Best books of 1981

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 Farmer’s Alphabet written and illustrated by Mary Azarian (Godine)
Where the Buffaloes Begin written by Olaf Baker, illustrated by Stephen Gammell (Warne)
On Market Street written by Arnold Lobel, illustrated by Anita Lobel (Greenwillow)
Outside Over There written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak (Harper)
The Night After Christmas written and illustrated by James Stevenson (Greenwillow)
Do Not Open written and illustrated by Brinton Turkle (Dutton)
Jumanji written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton)

Fiction
The Stolen Lake by Joan Aiken (Delacorte)
Westmark by Lloyd Alexander (Dutton)
Ramona Quimby, Age 8 written by Beverly Cleary, illustrated by Alan Tiegreen (Morrow)
The Seventh Raven by Peter Dickinson (Dutton/Unicorn)
You Never Knew Her As I Did! by Mollie Hunter (Harper)
The Battle Horse by Harry Kullman (Bradbury)
Save Queen of Sheba by Louise Moeri (Dutton)
The Islanders by John Rowe Townsend (Lippincott)
The Scarecrows by Robert Westall (Greenwillow)
Jeremy Visick by David Wiseman (Houghton)

Folklore
Bo Rabbit Smart for True: Folktales from the Gullah retold by Priscilla Jaquith, illustrated by Ed Young (Philomel)

Nonfiction
A Snake’s Body by Joanna Cole, illustrated with photographs by Jerome Wexler (Morrow)
Traitor: The Case of Benedict Arnold by Jean Fritz (Putnam)
The Hospital Book written by James Howe, illustrated with photographs by Mal Warshaw (Crown)
The Weaver’s Gift by Kathryn Lasky, illustrated with photographs by Christopher G. Knight (Warne)
Seeds: Pop, Stick, Glide written by Patricia Lauber, illustrated with photographs by Jerome Wexler (Crown)
Upon the Head of the Goat: A Childhood in Hungary 1939-1944 by Aranka Siegal (Farrar)
The Magic of Color written and illustrated by Hilda Simon (Lothrop)
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt: Inside the American Jury System written by Melvyn Bernard Zerman, illustrated by John Caldwell (Crowell)

Of Interest to Adults
Thursday’s Child: Trends and Patterns in Contemporary Children’s Literature by Sheila A. Egoff (American Library Association)