Best books of 1995

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
Grandaddy’s Stars written by Helen V. Griffith, illustrated by James Stevenson (Greenwillow)
In the Rain with Baby Duck written by Amy Hest, illustrated by Jill Barton (Candlewick)
Alphabet City illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson (Viking)
Shortcut written and illustrated by David Macaulay (Lorraine/Houghton)
Hog-Eye written and illustrated by Susan Meddaugh (Lorraine/Houghton)
Home Lovely written and illustrated by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow)
Officer Buckle and Gloria written and illustrated by Peggy Rathmann (Putnam)
Math Curse written by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Lane Smith (Viking)

Fiction
An Island Like You by Judith Ortiz Cofer (Kroupa/Orchard)
Ironman by Chris Crutcher (Greenwillow)
The Watsons Go to Birmingham — 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
Dog Friday by Hilary McKay (McElderry)
Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden (Houghton)
Like Sisters on the Homefront by Rita Williams-Garcia (Lodestar)
Some of the Kinder Planets by Tim Wynne-Jones (Kroupa/Orchard)

Folklore
The Boy Who Lived with the Bears: And Other Iroquois Stories by Joseph Bruchac (HarperCollins)

Poetry
Mary Had a Little Lamb written by Sarah Josepha Hale, illustrated by Salley Mavor (Kroupa/Orchard)
The Block written by Langston Hughes, illustrated by Romare Bearden, selected by Lowery S. Sims and Daisy Murray Voigt (Viking)
Rhymes for Annie Rose written and illustrated by Shirley Hughes (Lothrop)

Nonfiction
My Own Two Feet by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
Talking with Artists: Volume Two compiled and edited by Pat Cummings (Simon)
The Middle Passage illustrated by Tom Feelings (Dial)
This Is My Song!: A Collection of Gospel Music for the Family selected by Vy Higginsen, illustrated by Brenda Joysmith (Crown)
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy (Scholastic)
Wheels Around written and photographed by Shelley Rotner (Houghton)