2009 Top 10 Children’s Books and Special Honor Awards

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On Decem­ber 16, 2009, the 2009 Top 10 Chil­dren’s Books were announced. Since 2005, when Par­ents Must Read mag­a­zine and Red Mud Book Club joint­ly launched the annu­al chil­dren’s book rank­ings, the “Top 10 Annu­al Excel­lent Chil­dren’s Books” have been com­piled for five con­sec­u­tive years through a three-pronged eval­u­a­tion sys­tem: read­er self-eval­u­a­tion, edi­to­r­i­al selec­tion, and expert selec­tion. This has estab­lished Chi­na’s own media chil­dren’s book rank­ings. Each year, the “Top 10 Annu­al Excel­lent Chil­dren’s Books” has become a high­ly cred­i­ble chil­dren’s book award in Chi­na, increas­ing­ly becom­ing a bench­mark for Chi­nese par­ents’ choice of chil­dren’s books and a grand event for chil­dren’s read­ing pro­mot­ers and the chil­dren’s book pub­lish­ing indus­try.
   
The top 10 chil­dren’s books of 2009 includ­ed “Riv­er Swim­ming with Uncle Gum,” “The Three Lit­tle Pigs,” “Secrets of the Sea,” “A Gar­den of Veg­eta­bles Became Spir­its,” “Crazy Tues­day,” “A Stroll,” “Miffy Pic­ture Book Series,” “In the For­est,” “The Most Beau­ti­ful Pop­u­lar Sci­ence: Four Sea­sons Clock Series,” and “David Goes to School.” Three spe­cial hon­orary awards were added in 2009: the “Chi­nese Cul­tur­al Char­ac­ter­is­tic Award” for “The Sto­ry of Peach Blos­som Spring,” the “Orig­i­nal Pic­ture Book New­com­er Award” for “The Birth of the For­est,” and the “Most Approach­able Clas­sic Award” for the “Friends of Chil­dren” series of pic­ture books.
 

First Place: Going on a Riv­er Cruise with Uncle Gan (Inspi­ra­tional Selec­tion of Inter­na­tion­al Mas­ter Pic­ture Books Series)
 John Burningham/Text and Pho­tos, Lin Liang/Translation
Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:Uncle Gum has a boat, and one day, he’s going for a riv­er cruise. Peo­ple and ani­mals keep ask­ing to ride on Uncle Gum’s boat. First, a boy and a girl, then a rab­bit, a cat, a dog, a pig, a sheep… Once on the boat, every­one for­gets what Uncle Gum warned them not to do. The pig starts wan­der­ing around, the dog chas­es the cat, the cat tries to catch the rab­bit… Final­ly, the boat cap­sizes. How­ev­er, Uncle Gum does­n’t for­get to invite all his friends to join him for anoth­er riv­er cruise. 

   
This is the mag­num opus of Kate Green­away Medal win­ner John Burn­ing­ham. The book is per­me­at­ed with an atmos­phere of free­dom, tol­er­ance, and a will­ing­ness to embrace chil­dren’s nature. Through the author’s unflinch­ing nar­ra­tive, we wit­ness a group of chil­dren with diverse per­son­al­i­ties, a “les­son” of growth, and a mod­el of accep­tance and trust between adults and chil­dren. It’s a book worth savor­ing.
 

Sec­ond Place: The Three Lit­tle Pigs (Genglin Cul­ture Select­ed Pic­ture Book Series)
 David Wiesner/Text and Pho­tos, Peng Yi/Translation
Zhe­jiang Juve­nile and Chil­dren’s Pub­lish­ing House
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:This is a twist on the clas­sic fairy tale “The Three Lit­tle Pigs.” The three lit­tle pig broth­ers build their own lit­tle hous­es, and once again, the Big Bad Wolf comes knock­ing. But this time, instead of falling down the chim­ney into boil­ing soup, the Big Bad Wolf blows the three lit­tle pigs out of the sto­ry. Is it safe out­side the sto­ry? How can the three lit­tle pigs escape the evil Big Bad Wolf? 

   
Unbe­liev­able, post­mod­ern, uncon­ven­tion­al, refresh­ing… these are all words that thou­sands of read­ers have gen­er­ous­ly attrib­uted to this Calde­cott Medal-win­ning pic­ture book. This time, cre­ator David Wies­ner wants to let you know: It turns out that sto­ries can be told this way!
 

Third Place: Secrets of the Seabed (Inspi­ra­tional Selec­tion of Calde­cott Medal Pic­ture Books)
 David Wiesner/Text and pho­tos by Yu Zhiy­ing
/Translated by Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:The sea­side, a boy, and a drift­ing old camera—this open­ing sounds like a rather unex­cit­ing adven­ture film. Yet, David Wies­ner uses inge­nious plot­ting to unfold a mag­i­cal and mag­nif­i­cent world: a mechan­i­cal fish, a fam­i­ly’s evenings under the sea, a seashell city, aliens sight­see­ing on the seafloor… This is just the first of the book’s inter­lock­ing “secrets.” What oth­er sur­pris­es lie hid­den with­in this hum­ble cam­era? 

