Children’s Book Committee
The Children’s Book Committee (CBC) was founded more than 100 years ago to help parents, teachers, and librarians choose the books that children will find captivating and transforming. Every year it produces comprehensive annotated book lists for children aged infant through 18.
Our Mission
The CBC reviews over 6000 titles each year for accuracy and literary quality and considers their emotional impact on children. It chooses the best 600 books, both fiction and nonfiction, which it lists with annotations according to age and category.
The Children’s Book Committee strives to guide librarians, educators, parents, grandparents, and other interested adults to the best books for children published each year. The list includes more than 600 titles chosen by reviewers for literary quality and excellence of presentation as well as the potential emotional impact of the books on young readers. Other criteria include credibility of characterization and plot, authenticity of time and place, age suitability, positive treatment of ethnic and religious differences, and the absence of stereotypes.
To contact us, please email bookcom@bankstreet.edu.
Children's Book Committee April Pick
Four generations of Filipino-American men, starting with immigrant Francisco, strive to define themselves and their relationships with an ever-evolving America.
Our Young Reviewer Says:
“Everything We Never Had” by Randy Ribay was a touching novel about the Filipino-American experience. It tracked four generations of a Filipino family and their experiences living as Filipinos in the US. I learned a lot about Filipino involvement in American agriculture labor reform movements and about the Philippines under the rule of Ferdinand Marcos. Ribay also beautifully portrayed the struggle of trying to keep in touch with a culture that is not of the land one lives in.
But apart from expressing this idea, he also gave glimpses into the perspectives of others who believed that assimilation was the best–and sometimes only–way to survive in America. These two sides clashed throughout the novel, making for a compelling story about being the descendants of immigrants in the United States. He masterfully transitioned between time periods and perspectives, letting the readers understand how each character became the way he was. This led to a consistent theme of healing through generational trauma.
–Vimala, age 17, Queens, NY.