The 50 best children’s books of 2011

By Ann Packer In Books

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YOUNG ADULT FICTION Definitely the meatiest young adult novel of the year, Paul Griffin’s STAY WITH ME (Text, $26) successfully mixes first love – between a 15-year-old New York boy with a past and a bright spark of a girl from a dysfunctional family – with damaged pit bull terriers, which the boy has a gift for retraining. The ­writing, from the author of Ten Mile River, is raw and riveting. Mal Peet’s LIFE: AN EXPLODED DIAGRAM (Walker, $18.95), set at the time of the Cuban missile crisis, has an intense love story burning at its core, ...

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