   
A bril­liant­ly con­ceived word­less book, a fan­tas­ti­cal fairy tale. Even know­ing it’s a fan­ta­sy, the inti­mate and real­is­tic images will make you exclaim: “Isn’t this the dream I had as a child?” It offers curi­ous chil­dren a gate­way to fan­ta­sy, and makes adults who no longer believe in fairy tales believe again in the pow­er of dreams. How fas­ci­nat­ing, how won­der­ful.
 

Tied for fourth place: A Gar­den of Green Veg­eta­bles Becomes a Spir­it (Xinyi Orig­i­nal Pic­ture Book Series)
Adapt­ed from a north­ern nurs­ery rhyme by Zhou Xiang/Photo  
Tomor­row Pub­lish­ing House
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:Out the gate, fac­ing due east, a gar­den of lush green veg­eta­bles. No one had both­ered to notice them these past few days, but they’ve all become quite spir­it­ed. The green-head­ed radish calls itself king, the red-head­ed radish queen. The lotus roots next door are get­ting angry, send­ing a dec­la­ra­tion of war into the gar­den…  

   
Painter Zhou Xiang spent two years trans­lat­ing this catchy north­ern folk song into pic­ture book form, vivid­ly depict­ing the live­ly bat­tles among a gar­den of veg­eta­bles, each show­cas­ing their unique tal­ents. The paint­ing is imbued with the artist’s care­ful­ly craft­ed humor and charm, allow­ing adults to relive their own child­hood mis­chief, while chil­dren can ful­ly expe­ri­ence a joy­ful game of trans­form­ing into veg­eta­bles.
 

Tied for fourth place: Crazy Tues­day (Inspired Selec­tion of Calde­cott Medal Pic­ture Books)
David Wiesner/Text and pho­tos, Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:A group of frogs soar into the sky on a lotus leaf. Where will they fly to? What crazy things will they do? Lat­er, the shad­ow of a pig appears in mid-air… The plot is mag­i­cal, but the pic­tures are incred­i­bly real­is­tic. This is a rec­og­nized clas­sic of word­less pic­ture books. 

   
The most daz­zling aspect of this book is its bold and unre­strained imag­i­na­tion, which is sure to delight you and your child. Since it is word­less, use it as a pic­ture script to chal­lenge your imag­i­na­tion. You will def­i­nite­ly be impressed by your child’s col­or­ful fan­ta­sy world.
 

Tied for sixth place: Miffy Pic­ture Book Series (10 vol­umes)
(Nether­lands) Dick Bruna/Text and Pho­tos, Argen­tine Primera División/Translation 
Tongqu Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:This is a clas­sic series of enlight­en­ment pic­ture books, cre­at­ed by Dick Bruna, a pic­ture book mas­ter from the Nether­lands. For half a cen­tu­ry, this series of books has been called “a child’s first book” and has had an impact around the world. 

   
This reprint of “Miffy” respects the orig­i­nal’s lay­out and fea­tures a revised trans­la­tion, pre­serv­ing the rhyme’s fla­vor. The accom­pa­ny­ing guide­book intro­duces Bruner’s life, cre­ative process, and char­ac­ter­is­tics, as well as the sto­ry behind Miffy’s rise to world-class pic­ture book sta­tus.
 

Tied for sixth place: A Tour (Inspir­ing Selec­tion of World’s Best­selling Pic­ture Books)
Text and pho­tos by Jo Annales (USA); trans­la­tion by Pan Muren 
Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:Open­ing the first page, one begins in the coun­try­side, pass­ing through fields, roads, and cities, until the final page, “climb­ing the tallest build­ing to over­look,” a jour­ney com­pletes. Then, turn­ing the book upside down, a mir­a­cle occurs: the last page becomes the first stop on the return jour­ney. Turn­ing the pages again, build­ings trans­form into stars, cin­e­mas into restau­rants, and water plants into fire­works… 

   
On the first page, we’re back where we start­ed, tru­ly “cir­cling the cir­cle.” This inspir­ing black-and-white sil­hou­ette book, flipped and turned, beau­ti­ful­ly com­pos­es a sto­ry. The idea of “see­ing the world from a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive” sub­tly cul­ti­vates chil­dren’s cre­ativ­i­ty and imag­i­na­tion.
 

8. In the For­est (Pop­u­lar Pic­ture Book Series)
Text and pho­tos by Mary Ho Ace, trans­lat­ed by Zhao Jing 
21st Cen­tu­ry Pub­lish­ing House
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:A lit­tle boy, wear­ing his new trum­pet and a paper hat, wan­ders into the for­est. A lion combs his hair, a baby ele­phant takes a bath, a large brown bear feasts on hon­ey and peanuts, and a fam­i­ly of kan­ga­roos teach­es their baby kan­ga­roos how to high jump… More and more ani­mal friends join the boy on his jour­ney. They play togeth­er until his father takes him home. 

