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This week is Children's Book Week, so encourage your children to read a good book, or pick one up yourself. Here are a few recommendations, all winners of the 2006 Newbery Medal or Honor awards.

Criss Cross

Lynne Rae Perkins

Greenwillow Books, $16.99

An innovatively written novel about a girl, Debbie, who wishes something good would happen to her, Criss Cross, the 2006 Newbery Medal winner, meanders through a spring and summer in the lives of four teenagers.

Perkins experiments with different writing styles such as poems, scripted dialogue, haikus and side-by-side narratives as she explores the mental workings of 14- and 15-year-olds who are at a crossroads in their lives between childhood and adulthood. Her portrayal of their insecurities and angst as they explore the meanings of friendship and love is dead-on and, more likely than not, will make you remember those hours you spent angsting over a crush or over your own appearance.

This novel is not plot-driven, and can seem a bit wandering, but Perkins' creativity and insight is sufficient to hold the reader's attention. Through her characters' eyes, she shows new, original ways of looking at the world around you. Debbie and one of her friends, Hector, have not yet lost their childish imagination. They are still capable of fancying that a pile of dirt with pipes sprouting out of it is a giant tarantula, and a litter-filled ditch is a gently meandering stream worthy of being a site for a date.

Criss Cross is a book that will encourage children's imaginations and help adults rediscover their inner child. After you read this book, you'll look at ordinary, everyday things differently.

Reading level: 11 years and older

Whittington

Alan Armstrong

Random House, $14.95

Whittington, a Newbery Honor book, is a charming tale of a cat named Whittington, who appears one day at a barn, asking the resident animals for a home. Although outwardly beaten-up and scraggly, Whittington proves to be more than he appears.

Claiming descent from three-time Mayor of London Dick Whittington's cat, Whittington spends three seasons telling the tale of his namesake's rise from poverty to wealth and fame. At the same time, he helps a young boy overcome his dyslexia and learn to read.

At times overly descriptive to the point of leaving no room for the imagination, Whittington is a good book to read aloud to a young child, particularly one who struggles with reading. It is also ideal for the inquisitive child, offering opportunities to branch out and research topics such as the Black Plague, medieval history, London and farm animals.

Reading level: 6 years and older

Princess Academy

Shannon Hale

Bloomsbury Children's Books

$16.95

In a far-away land called Asland, priests prophesy that the prince's next bride will come from Mount Eskel, a small, rustic mining town. As a result, an academy is established and all teenage girls from the town are required to attend and learn how to be princesses.

One of the girls, Miri, is small for her age and feels useless because she cannot work in the mines. But during her year at the academy, she learns that she has talents she can use for the good of her people. When the academy is threatened, Miri uses her talents to save the other girls and correct stereotypes about her "backwards" hometown by the lowland residents of Asland.

Princess Academy, a Newbery Honor book, is about growing up, while at the same time staying true to yourself. It is also about finding the strength to overcome prejudices and unify different peoples.

An entrancing book that is a twist on the archetypical fairy tale, Princess Academy will appeal to children and adults who enjoy a good fantasy story filled with magic. If you liked Harry Potter, pick up this book.

Reading level: 9 years and older

Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow

Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Scholastic Nonfiction

$19.95

In this straightforward, well-researched Newbery Honor book, Bartoletti traces the stories of more than a dozen children and teenagers in 1920s and 1930s Germany who were either devoted members of the Hitler Youth or became disillusioned and risked their lives to oppose the Nazi Party. Aided by photographs and first-hand accounts, Bartoletti makes each story deeply personal and each adolescent vividly real, unapologetically sparing nothing in her descriptions of self-sacrifice and death. Children as young as 10 die on the front lines of battle for Hitler. Others are executed for distributing leaflets criticizing the party and its leader.

In 1932, six years after founding the Hitler Youth to support his political aims, Adolf Hitler asked, "What can happen to a people whose youth sacrifices everything in order to serve its great ideals?"

Seventy years later, Susan Campbell Bartoletti explores the real answers to Hitler's question as she traces the rise and fall of the Third Reich and its consequences for the German people.

Hitler Youth is not an easy book to read, although it is not graphic. It raises an important question that readers must answer at some point in their lives: Which is more important, blind loyalty to the state or defending one's morals and freedom to choose?

Parents should read this before their children do so they are prepared for questions and discussions that may result. I would not recommend giving this book to a younger child if you do not plan to discuss it with them afterward.

Reading level: 7th grade and older