Here's a fine gift book list for your use for the 2007 holiday season. Starting with the very young and continuing on through the elementary and high school years, this list gives great suggestions for every youthful reader (fluent or aspiring) on your gift list.

 

Babies and Toddlers

Busy Doggies

by John Schindel. Woof it up with a variety of dogs in this board book filled with basic action words and funny photos of dogs doing doggy things.

Machines at Work

by Byron Barton. This classic truck book uses vivid colors and spare text to tell a sequential story about common events on a construction site. A multi-racial crew includes one woman.

Peedie

by Olivier Dunrae. Peedie is a small yellow gosling who never forgets to wear his lucky red baseball hat, until the day he puts it in a secret place. Can he find it again?

Picture Book Aficionados

Kitten's First Full Moon

by Kevin Henkes. Kitten mistakes her first full moon for a bowl of milk and is determined to lap it up! This simple story, told in rhythmic text and illustrated with bold lines and soft shades of gray, won the 2005 Caldecott Award.

Mystery at the Club Sandwich

by Doug Cushman. With only an ostrich feather and lots of peanut butter as clues, elephant Nick Trunk takes on a puzzling mystery. Word plays abound, and illustrations evoke the flavor of old time detective movies.

Skippyjon Jones

by Judy Schachner. Named the 2004 best read-aloud book of the year by the Association of Booksellers for Children, this is the hilarious story of a Siamese kittenboy who can't resign himself to being an ordinary cat. Imagination rules!

The People Could Fly

by Virginia Hamilton, illustrated by Leo & Diane Dillon. The title story of Hamilton's prize-winning African American folktale collection is now a breathtaking picture book with many new illustrations and the world's best endpapers.

The Red Book

by Barbara Lehman. A magical red book without any words delivers a young girl into a new world of possibility, where a friend she has never met is waiting. The illustrations accompanying this mind-bending journey are filled with surprises.

Early Readers

Three Stories You Can Read to Your Teddy Bear

by Sara Swan Miller. Following up on her earlier successes with stories that can be read to cats and dogs, the author reveals what mischievous teddy bears do when their owners are in school.

You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together

by Mary Ann Hoberman. Eight fairy tales have been given fun, new twists in this book intended to be read out loud by two voices ~ the emerging reader and an older sibling or parent.

Chapter Book Readers

Al Capone Does My Shirts

by Gennifer Choldenko. When Moose's family moves to the prison island of Alcatraz, he has a lot to cope with ~ an autistic sister, weird living conditions, and the warden's daughter, a bully who should be behind bars herself. Serious social and ethical issues are deftly raised in this laugh-out-loud funny book.

Bucking the Sarge

by Christopher Paul Curtis. This is the wild and hilarious tale of Luther T. Farrell's attempts to leave Flint, Michigan and the escape the grips of his mother, a.k.a. the Sarge. Winning the science fair just might be his ticket out.

Da Wild, Da Crazy, Da Vinci

by Jon Scieszka. The Time Warp Trio needs a new set of bright ideas and magic tricks to escape the wrath of Leonardo da Vinci when he suspects them of stealing his secret inventions.

Return of the Dragon

by Rebecca Rupp. Three siblings return to Lonely Island, the home of a 20,000 year old, three-headed dragon named Fafnyr. His freedom stories of ancient Greece, Arthurian England and the antebellum American South are juxtaposed with a real threat to his own freedom in the form of a scheming, yachting billionaire.

Space Station Rat

by Michael Daley. A highly intelligent laboratory rat, the son of two scientists and the only kid on a space station, plus an evil robot named Nanny will keep readers on the edges of their seats in this new science fiction novel by a local author.

Non-Fiction Lovers

Actual Size

by Steve Jenkins. Have you ever seen a squid's eye? Can you imagine a two-foot-long tongue? Sometimes facts and figures just don't tell the whole story, and you need to see things for yourself, at actual size!

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

by Aaron Ralston. Ralston was climbing solo when a rock fell and pinned his hand against the cliff. Here is his gripping story of catastrophe, self-amputation and survival.

Beyond the Great Mountains

by Ed Young. This visual poem about China uses a unique format, beautiful paper collage illustrations and 2,500 year old language characters to provide a doorway into another culture. For contemplative readers.

Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna

by Joseph Lekuton. Now a teacher in our country, Joseph grew up in a nomadic tribe in Kenya, where he herded cattle and protected them from lions. Funny, hair-raising and unforgettable.

Show Way

by Jacqueline Woodson, illustrated by Hudson Talbott. Lyrical language and intricate illustrations portray many generations of Woodson's female ancestors, with two common threads running throughout ~ the legacy of quilts that show the way north, and mothers who love their babies up.

Young Adults

A Northern Light

by Jennifer Donnelly. It's 1906, and 16-year-old Mattie has left her responsibilities on the farm to work at a fancy hotel in the Adirondacks. She dreams of becoming a writer, and while she tries to decide between marriage and college, she is caught up in a young woman's disappearance and murder. Complex and compelling.

East

by Edith Pitou. An enormous white bear shows up one cold autumn evening and asks Rose to go with him, in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family. This 500 plus page re-telling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon is enchanting.

Girl, 15, Charming But Insane

by Sue Limb. Smart, optimistic, imaginative and hilariously funny Jess Jordan is trying to draft a personals ad that will attract gorgeous Ben Jones' attention. Full of surprises, with more to come in Girl, Nearly 16, Absolute Torture.

The Eldest

by Christopher Paolini. Eragon journeys to the land of the elves to continue his training as a dragon rider, while his cousin Roran struggles to protect the people of their village from the evil Empire. Excellent fantasy with difficult moral dilemmas.

The Schwa Was Here

by Neal Shusterman. Antsy befriends the Schwa, a classmate who has an incredible knack for going completely unnoticed. When they begin entertaining wagers on what the Schwa can get away with, life becomes interesting and complicated. Antsy's Brooklynese adds to the fun in this thought-provoking page turner.