esme Shapiro


Top 10 Lower Grade Fiction

Bad Kitty School Daze (Bad Kitty) by Nick Bruel

Rabbit’s Bad Habits (Rabbit & Bear, #1) by Julian Gough, ill. by Jim Field

Hippopotamister by John Patrick Green

The Princess in Black and the Bunny Horde (The Princess in Black, #4) by Shannon Hale & Dean Hale, ill. by LeUyen Pham

Dory and the Real True Friend (Dory, #2) by Abby Hanlon

Dory Dory Black Sheep (Dory, #3) by Abby Hanlon

Bunjitsu Bunny’s Best Move (Bunjitsu Bunny, #2) by John Himmelman

Tales of Bunjitsu Bunny (Bunjitsu Bunny, #1) by John Himmelman

Mrs. Noodlekugel (Mrs. Noodlekugel, #1) by Daniel Pinkwater, ill. by Adam Stower

The Story of Diva and Flea by Mo Willems, ill. by Tony DiTerlizzi


Top 10 Middle Grade Fiction

The Search for WondLa (WondLa, #1) by Tony DiTerlizzi

Gathering Blue (Giver, #2) by Lois Lowry

Booked by Kwame Alexander

The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba’s Struggle for Freedom by Maragrita Engle

Mighty Jack (Mighty Jack, #1) by Ben Hatke

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson

Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhhai Lai

Messenger (Giver, #3) by Lois Lowry

Hilda and the Troll (Hildafolk, #1) by Luke Pearson

The Secret Coders (Secret Coders, #1) by Gene Luen Yang, ill. by Mike Holmes