   
Mr. Nao Mat­sui has repeat­ed­ly stat­ed that this is his favorite pic­ture book. While the sto­ry appears sim­ple and child­like on the sur­face, it con­ceals pro­found reflec­tions on life and nature. Peo­ple of dif­fer­ent ages and moods will inter­pret it differently—perhaps this is the beau­ty of pic­ture books.

 

9. The Most Beau­ti­ful Pop­u­lar Sci­ence: Four Sea­sons Clock Series (6 Vol­umes) (Genglin Cul­ture)
Una Jacob (Ger­many) Ing­gard Root (Ger­many) / Text and Pho­tos, Gu Bai / Trans­la­tion 
Wan­juan Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:Put 20 dif­fer­ent kinds of leaves togeth­er and tell their names? How do plants and ani­mals spend their days and nights? … This is a series of long-last­ing and read­able nat­ur­al sci­ence pic­ture books that use vivid lan­guage to tell peo­ple the lit­tle-known secrets of the sun, earth, trees, grass, flow­ers and but­ter­flies. 

   
The author is a famous nat­ur­al sci­en­tist, chil­dren’s book writer and illus­tra­tor, with beau­ti­ful writ­ing and illus­tra­tions. This book has won the Ger­man Youth Lit­er­a­ture Award.
 

No. 10: David Goes to School (Inspi­ra­tional Selec­tion of World’s Out­stand­ing Pic­ture Books Series)
David Shannon/Text and Pho­tos, Yu Zhiying/Translation 
Hebei Edu­ca­tion Press
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:David, the incred­i­bly mis­chie­vous lit­tle trou­ble­mak­er from “David Can’t,” has grown up and is ready to go to school. Like every oth­er boy, he hates school. This renowned trou­ble­mak­er wreaks hav­oc at school! But, odd­ly enough, even though he bul­lies girls, knocks over lunch box­es, and scrib­bles all over his desk with col­ored pen­cils, the teacher always says, “Well done, David!” Guess how he does it?
 

Spe­cial Hon­or Award — Chi­nese Cul­tur­al Char­ac­ter­is­tics Award:
The Sto­ry of Peach Blos­som Spring (Dol­phin Pic­ture Book Gar­den)
(Japan­ese) Mat­sui Nao/Text Cai Gao/Photos Tang Yam­ing
/Translation: Shang­hai Peo­ple’s Fine Arts Pub­lish­ing House
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:A mas­ter­piece steeped in Chi­nese cul­ture. The sto­ry, adapt­ed by Nao Mat­sui based on Tao Yuan­ming’s “Peach Blos­som Spring,” is depict­ed by artist Cai Gao in beau­ti­ful, tran­quil illus­tra­tions, cap­tur­ing the authen­tic Peach Blos­som Spring. This tru­ly clas­sic work is sure to evoke child­hood mem­o­ries of a peace­ful, idyl­lic par­adise. 

   
Tell it to your chil­dren. I believe that one day in the future, he will also tell it to his chil­dren. This is the charm of Chi­nese cul­ture.
 

Spe­cial Hon­or Award for Orig­i­nal Pic­ture Book New­com­er:
The Birth of the For­est (Wuse­tu Orig­i­nal Pic­ture Book Series, Vol. 1)
Wang Zibao/Text and pho­tos, Anhui Juve­nile and Chil­dren’s Pub­lish­ing House
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:First, there was a bird. It brought a seed, which land­ed on a bar­ren patch of land. Sun­light shone, rain and dew moist­ened the ground, and the seed qui­et­ly sprout­ed and grew, even­tu­al­ly becom­ing a large tree. The tree’s lush­ness attract­ed more birds, who brought more seeds… When the bird passed by again, the patch had become a for­est. 

   
This is a thought­ful and impres­sive orig­i­nal pic­ture book. Com­bin­ing paper-cut­ting and print­mak­ing styles, it teach­es chil­dren to view life and the ever-chang­ing nature with a poet­ic eye.
 

Spe­cial Hon­or Award: Most Approach­able Clas­sic Award:
The Giv­ing Tree Pic­ture Book Series: Friends of Chil­dren 1–12
Nan­hai Pub­lish­ing Com­pa­ny
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Rec­om­mend­ed rea­sons:“Friends of Chil­dren” was orig­i­nal­ly a month­ly pic­ture book mag­a­zine found­ed by Japan­ese pic­ture book pub­lish­er Nao Mat­sui. Many of its titles have become clas­sics. The series, import­ed and pub­lished by the Giv­ing Tree Pic­ture Book Library, main­tains the orig­i­nal print­ing style while main­tain­ing afford­able pric­ing, almost like mag­a­zine prices, mak­ing it high­ly acces­si­ble. Since its pub­li­ca­tion, many titles have been short­list­ed for the top 10, includ­ing “Pulling the Radish,” which made the 2008 top 10 rank­ing. In 2009, the orga­niz­ers award­ed the entire series a Spe­cial Hon­or Award.