Best books of 1959

Chosen annually by our editors, Fanfare is The Horn Book Magazine’s selection of the best children’s and young adult books of the year.

Picture Books
Peter Piper’s Alphabet by Marcia Brown (Scribner)
The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids written by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Felix Hoffmann (Harcourt)
Father Bear Comes Home written by Else Holmelund Minarik, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Harper)
The Moon Jumpers written by Janice May Udry, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Harper)

Tales of Fancy and Imagination
Seven Tales by H. C. Andersen translated by Eva Le Gallienne, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Harper)
The Adventures of Rinaldo written by Isabella Holt, illustrated by Erik Blegvad (Atlantic-Little)
The Gammage Cup written by Carol Kendall, illustrated by Erik Blegvad (Harcourt)
The Borrowers Afloat written by Mary Norton, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush (Harcourt)
The Duke of Sycamore written and illustrated by Edgar Parker (Houghton)
Tom’s Midnight Garden written by A. Philippa Pearce, illustrated by Susan Einzig (Lippincott)
The Rescuers written by Margery Sharp, illustrated by Garth Williams (Little)

Poetry, Songs, and Nonsense
The Reason for the Pelican written by John Ciardi, illustrated by Madeleine Gekiere (Lippincott)
On Christmas Day in the Morning! compiled by John Langstaff, piano settings by Marshall Woodbridge, illustrated by Antony Groves-Raines (Harcourt)
The Blackbird in the Lilac written by James Reeves, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (Dutton)

Stories
The Two Uncles of Pablo written by Harry Behn, illustrated by Mel Silverman (Harcourt)
Wolf of Badenoch written by Joseph E. Chipperfield, illustrated by C. Gifford Ambler (Longmans)
My Side of the Mountain written and illustrated by Jean George (Dutton)
The Cheerful Heart written by Elizabeth Janet Gray, illustrated by Kazue Mizumura (Viking)
The Black Symbol by Annabel and Edgar Johnson (Harper)
Onion John written by Joseph Krumgold, illustrated by Symeon Shimin (Crowell)
The Little Silver House written by Jennie D. Lindquist, illustrated by Garth Williams (Harper)
Master of Morgana by Allan Campbell McLean (Harcourt)
The Lantern Bearers written by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Charles Keeping (Walck)
The Promised Year written by Yoshiko Uchida, illustrated by William M. Hutchinson (Harcourt)
The Girl from Nowhere written by Hertha von Gebhardt, illustrated by Helen Brun (Criterion)
John Treegate’s Musket by Leonard Wibberley (Ariel)

Biography, History and Travel
The Byzantines written by Thomas Caldecot Chubb, illustrated by Richard M. Powers (World)
The Voyage of the Beagle written by Charles Darwin, abridged by Millicent E. Selsam, illustrated by Anthony Ravielli (Harper)
America Is Born, a History for Peter written by Gerald W. Johnson, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher (Morrow)
Doctor Paracelsus written by Sidney Rosen, illustrated by Rafaello Busoni (Little)
This Is London written and illustrated by Miroslav Sasek (Macmillan)
This Is Paris written and illustrated by Miroslav Sasek (Macmillan)

Bible
The Mighty Ones written by Meindert DeJong, illustrated by Harvey Schmidt (Harper)