We read some amazing picture books this year! These seven are our absolute favorites, and if the kids in your life haven’t read them yet, they’d make excellent additions to their collection. If any of them sound like a good fit, you can click the link in the post to go to my Bookshop store for easy purchasing. I do make a small commission off each purchase, so thanks in advance!
If the kids in your life enjoy Dragons Love Tacos, they’re doing to love High Five! Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri collaborated again to bring us this bright and interactive book about a high five competition. Readers are guided by Sensei to prepare for and compete in the 5-round competition. My kids love that Sensei asks them to use their bodies to get ready, and that they actually get to high five the book and (spoiler alert) hold a trophy up at the end! This would be excellent for kids as young as 2 on up.
Lori Degnan and Victoria Tentler-Krylov’s Just Read celebrates the joy and adventure in reading. In sweet rhyming lines, kid readers share all the places and ways they like to read. We love the diversity of the people who make up the book, and the many ways readers are shown reading. Personally, the last page- the last image shown here- is a magical book fort full of readers and books and dappled light that I would like to live in!
Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers’ The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home will delight both adults and kids who read them. In The Day the Crayons Quit, Duncan’s crayons get fed up with his mistreatment of them- some used too much, some used too little, some left in undesirable locations- and they quit! They send Duncan letters to let him know they’ve quit (which we like to read in different voices) and he tries to incorporate all their requests into a beautiful picture for school. Then, in The Day the Crayons Came Home, some of Duncan’s crayons that have been misplaced or who have decided to seek adventure in the world, send him letters and post cards about their adventures, and some maybe asking for a bit of help to get back home. In the end, Duncan creates a Crayon Fort where each crayon’s unique needs can be met. These are too cute to be missed!
Happy In Our Skin by Fran Manushkin and illustrated by Lauren Tobia is perfect for kids at every age. It affirms all different kinds of skin on all different kids of people doing all different activities. The images are incredibly detailed, so my three year old loves to find different things items each time we read it. She also is starting to make meaning of the idea that the world is good because of our differences; we are lucky to live in a big city where we often see people who look and act differently than we do, and this book has given us ways to talk about people that honors their differences.
Is there a young girl in your life? She needs this book. Dear Girl by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Paris Rosenthal and illustrated by Holly Hatam is simultaneously gentle and fierce in its affirmation of the girl and all she can do, validating her questions and answers, the way she chooses to present herself to the world, and giving her a soft landing place when she needs support. I would read this every night to my kids if I could.
Chalk by Bill Thompson is definitely going to get the little gears in your kids’ minds working as they read. Though there are no words, the incredible images are clear- a group of friends finds some magical chalk that brings their drawings to life. It’s so fun until one friend draws a dinosaur who chases them hungrily around the playground! We followed reading this book with some chalk drawing ourselves, and though none came to life, my kids loved pretending that they did!
I’ll try not to gush, but Julián at the Wedding, like it’s predecessor, Julián is a Mermaid, may be perfect. Julián and his friend Marisol are in a wedding. When Marisol gets her dress dirty playing with the dog, Gloria, Julián uses his talents to create a new spectacular outfit for her. Their grown ups again choose to affirm the identities and choices of their kids (swoon). The final image of the wedding guests dancing is brilliant and bright and celebratory. I could not love it more.