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

Tale of the Whale, The

Karen Swann

Illustrator: Padmacandra

Ages: 5 & Under

Published: 2022

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 978-1-5344-9394-0

Keywords: ocean, plastic, pollution, sea creatures, STEM

A brown-skinned girl joins a whale in a magical tour of the ocean. Sadly, they discover hazardous plastic pollution; the girl vows to tell the world. Lush illustrations.