It’s the Final Countdown (of Picture Books 2010-19)

Some of you may recall that a number of years ago I was inspired to produce a Top 100 Picture Book poll. The rules were simple. People would send me their top 10 picture books, ranked, and I would ascribe a point system to their answers. People responded in droves and the end results were produced here and, later, here for children’s novels.

Nice enough, but if you look at these lists I think you’ll instantly see the problem. Famous were the books, yes. Particularly diverse? Not so much. Mr. Wilson has a better idea.

I am lucky enough to have Brian Wilson as a co-worker. Aside from serving on an infinite number of ALA committees (he’s even done the Budget Committee!) Brian is an expert in the field of children’s literature. And recently he had a notion: What if he asked people to rank not their top ten picture books of all time, but their ten favorite picture books of the last decade? That’s right. Just the books published between the years of 2010-19.

The results have been tabulated and now they are in.

• Monday he revealed #30-#21

• Tuesday #20-#11, and

• Wednesday #10-#6

• Thursday #5-2

People sometimes ask me why I don’t redo the old picture book poll, and honestly it has a lot to do with my fear about what people choose. From looking at Brian’s lists, I now can see that when you limit the timeframe, you can actually get a very smart list of titles from all kinds of voices.

But what will be #1? Guess you’ll have to traipse on over to his blog to find out . . .

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