Welcome to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's (CBC) Searchable Best Books List, a tool designed to help educators, families, librarians, and others access developmentally appropriate and engaging books for young readers (ages birth - 18).

Our online Searchable Best Books List draws from the committee's annual Best Children's Books of the Year-beginning with the list of books published in 2000-with each featuring more than 600 high-quality titles for young readers.

To share feedback about the tool, please feel free to email bookcom@bankstreet.edu. To learn more about the CBC, visit https://www.bankstreet.edu/cbc/.

How to Perform a Search and Save a List

The Center of Everything

by Linda Urban

Ages: 9+

Published: 2013

Publisher: Harcourt/HMH

ISBN: 978-0-547-76348-4

Keywords: Death, Middle School, Wishes, Speech

As Ruby Pepperdine stands along the town parade route waiting to deliver her winning essay, she worries about her grandmother and her friends.