Best books of 1960

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
The American Speller edited and illustrated by Barbara Cooney (Crowell)
The Shoemaker and the Elves written by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Adrienne Adams (Scribner)
The Sleeping Beauty written by the Brothers Grimm, illustrated by Felix Hoffmann (Harcourt)
Inch by Inch written and illustrated by Leo Lionni (Obolensky)
The Little Tiny Rooster written by Will Lipkind, illustrated by Nicolas Mordvinoff (Harcourt)
ABC written and illustrated by Bruno Munari (World)
Baboushka and the Three Kings written by Ruth Robbins, illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov (Parnassus)

Folk Tales and Hero Stories
Ten Thousand Desert Swords written by Russell Davis and Brent Ashabranner, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher (Little)
Heather and Broom written by Sorche Nic Leodhas, illustrated by Consuelo Joerns (Holt)
The Iliad of Homer written by Barbara Leonie Picard, illustrated by Joan Kiddell-Monroe (Walck)

Tales of Fancy and Imagination
The Witch Family written by Eleanor Estes, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (Harcourt)
The Cricket in Times Square written by George Selden, illustrated by Garth Williams (Ariel)
Island MacKenzie written by Ursula Moray Williams, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone (Morrow)
Castaways in Lilliput written by Henry Winterfeld, illustrated by William M. Hutchinson (Harcourt)

Stories
Jed: The Story of a Yankee Soldier and a Southern Boy written and illustrated by Peter Burchard (Coward)
The Singing Cave written by Eilís Dillon, illustrated by Stan Campbell (Funk)
Grishka and the Bear written by René Guillot, illustrated by Joan Kiddell-Monroe (Criterion)
Caxton’s Challenge written and illustrated by Cynthia Harnett (World)
The Happy Days written by Kim Yong Ik, illustrated by Artur Marokvia (Little)
Torrie by Annabel and Edgar Johnson (Harper)
Meet the Austins by Madeleine L’Engle (Vanguard)
Don Tiburcio’s Secret written by Jeanne Loisy, illustrated by Françoise Estachy (Pantheon)
The Secret Language written by Ursula Nordstrom, illustrated by Mary Chalmers (Harper)
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (Houghton)
A Dog on Barkham Street written by Mary Stolz, illustrated by Leonard Shortall (Harper)
Knight’s Fee written by Rosemary Sutcliff, illustrated by Charles Keeping (Walck)
Victory at Valmy by Geoffrey Trease (Vanguard)

Biography and History
The Walls of Windy Troy, a Biography of Heinrich Schliemann by Marjorie Braymer (Harcourt)
America Grows Up and America Moves Forward, Volumes 2 and 3 of A History for Peter written by Gerald W. Johnson, illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher (Morrow)
This Is New York and This Is Rome written and illustrated by Miroslav Sasek (Macmillan)

Nature and Science
Map Making: The Art that Became a Science written by Lloyd A. Brown, illustrated by Aldren A. Watson (Little)
The Challenge of the Sea written by Arthur C. Clarke, illustrated by Alex Schomburg (Holt)