Best books of 1975

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
Anno’s Alphabet: An Adventure in Imagination written and illustrated by Mitsumasa Anno (Crowell)
The Desert Is Theirs written by Byrd Baylor, illustrated by Peter Parnall (Scribner)
As I Was Crossing Boston Common written by Norma Farber, illustrated by Arnold Lobel (Dutton)
The Story of Christmas retold and illustrated by Felix Hoffman (Atheneum)
Owl at Home written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel (Harper)

Stories
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt (Farrar)
The Peppermint Pig by Nina Bawden (Lippincott)
Beyond the Green Mountains by Eleanor Cameron (Dutton)
The Grey King by Susan Cooper (Atheneum)
Bert Breen’s Barn by Walter D. Edmonds (Little)
Of Love and Death and Other Journeys by Isabelle Holland (Lippincott)
The Other Way Round by Judith Kerr (Coward)
The Second Mrs. Giaconda by E. L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
The Hundred Penny Box written by Sharon Bell Mathis, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (Viking)
El Bronx Remembered: A Novella and Other Stories by Nicholasa Mohr (Harper)
Fast Sam, Cool Clyde, and Stuff by Walter Dean Myers (Viking)
Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien (Atheneum)
Cat in the Mirror by Mary Stolz (Harper)
Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (Harper)

Folk Tales and Legends
Strega Nona retold and illustrated by Tomie de Paola (Prentice)
The Green Hero: Early Adventures of Finn McCool written by Bernard Evslin, illustrated by Barbara Bascove (Four Winds)
The Magician of Cracow written and illustrated by Krystyna Turska (Greenwillow)

History
Kingdom of the Sun: The Inca: Empire Builders of the Americas by Ruth Karen, illustrated with photographs and reproductions (Four Winds)
How Democracy Failed by Ellen Switzer, illustrated with photographs (Atheneum)

Nature
The Blossom on the Bough: A Book of Trees written and illustrated by Anne Ophelia Dowden (Crowell)

Poetry
Cakes and Custard: Children’s Rhymes selected by Brian Alderson, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (Morrow)
The Star in the Pail written by David McCord, illustrated by Marc Simont (Little)

Of Interest to Adults
Written for Children: An Outline of English-Language Children’s Literature by John Rowe Townsend (Lippincott)