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
Hopeful Heart, A: Louisa May Alcott Before Little Women
Deborah Noyes
Ages: 14+
Published: 2020
Publisher: Schwartz & Wade/Random House Children's Books/PRH
ISBN: 978-0-525-64623-5
Keywords: slavery, transcendentalism, women's roles, mental health
Well-connected socially and intellectually but poverty stricken, Alcott is portrayed as a caring, brave, driven, and talented woman living in a complex world.