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

Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou

by Bethany Hegedus

Illustrator: Tonya Engel

Ages: 9+

Published: 2019

Publisher: Lee & Low Books

ISBN: 978-1-62014-587-6

Keywords: Arts, Read-Aloud, Civil Rights, Political Action, Picture Books for Older Readers, Diversity, Sexual Abuse, Poets

This powerful biography in free verse illustrated with oil paintings shares the trauma of Angelou's childhood and how she transformed trauma into political action and poetry.