Books of the Year 2017
More than most, 2017 has felt like a year of hellos and goodbyes, hellos to new publishers, to a welcome new focus on BAME authors, to a new Children’s Laureate, and to positive new initiatives such as Empathy Day goodbyes to authors Babette Cole, Dahlov Ipcar, Dick Bruna and Michael Bond. In the midst of this, we asked a panel of contributors to choose the books they think we’ll be reading after 2017 has been and gone.
Andrea Reece, managing editor Books for Keeps, director Oxford Literary Festival children’s programme
Jonathan Stroud’s ghost-hunting Lockwood & Co series reached its thoroughly satisfying conclusion this year with book five, The Empty Grave. Intelligent, well-written, full of action and starring characters readers have come to love, I’m bereft knowing there won’t be a new episode in 2018. Children’s poetry is booming and Joseph Coelho’s Overheard in a Tower Block skilfully and beautifully describes deeply felt experiences and personal observations so that we can all share the emotions. And Hilary McKay’s Fairy Tales is unmissable too, stories we have known since childhood freshly told and given new life and extra magic.
SF Said, author and library campaigner Pam Dix, Chair Ibby UK
Under Water, Under Earth by Aleksandra and Daniel Mizielinska has delighted me in many ways. Its size and shape are exciting and the sense of excitement continues with the realisation that the book works in both directions; one opening takes the reader under the earth and the reverse is under the sea. It delivers all that a brilliant information book can. It is graphically exciting, links the visual and the text in a variety of ways and uses an astonishing array of techniques to do this including graphs, arrows, diagrams and other visual clues. Each new page has a different visual format so there are constant surprises about the presentation of information, and challenges to look ever more closely. Best of all is its truly worldwide perspective. Every page of information will make comparisons between all parts of the world so that the learning is broad and relevant to children wherever they are.
Daniel Hahn, writer, editor, translator
Even amid what feels like a particularly spoilt-for-choice sort of season, my ‘Book of the Year’ stands out for me as an unusual and special one. It’s always folly to try and predict which contemporary books posterity will consider ‘classics’, but today I’m going to do it anyway: The Murderer’s Ape, by Swedish writer Jakob Wegelius, is built to last. It has everything my favourite children’s books have: an unforgettable central character (Sally Jones, ship’s engineer) on an exciting adventure (she’s travelling the high seas, trying to solve a murder); it has beautiful illustrations, an immersive and perfectly-constructed plot, and atmosphere galore; and a colourful cast of loyal friends and kind strangers and shadowy enemies… All these familiar components, and yet I’ve never read anything quite like it. An absolute treat. (Oh, and did I mention that our hero, Sally Jones, is a gorilla?)
4 Books for Keeps No.227 November 2017
The children’s book I’ve enjoyed most in 2017 is The Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris. It’s a mesmerising celebration of the natural world and the language we use to describe it. Macfarlane conjures a series of spells to evoke flora and fauna, from acorn to wren, while Morris’s art creates a visual and tactile object so immersive, it feels like a living thing in itself. Described by Macfarlane as ‘a book for children aged 3 to 100’, it should delight readers of all ages, and would make an ideal gift for Christmas, or any time of year!
Jake Hope, consultant, reading development and children’s books
Night Shift by Debi Gliori is an impressive, well considered articulation of what it means and how it feels to be depressed. A sophisticated picture book forged from fog, shaped from shadows and drawn out of darkness, it gives voice
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