Best books of 1964

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
A Pocketful of Cricket written by Rebecca Caudill, illustrated by Evaline Ness (Holt)
May I Bring a Friend? written by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, illustrated by Beni Montresor (Atheneum)
Whistle for Willie written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)
Lady Bird, Quickly written and illustrated by Juliet Kepes (Little)
The Happy Owls illustrated by Celestino Piatti (Atheneum)
The Mitten written by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Yaroslava (Lothrop)

Stories
Time of Trial written by Hester Burton, illustrated by Victor G. Ambrus (World)
A Spell Is Cast written by Eleanor Cameron, illustrated by Beth and Joe Krush (Atlantic-Little)
The Far-Off Land written by Rebecca Caudill, illustrated by Brinton Turkle (Viking)
Far Out the Long Canal written by Meindert DeJong, illustrated by Nancy Grossman (Harper)
The CORIANDER written by Eilís Dillon, illustrated by Vic Donahue (Funk)
Gull Number 737 by Jean Craighead George (Crowell)
Home Is the Sailor written by Rumer Godden, illustrated by Jean Primrose (Viking)
The Namesake written and illustrated by C. Walter Hodges (Coward)
Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt (Follett)
My Great-Grandfather and I written by James Krüss, illustrated by Jochen Bartsch (Atheneum)
Tituba of Salem Village by Ann Petry (Crowell)
The Queen’s Blessing written by Madeleine Polland, illustrated by Betty Fraser (Holt)
Lotte’s Locket written by Virginia Sorensen, illustrated by Fermin Rocker (Harcourt)
Storm from the West written by Barbara Willard, illustrated by Douglas Hall (Harcourt)
Shadow of a Bull written by Maia Wojciechowska, illustrated by Alvin Smith (Atheneum)

Tales of Fancy and Imagination
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
The Return of the Twelves written by Pauline Clarke, illustrated by Bernarda Bryson (Coward)
The Pushcart War written by Jean Merrill, illustrated by Ronni Solbert (Scott)
The Faun and the Woodcutter’s Daughter written by Barbara Leonie Picard, illustrated by Charles Stewart (Criterion)
The Bee-Man of Orn written by Frank R. Stockton, illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Holt)
The Hound of Ulster written by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Victor Ambrus (Dutton)

Poetry, Biography, and History
Cricket Songs translated by Harry Behn (Harcourt)
Girl with a Pen: Charlotte Brontë by Elisabeth Kyle (Holt)
Shakespeare’s Theater written and illustrated by C. Walter Hodges (Coward)
The Japanese: People of the Three Treasures written by Robert Newman, illustrated by Mamoru Funai (Atheneum)

Archaeology and Natural Science
Digs and Diggers: A Book of World Archaeology by Leonard Cottrell (World)
Butterfly Time written by Alice E. Goudey, illustrated by Adrienne Adams (Scribner)