Children’s Notable Books – 2003
This list of children’s books was compiled by the American Library Association (ALA). The books on this list are divided according to age ranges. You can find most of the books on this list at your local library.
Download PDF version of Children’s Notable Books — 2003.
Younger Readers
- “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly” said the Sloth by Eric Carle
- Rap a Tap Tap: Here's Bojangles – Think of That! by Leo and Diane Dillon
- Gossie & Gertie by Olivier Dunrea
- Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming
- Alphabet Under Construction by Denise Fleming
- What Charlie Heard by Mordicai Gerstein
- Henrietta and the Golden Eggs by Hanna Johansen
- Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry
- Hondo & Fabian by Peter McCarty (A 2003 Caldecott Honor Book)
- I Stink! by Kate McMullan
- 7 X 9 = Trouble! by Claudia Mills
- Head, Body, Legs: A Story from Liberia by Won-Ldy Paye and Margaret H. Lippert
- My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann (The 2003 Caldecott Medal Book)
- Duck on a Bike by David Shannon
- Madlenka’s Dog by Peter Sis
- Get Well, Good Knight by Shelley Moore Thomas
- Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson
- Frida by Jonah Winter
Middle Readers
- The Pot that Juan Built by Nancy Andrews-Goebel
- Stand Tall by Joan Bauer
- Togo by Robert J. Blake
- Ruby Holler by Sharon Creech
- Inventing the Future: A Photobiography of Thomas Alva Edison by Marfe Ferguson Delano
- Georgie Lee by Sharon Phillips Denslow
- Once Upon a Marigold by Jean Ferris
- Up On Cloud Nine by Anne Fine
- The Signers: The 56 Stories Behind the Declaration of Independence by Dennis Brindell Fradin
- Confucius: The Golden Rule by Russell Freedman
- The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke (The 2003 Mildred L. Batchelder Medal Book)
- Coraline by Neil Gaiman
- Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff (A 2003 Newbery Honor Book)
- Talkin’ about Bessie by Nikki Grimes (2003 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award Book and a 2003 Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book)
- Journey to the River Sea by Eva Ibbotson
- My Chinatown: One Year in Poems by Kam Mak
- A Corner of the Universe by Ann Martin (A 2003 Newbery Honor Book)
- Saffy’s Angel by Hilary McKay
- To Fly: The Story of the Wright Brothers by Wendie Old
- Ella Fitzgerald: The Tale of a Vocal Virtuosa by Andrea Davis Pinkney
- Degas and the Dance: The Painter and the Petits Rats, Perfecting their Art by Sus
- The Voice of a Century by Pam Muñoz Ryan (A 2003 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book)
- Saladin: Noble Prince of Islam by Diane Stanley
- Becoming Joe DiMaggio by Maria Testa
- Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie S Tolan (A 2003 Newbery Honor Book)
- Fossil Fish Found Alive: Discovering the Coelacanth by Sally M. Walker
Older Readers
- Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez. Avi
- Crispin: The Cross of Lead (The 2003 Newbery Medal Book)
- Six Days in October: The Stock Market Crash of 1929 by Karen Blumenthal (A 2003 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book)
- Where the Action Was: Women War Correspondents in World War II by Penny Colman
- Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline Cooney
- The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (A 2003 Newbery Honor Book)
- Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story about Brain Science by John Fleischman
- Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos (A 2003 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book)
- The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler by James Cross Giblin (The 2003 Robert F. Sibert Medal Book)
- Hoot by Carl Hiaasen (A 2003 Newbery Honor Book)
- The Kite Rider by Geraldine McCaughrean
- 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East by Naomi Shihab Nye
- When My Name Was Keoko: A Novel of Korea in World War II by Linda Sue Park
- This Land Was Made for You and Me: The Life and Songs of Woody Guthrie by Elizabeth Partridge
All Ages
- The Declaration of Independence by Sam Fink
- Action Jackson by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan (A 2003 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book)
- The Spider and the Fly by Mary Howitt (A 2003 Caldecott Honor Book)
- Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey by Maira Kalman
- Atlantic by G. Brian Karas
- I Pledge Allegiance: The Pledge of Allegiance with Commentary by Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson
- Noah's Ark by Jerry Pinkney (A 2003 Caldecott Honor Book)
- Knick-Knack Paddywhack! by Paul O. Zelinsky
