{"id":19706,"date":"2016-11-17T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-11-17T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=19706"},"modified":"2016-11-17T06:00:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-17T11:00:25","slug":"the-holiday-20-for-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=19706","title":{"rendered":"The Holiday 20 for 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Annual tasks, whether at home or at work, that involve organizing and evaluating items with some degree of personal attachment, are always soul-testing endeavors. There is a lot of character development and personal reflection to be found in cleaning out the attic, to be sure, but when it comes to the bookstore the annual task that comes to mind is preparing the Holiday 20: our annual list of the top books for Holiday giving.
\nThe term “top books for Holiday giving” may not come across as a model of precise definition, yet it touches on a very real distinction. This year, for example, I really wrestled with picking two books for the picture book category, which sounds preposterous given the number of good picture books published.
\nWhat I found, however, was that despite there being some really great picture books published this year, most of my favorites, such as Frank and Lucky Get Schooled, Ideas Are All Around, Super Happy Magic Forest, <\/em>and With Any Luck I’ll Drive a Truck<\/em>, did not fit the category. They either had too narrow an audience or were too topically distinct.
\nThis brought the definition into focus. What is a “top book for Holiday giving?” For a picture book it is one which, when you hand it to someone and \u00a0open the first page they are quickly immersed in a rich experience marked by wonder, warm sentiment and personal engagement. It causes the reader’s horizons to loosen at their moorings and be made subject to fresh ports of call before resettling pleasantly. That is the quality which top books for Holiday giving must have.
\nEvery year some categories have a good many to choose from, while others offer a more barren yield. This year fiction was very strong, while non-fiction was not. Middle grade fiction was stellar while picture books were all to seek (though I am happy with my picks). Strong Maine Books were in profusion while great Cookbooks were somewhat in remission.
\nIn the end, however, the main thing is to tweak the list so that all its residents meet our core definition of holiday gift worthiness and are poised to give great satisfaction to their recipients. If that means having three Fiction titles instead of two and only one Holiday themed book, so be it. This is an occasion for boldness and innovation along with tradition. \u00a0And so it was with this year’s Holiday 20. Judge for yourself!
\nInteractive and Unusual:<\/u><\/strong>
\n\"\"Give and Take<\/strong>
\nBy Lucie Felix (Candlewick Studio)<\/em>
\nFloat<\/strong>
\nBy Anne Carson (Knopf)
\n<\/em>
\nFiction:<\/u><\/strong>
\nUnderground Airlines<\/strong>
\nBy Ben Winters (Mulholland Books)<\/em>
\nThe Wonder<\/strong>
\nBy Emma Donoghue (Little, Brown)<\/em>
\n\"\"Dark Matter<\/strong>
\nBy Blake Crouch (Crown)<\/em>
\nNon Fiction:<\/u><\/strong>
\nSpaceman: An Astronaut’s Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe<\/strong>
\nBy Mike Massimino (Crown Archetype)<\/em>
\nThe Genius of Birds<\/strong>
\nBy Jennifer Ackerman (Penguin Press)<\/em>
\nMaine Interest<\/u><\/strong>:<\/u>
\nColoring Maine<\/strong>
\nBy Blue Butterfield<\/em> (Islandport Press)<\/em>
\n\"\"Some Writer!: The Story of E.B. White<\/strong>
\nBy Melissa Sweet (HMH Books for Young Readers)<\/em>
\nThe Great Mars Hill Bank Robbery<\/strong>
\nBy Ronald Chase<\/em> (Down East Books)<\/em>
\nPicture Books:<\/u><\/strong>
\nThis is Not a Picture Book!<\/strong>
\nBy Sergio Ruzzier (Chronicle Books)<\/em>
\nDu Iz Tak?<\/strong>
\nBy Carson Ellis (Candlewick Press)<\/em>
\nHumor:<\/u><\/strong>
\n\"\"<\/strong>
\nBears Behaving Badly<\/strong>
\nBy John McDonald (Down East Books)<\/em>
\nSmiling Sushi Rolls<\/strong>
\nBy Takayo Kiyota (Tuttle)<\/em>
\nHoliday Book<\/u><\/strong>
\nThe Twelve Days of Christmas: A Peek-Through Picture Book <\/strong>
\nBy Britta Teckentrup (Doubleday Books for Young Readers)<\/em>
\nYoung Adult and Middle Grade<\/u><\/strong>:
\nThe Secret Horses of Briar Hill
\n<\/strong>By Megan Shepherd (Delacorte Books for Young Readers)<\/em>
\n\"\"The Lost Property Office<\/strong>
\nBy James R. Hannibal (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)<\/em>
\nKnights of the Borrowed Dark<\/strong>
\nBy Dave Rudden (Random House Books for Young Readers)<\/em>
\nCookbook:<\/u><\/strong>
\nSimple Victories: Recipes, Advice + Hundreds of Ideas for Home Cooking Triumphs
\n<\/strong>By Julia Turshen (Chronicle Books)<\/em>
\nCooking for Jeffery: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook
\n<\/strong>By Ina Garten (Clarkson Potter)<\/em>
\nIf you would like to see my blurbs for these titles, they are here<\/a>.
\n(Note: Smiling Sushi Rolls is a replacement title for a humor entry. Bad Little Children’s Books was subsequently removed from publication. Discussion of that important topic is occurring throughout the publishing industry; I hope that a constructive dialogue is the end result.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The top books for Holiday giving this year are both defined and presented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19706\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}