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

Bear and the Wildcat, The

Kazumi Yumoto

Illustrator: Komako Sakai

Ages: 6+

Published: 2023

Publisher: Gecko Press/Lerner

ISBN: 978-1-8774-6770-7

Keywords: grieving, mourning, friendship, SEL

Bear struggles with grief after his best friend's death, until a music-playing cat leads him gently back into the world. Charcoal art complements the text.