St. Louis artist John Hendrix’s book on John Brown has been picked as one of the best children’s books of 2009.

Publishers Weekly magazine, which this week released its roundup of the 100 best books of the year and the 30 best children’s books, included “John Brown: His Fight for Freedom” in its list of 12 picture books.

It says, “Hendrix’s powerful, exaggerated imagery in this picture book biography is ideally suited to the life of this controversial American abolitionist.”

Click on the link in the first sentence to see a September post about Hendrix, who is a professor at Washington University. 

Meanwhile, in the list of 100 books is this religion sleeper by Columbia, Mo., poet and professor Scott Cairns: “The End of Suffering,” published by Paraclete, tackles the question of why God permits suffering and is called “a meditative fresh breath of a response, the beauty of which, like the great biblical reflections, provides sympathy and a tiny bit of relief.”

Cairns, professor of English at the University of Missouri, counts six books of poetry and a spiritual memoir among his work. He is director of the university’s creative writing program.