Press Release

Be Y2K Compliant With The New York Public Library's Annual Guide to Children's Books

The New York Public Library Recommends the Best 100 Children's Books of the Year

November, 1999 - Want to be sure you've selected a Y2K-compliant holiday gift for the children in your life? Want to feel confident that you will have chosen something that will not only last beyond New Year's Day 2000, but well into the next century? Want text and graphic capabilities that don't need to be downloaded? Set your sights on The New York Public Library's annual guide to the best children's books of the year, Children's Books 1999: One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing. Out of the thousands of children's books published every year, only 100 make it onto The New York Public Library's annual shortlist of the best and brightest. Selected by a committee of experienced children's librarians, The New York Public Library's list is a carefully culled collection of the hippest, coolest books for kids of all ages. Organized by age groupings with helpful categories in each section ("Picture books for children ages 2 - 6," "Folk and Fairy Tales," "Poetry and Song," "Stories for children ages 6 - 8," "Stories for children ages 8 - 12," and "Non-fiction"), The New York Public Library's list is a definite must for addled adults trying to navigate the world of juvenile literature.

The biggest children's literary event of the year was the dominating wizardry of Harry Potter. J.R. Rowling's books scored the top three slots on The New York Times bestseller list, validated the status of children's books in the field of literature, and opened the way for wider recognition and respect for the genre in general. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets even made it onto the coveted New York Public Library's Top 100 list!

Another continuing development in children's books is their expanding "graphic capabilities," with increased diversity of form and style. From geometric block shapes to earthy woodcuts, from clever collages to straightforward watercolors, from complicated cut-paper techniques to colorful photographs, children's illustrators are bringing a portfolio of visual variety to the art form.

Adults can rest easy that picture books still feature many of the protagonists that were familiar from their childhood stories. However, where we find them and what happens to them there is often distinctly late 90s in style. Red-Eyed Tree Frog by Joy Cowley, illustrated with dazzling, up-close photographs by Nic Bishop, takes us on a tree frog's search for food in the night of the Central American rainforest. In The Little Red Hen (Makes a Pizza) by Philemon Sturges, illustrated by Amy Walrod, that industrious bird now is contrasted by her slacker friends in a Generation X update with amusing paper collage art.

For older children, subject matter also reflects the changing concerns of our times. Awareness of memory-loss in the elderly is a poignant presence in An Early Winter by Marion Dane Bauer. Hoping to restore his grandfather's fading memory, 11-year-old Tim decides they should run away together in a story of love, survival, and facing up to the way things are. Sky Memories by Pat Brisson with paintings by Wendell Minor, is a small gem about the relationship of a young girl and her mother who is dying of cancer.

The global village is well represented in the "Folk And Fairy Tales" section of the list. Fables from Japan, China, Russia, Europe, Appalachia, Native America, and Norway are included. Blue Willow by Pam Conrad, illustrated by S. Saelig Gallagher, retells the old tale about how a Chinese porcelain pattern came to be. Betsy Bowne's striking woodcuts illustrate Lise Lunge-Larsen's The Troll with No Heart in His Body and Other Tales of Trolls from Norway. Old Dry Frye by Paul Brett Johnson, about an itinerant preacher who chokes on a chicken bone setting off a chain-reaction of local color, is a rollicking tall tale from Appalachia

A rich selection of African American related books, both historical and contemporary, are represented. In the Time of the Drums by Kim L. Siegelson, illustrated with powerful scratchboard art by Brina Pinkney, dramatizes the Gullah legend of the Africans who chose to embrace death rather than submit to slavery and Silent Thunder: A Civil War Story by Andrea Davis Pinkney, alternates the voices of two slave children, 11-year-old Summer who yearns to read and her older brother who dreams of joining the Union Army.

Non-fiction tales of surviving or succumbing in extreme adventures are ever-popular fare for youngsters, but could the approaching millennium have brought forth a slightly heavier load of these chronicles of doom and survival? Witness Ice Story: ShackletonÕsLost Expedition by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, with dramatic photographs, a gripping narrative of the ill-fated voyage to Antarctica. Or The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest by Steve Jenkins, a "how to" book on scaling the peaks of the world's highest mountain. Now wouldn't these read well as New Year's Eve bedtime stories?

There is no dearth of real-life historical role models to carry children into the next millennium. In a fantastical story, Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt share a night flight in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride, with handsome black and white illustrations by Brian Selznick. There are biographies of the well-known: Alexander Graham Bell, Clara Schumann, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Albert Einstein -- as well as the not-so-well-known. The Englishwoman Mary Anning and the American Charles Willson Peale are both subjects of biographies.

And what about The Future? Maybe They Saw The Future by Kathleen Krull, illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker will the bring out the youthful clairvoyants in our midst. This book contains whimsical portraits and fascinating facts about "oracles, psychics, scientists, great thinkers,and pretty good guessers" including Leonardo Da Vinci, Jules Verne, and Marshall McLuhan.

This year's collection of 100 books will be on display in the Central Children's Room of the Donnell Library Center from December 1 to 31 along with a unique opportunity to view original artwork. The exhibition can be seen during regular Children's Room Hours: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 12 to 6, Tuesday 10 to 6, Thursday 12 to 8, Saturday 12 to 5, and Sunday 1 to 5. The Donnell Library Center is located at 20 West 53rd Street, New York, NY  10019.

Children's Books 1999 can be purchased for $3.00 by mail from the Office of Branch Libraries, The New York Public Library, 455 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Mail orders must be accompanied by postage ($1.00 for 1 to 5 copies; $1.25 for 6 to 10 copies; and $1.50 for bulk orders). Free copies are available by request at all branch libraries.

Press may contact the Public Relations Office, (212) 221-7676, or e-mail jbertrand@nypl.org for complimentary copies of Children'sBooks 1999: One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing.
 

Cover illustration: Copyright 1999 by Fred Marcellino from I, CROCODILE. Reprinted by permission of Michael di Capua Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

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pro: jb: 11/30/99