Brainstorm 131: Top 10s of 2017 Part 4

The awesome elementary librarian I work with, Ms. Sarah Foit, was gracious enough to share her favorite reads of 2017 for this final posting of Top 10s of 2017. For her top 10s lists, the books may have been published in any year, but are titles she read in 2017. The books are in no particular order, but considering how much she reads, just making this list is quite the feat. I’m happy that some of the books that just missed top 10s in my lists made it to Sarah’s, so you still get to hear about them. If you missed my Top 10s of 2017 click here for Part 1: Picture Books & Lower Grade Books plus Poetry, click here for Part 2: Young Adult & Adult Books plus Christian reads, and click here for Part 3: Middle Grade Books, the 2017 releases I missed, and the 2018 releases I'm looking forward to. Enjoy Sarah's top 10s, and have a Happy New Year!

Fiction Picture Books

Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis

Maybe God Is Like That Too by Jennifer Grant, ill. by Matthew Schipper

How to Be a Hero by Florence Parry Heide, ill. by Chuck Groenink

Marigold Bakes a Cake by Mike Malborough

The Way Home in the Night by Akiko Miyakoshi

When I Was Small by Sara O’Leary, ill. by Julie Morstad

Bunny’s Book Club by Annie Silvestro, ill. by Tatjana Mai-Wyss

A Perfect Day by Lane Smith

A Camping Spree with Mr. Magee by Chris Van Dusen

Rules of Summer by Shaun Tan


Lower Grade Fiction

Charlie & Mouse (Charlie & Mouse, #1) by Laurel Snyder, ill. by Emily Hughes

Lunch Walks among Us (Franny K. Stein, Mad Scientist, #1) by Jim Benton

Attack of the Zittens (The Bad Guys, #4) by Aaron Blabey

Where Are You Going, Baby Lincoln? (Tales from Deckawoo Drive, #3) by Kate DiCamillo, ill. by Chris Van Dusen

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

Runaway Radish by Jessie Haas, ill. by Margot Apple

My Happy Life (Dani, #1) by Rose Lagercrantz, ill. by Eva Eriksson, translated by Julia Marshall

Henry and Mudge and the Starry Night (Henry and Mudge, #17) by Cynthia Rylant, ill. by Suçie Stevenson

The Sea Lion (The Lighthouse Family, #7) by Cynthia Rylant, ill. by Preston McDaniels

Quinny & Hopper (Quinny & Hopper, #1) by Adrien Brad Schanen, ill. by Greg Swearingen


Middle Grade Fiction

Real Friends by Shannon Hale, ill. by LeUyen Pham

Granny Torrelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman, ill. by Chris Riddell

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

One Trick Pony by Nathan Hale

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

Ghost (Track, #1) by Jason Reynolds

Hook’s Revenge (Hook’s Revenge, #1) by Heidi Schulz, ill. by John Hendrix

Secrets & Sequences (Secret Coders, #3) by Gene Luen Yang, ill. by Mike Holmes


Nonfiction Books 
(includes lower grade, middle grade, young adult, and adult nonfiction)

Cook Korean!: a Comic Book with Recipes by Robin Ha

Go: a Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd

Balderdash!: John Newbery and the Boisterous Birth of Children’s Books by Michelle Markel, ill. by Nancy Carpenter

Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras by Duncan Tonatiuh

John Ronald’s Dragons: the Story of J.R.R. Tolkien by Caroline McAlister, ill. by Eliza Wheeler

Miracle Man: the Story of Jesus by John Hendrix

The Secret Life of the Red Fox by Laurence Pringle, ill. by Kate Garchinsky

101 Books to Read Before You Grow Up: the Must-Read Book List for Kids by Bianca Schulze

Once a Wolf: How Wildlife Biologists Fought to Bring Back the Gray Wolf by Stephen R. Swinburne, photos by Jim Brandenburg

Commodore Perry in the Land of the Shogun by Rhoda Blumberg