I tend to like the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award winners and honor books.  These are the 2009 winners (for books published between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009):

Fiction and Poetry:  Nation by Terry Pratchett (HarperCollins).

Nonfiction:  A Scrapbook Look at Abraham and Mary by Candace Fleming (Schwartz and Wade/Random House).

Picture Book:  Bubble Trouble by Margaret Mahy (illustrated by Polly Dunbar; Clarion).  You can preview this one at Google books.  Do the cadences of Mahy's rhymes remind you of Charlotte Pomerantz's The Piggy in the Puddle (illustrated by James Marshall), too?  They're both great fun to read aloud.

You can also read more about this year's Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards and see the list of honor books here.