Best books of 1984

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
Spirit Child: A Story of the Nativity translated by John Bierhorst, illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Morrow)
How My Parents Learned to Eat written by Ina R. Friedman, illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton)
Buffalo Woman written and illustrated by Paul Goble (Bradbury)
Saint George and the Dragon adapted by Margaret Hodges, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman (Little)
Jonah and the Great Fish retold and illustrated by Warwick Hutton (Atheneum/McElderry)
Animal Alphabet written and illustrated by Bert Kitchen (Dial)
The Story of Jumping Mouse retold and illustrated by John Steptoe (Lothrop)
The Mysteries of Harris Burdick written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg (Houghton)

Fiction
The Beggar Queen by Lloyd Alexander (Dutton)
A Place To Come Back To by Nancy Bond (Atheneum/McElderry)
One-Eyed Cat by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
A Little Love by Virginia Hamilton (Philomel)
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones (Greenwillow)
Like Jake and Me by Mavis Jukes (Knopf)
The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
Unclaimed Treasures by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
The Changeover: A Supernatural Romance by Margaret Mahy (Atheneum/McElderry)
The Island on Bird Street by Uri Orlev, translated by Hillel Halkin (Houghton)
Interstellar Pig by William Sleator (Dutton)

Nonfiction
From Flower to Fruit written and illustrated by Anne Ophelia Dowden (Crowell)
Children of the Wild West by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
The Tipi: A Center of Native American Life written and illustrated by David and Charlotte Yue

Poetry
The New Kid on the Block written by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by James Stevenson