Take 10: The year’s best children’s books

In this age of digital technology and toy gadgetry, children may be keener to flip on the TV or shuffle their MP3 player than crack open a book. This holiday season, try reigniting their imagination with the gift of words. Here are some of 2011’s award-winning and honor books for young readers.

1. Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool (Delacorte Press, $16.99) Newbery Medal
2. Turtle In Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House, $16.99) Newbery Honor
3. Heart of a Samurai by Margi Preus (Amulet Books, $15.95) Newbery Honor
4. Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night  by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Rick Allen (Houghton Mifflin, $16.99) Newbery Honor
5. One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia (Amistad, $8.92) Newbery Honor
6. A Sick Day for Amos McGee by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Neal Porter/Roaring Brook Press, $16.99) Caldecott Medal
7. Dave the Potter: Artist, Poet, Slave by Laban Carrick, illustrated by Bryan Collier (Little, Brown and Company, $11.95) Caldecott Honor
8. Interrupting Chicken written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein (Candlewick Press, $16.99) Caldecott Honor
9. Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown and Company, $17.99) Michael L. Printz Medal
10. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King (Knopf, $16.99) Michael L. Printz Honor

This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2011.