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/.

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Anzu and the Realm of Darkness

Mai K. Nguyen

Illustrator: Mai K. Nguyen, colors by Diana Tsai Santos

Ages: 9+

Published: 2024

Publisher: Viking/Penguin Random House

ISBN: 978-0-593-52528-9

Keywords: Folklore/Fairy Tales-Shinto, Buddhism, Yomi, Obon, ancestor worship, rituals, culture, self-esteem, peers, bullying, family, grandmothers, grief, granddaughters

A Japanese American girl, facing racist taunts at school, finds herself whisked to the Shinto underworld, where she is called on to rescue spirits of the departed from limbo. Energetic illustrations.