31 Days, 31 Lists: Day 27 – 2016 Nonfiction Picture Books

It’s finally come!  The list is nearing its end.  So it is with great delight that I present to you some of the last of the lists.  Today’s is particularly long, celebrating what I consider to be some of the best books of 2016. Since so many of them have shown up on my other lists I’ll leave off the comments this time around except for those that haven’t appeared here before.

These are the nonfiction titles I was most impressed by in 2016:

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2016 Nonfiction Picture Books

Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer by Diane Stanley, ill. Jessie Hartland

Ada’s Ideas: The Story of Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer by Fiona Robinson

Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood, ill. Sally Wern Comport

Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics by Steve Jenkins

Anything But Ordinary: The True Story of Adelaide Herman, Queen of Magic by Mara Rockliff, ill. Iacopo Bruno

A Beetle Is Shy by Dianna Hutts Aston, ill. Sylvia Long

Circle by Jeanne Baker

Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois by Amy Novesky, ill. Isabelle Arsenault

The Deadliest Creature in the World by Brena Z. Guiberson, ill. Gennady Spirin

Death Is Stupid by Anastasia Higginbotham

Dining With Dinosaurs: A Tasty Guide to Mesozoic Munching by Hannah Bonner

Does a Fiddler Crab Fiddle? by Corinne Demas & Artemis Roehrig, ill. John Sandford

Dorothea’s Eyes by Barb Rosenstock, ill. Gerard DuBois

Elizabeth Started All the Trouble by Doreen Rappaport, ill. Matt Faulkner

Gabe: A Story of Me, My Dog, and the 1970s by Shelley Gill, ill. Marc Scheff

Grandmother Fish: A Child’s First Book of Evolution by Jonathan Tweet, ill. Karen Lewis

Growing Peace: A Story of Farming, Music, and Religious Harmony by Richard Sobol

If this hasn’t appeared on a list before it’s only because I’ve never found a place to slot it.  Though it has elements of biography to it, it’s mostly about sustainable farming, overcoming religious differences, and working together.  And since I never made a peace and global studies list (next year?) it shall go here instead.

How Cities Work by James Gulliver Hancock

Very keen.  It’s a good book to use if you want to describe to a kid how cities form, what they contain, their problems, their solutions, and their future.  Lots of lift-the-flap elements as well.

One note – if you’re buying this book for your system through Baker & Taylor, they’ll have a warning note attached saying that there are small parts and that it’s not appropriate for children under the age of three.  They sometimes will put this warning on books with small lift-the-flap flaps.  I personally think the book is safe, but you may be strict in your policies.  FYI.

How Much Does a Ladybug Weigh? by Alison Limentani

I Am NOT a Dinosaur! by Will Lach, ill. Jonny Lambert

I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark by Debbie Levy, ill. Elizabeth Baddeley

The Kid from Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton by Audrey Vernick, ill. Steven Salerno

Lift Your Light a Little Higher: The Story of Stephen Bishop: Slave-Explorer by Heather Henson, ill. Bryan Collier

Martin Luther “Here I Stand” by Geraldine Elschner, translated by Kathryn Bishop

The Marvelous Thing That Came from a Spring: The Accidental Invention of the Toy That Swept the Nation by Gilbert Ford

Since the book is focused far more on the invention than the inventor, I couldn’t really put it on the biographical list.  So for all that it’s fun and funny and interesting and beautiful (really beautiful) I’ve had to wait until now to put it on any lists.  That said, it was worth the wait.

Miracle Man: The Story of Jesus by John Hendrix

My Book of Birds by Geraldo Valerio

Natumi Takes the Lead: The True Story of an Orphan Elephant Who Finds Family by Gerry Ellis with Amy Novesky

The Navajo Code Talkers by J. Patrick Lewis, ill. Gary Kelley

Olinguito, from A to Z! / Olinguito, de la A a la Z! by Lulu Delacre

Otters Love to Play by Jonathan London, ill. Meilo So

Pink Is for Blobfish: Discovering the World’s Perfectly Pink Animals by Jess Keating, ill. David DeGrand

A Poem for Peter: The Story of Ezra Jack Keats and the Creation of The Snowy Day by Andrea Davis Pinkney, ill. Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson

The Polar Bear by Jenni Desmond

Prairie Dog Song by Susan L. Roth and Cindy Trumbore

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe

The Secret Subway by Shana Corey, ill. Red Nose Studio

She Stood for Freedom: The Untold Story of a Civil Rights Hero, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland by Loki Mulholland & Angela Fairwell, ill. Charlotta Janssen

A Spy Called James: The True Story of James Lafayette, Revolutionary War Double Agent by Anne Rockwell, ill. Floyd Cooper

Step Right Up: How Doc and Jim Key Taught the World About Kindness by Donna Janell Bowman, ill. Daniel Minter

Ticktock Banneker’s Clock by Shana Keller, ill. David C. Gardner

The Toad by Elise Gravel

The Tudors: Kings, Queens, Scribes, and Ferrets! by Marcia Williams

Under Earth / Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski

When Grandma Gatewood Took a Hike by Michelle Houts, ill. Erica Magnus

Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton, ill. Don Tate

Whose Eye Am I? by Shelley Rotner

The Wildest Race Ever: The Story of the 1904 Olympic Marathon by Meghan McCarthy

The William Hoy Story by Nancy Churnin, ill. Jez Tuya

You Never Heard of Casey Stengel?! by Jonah Winter, ill. Barry Blitt

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Interested in the other lists of the month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

Filed under: Best Books, Best Books of 2016