Top Books Read in 2013. Part I: The kid books, including picture and j-level.

Just because you are over eighteen doesn't mean you won't love these books.  Or maybe you have a young reader who is interested?  The links in the title will take you to the Goodreads page for the book, which lists all the information you will need.  If you are my friend on Goodreads, it will also be easy to see my review.

All lists are in alphabetical order.

Picture Books
A Long Way Away
Take a long journey through space.  If you liked following that kid in the Family Circus as he wanders around the comic strip, this book is for you.

Mr. Wuffles!
Mr. Wuffles is a cat who spurns all toys except for one.  But this toy is not like any other.  Find out why.

Year of the Jungle
Suzanne Collins (she of the Hunger Games and the Gregor series) tells us about the year her dad went to Vietnam.  Good capture of a child's sense of time and making sense of what she can.

Tiger in my Soup
Fabulous illustrations and fun for all the little brothers out there. And the big sisters who might recognize themselves.

Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great
The title says it all.  See the world through Goat's eyes.

Picture Book Honorable Mentions:
Carnivores
Xander's Panda Party

Juvenile Chapter Books
I'm not the biggest fan of these, so I didn't even have five for my list.  But the four I had were good.

Counting By 7's
My library lists this as YA, but I put it in the "J" category because the girl is 12 and I think kids tend to read about children older than them, not younger.  I loved this main character and how she just kept on chugging through her troubles.

Doll Bones
If your middle-school student (or you) likes to be creeped out by stories, this is a book for him/her.  Also a good depiction of middle school kids being at different places in their maturity.

Gone Fishing: A Novel in Verse
Great story told using poems.  Perfect for introducing elementary school kids to different forms of poetry.

P.S. Be Eleven
Not a story set in a New York City Public School (P.S. 11) as I first thought, but a story of three sisters in Brooklyn in the 1960s.  Very well done.  It's also the second book, so you might want to read One Crazy Summer first.