Best Books of 2008 Lists from PW and Amazon...

It's that listy time of the year...

Publishers Weekly recently compiled their list of best books of the year in numerous categories. Here are the first five on each of their lists of best books for young readers. Click here to read all the lists complete with descriptions of each of the books.

Children's Picture Books

• In a Blue Room, by Jim Averbeck, illus. by Tricia Tusa (Harcourt) (Yay Jim who use to live in the Nati!)
  
• The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum, by Kate Bernheimer, illus.by Nicoletta Ceccoli (Schwartz & Wade)
• The Day Leo Said I Hate You!, by Robie Harris, illus. by Molly Bang (Little, Brown)
• Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox, illus. by Helen Oxenbury (Harcourt)
  
• A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever, Marla Frazee (Harcourt)
  

(Note the three titles by Harcourt--have I mentioned the brilliance of Allyn Johnston, now head of S&S imprint Beach Lane Books?)

Children's Fiction

• Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson (Simon & Schuster)
• The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume 2: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson (Candlewick)
• The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, by Jeanne Birdsall (Knopf)
• Masterpiece, by Elise Broach (Holt)
• Graceling, by Kristin Cashore (Harcourt)

Children's Nonfiction

• The Year We Disappeared: A Father-Daughter Memoir, by Cylin Busby & John Busby (Bloomsbury)
• What the World Eats, by Faith D'Aluisio, photos by Peter Menzel (Tricycle)
• Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out, by the National Children's Book and Literary Alliance, intro. by David McCullough (Candlewick)
• The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West, by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
• We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump at the Sun)

Amazon has all sorts of best books list, including customer favorites and editor favorites and best book trailers (topped by John Green's simple-yet-hilarious Papertown video). Check out all the Amazon lists here.

(And remember--it's never too early to start holiday shopping for your literate loved-ones.)