The year in books:

[honeymonster]

First, here is just about everything I read this year (I skipped a couple rereads and I never list how-to books like bookbinding manuals): http://www.livejournal.com/~bookfrog/2004/

Here are the best first-time reads. There were a lot of great ones, but these are my favorites.
The Ignored, Bentley Little
The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, Ellen Raskin
Frindle, Andrew Clements
Fates Worse Than Death, Kurt Vonnegut
Love That Dog, Sharon Creech
Silent to the Bone, E.L. Konigsburg
Boy Meets Boy, David Levithan
God Went to Beauty School, Cynthia Rylant
At Home in the World, Joyce Maynard
Skeletons, Kate Wilhelm

Recommended authors I found this year:
Eva Ibbotson
Gordon Korman
Sharon Creech