Best books of 1990

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
Bones, Bones, Dinosaur Bones written and illustrated by Byron Barton (Crowell)
The Wall written by Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ronald Himler (Clarion)
Hattie and the Wild Waves written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Viking)
Feathers for Lunch written and illustrated by Lois Ehlert (Harcourt)
Julius, the Baby of the World written and illustrated by Kevin Henkes (Greenwillow)
The Big Concrete Lorry written and illustrated by Shirley Hughes (Lothrop)
Four Dollars and Fifty Cents written by Eric A. Kimmel, illustrated by Glen Rounds (Holiday)
Come a Tide written by George Ella Lyon, illustrated by Stephen Gammell (Orchard/Jackson)
Black and White written and illustrated by David Macaulay (Houghton)
Rachel Fister’s Blister written by Amy MacDonald, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman (Houghton)
The Great White Man-Eating Shark: A Cautionary Tale written by Margaret Mahy, illustrated by Jonathan Allen (Dial)
Many Moons written by James Thurber, illustrated by Marc Simont (Harcourt)
Possum Come a-Knockin’ written by Nancy Van Laan, illustrated by George Booth (Knopf)
“More More More,” Said the Baby: Three Love Stories written and illustrated by Vera B. Williams (Greenwillow)

Fiction
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle written by Avi, illustrated by Ruth E. Murray (Orchard/Jackson)
Other Bells for Us to Ring written by Robert Cormier, illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray (Delacorte)
White Peak Farm by Berlie Doherty (Orchard)
Saturnalia by Paul Fleischman (Harper/Zolotow)
Cousins by Virginia Hamilton (Philomel)
Ace: The Very Important Pig written by Dick King-Smith, illustrated by Lynette Hemmant (Crown)
Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (Atheneum/Karl)
Beyond the Labyrinth by Gillian Rubinstein (Orchard/Jackson)
Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat written by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Sucie Stevenson (Bradbury)
Baseball in April and Other Stories by Gary Soto (Harcourt)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little)

Folklore
The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks written by Katherine Paterson, illustrated by Leo and Diane Dillon (Lodestar)
Puss in Boots written by Charles Perrault, translated by Malcolm Arthur, illustrated by Fred Marcellino (Farrar/di Capua)

Poetry
The Place My Words Are Looking For: What Poets Say about and through Their Work selected by Paul B. Janeczko (Bradbury)
A Hippopotamusn’t: And Other Animal Verses written by J. Patrick Lewis, illustrated by Victoria Chess (Dial)
Judy Scuppernong written by Brenda Seabrooke, illustrated by Ted Lewin (Cobblehill/Dutton)

Nonfiction
War Boy: A Country Childhood written and illustrated by Michael Foreman (Arcade)
Franklin Delano Roosevelt by Russell Freedman (Clarion/Houghton)
Insect Metamorphosis: From Egg to Adult written by Ron and Nancy Goor, photographed by Ron Goor (Atheneum)
Exactly the Opposite written and photographed by Tana Hoban (Greenwillow)
Aardvarks, Disembark! written and illustrated by Ann Jonas (Greenwillow)
Sorrow’s Kitchen: The Life and Folklore of Zora Neale Hurston by Mary E. Lyons (Scriber)
Is This a House for Hermit Crab? written by Megan McDonald, illustrated by S. D. Schindler (Orchard/Jackson)
The Boys’ War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk about the Civil War by Jim Murphy (Clarion/Houghton)
American Women: Their Lives in Their Words edited by Doreen Rappaport (Crowell)
El Chino written and illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton)