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November 30, 2020 by Betsy Bird

31 Days, 31 Lists Returns!

November 30, 2020 by Betsy Bird   4 comments

I am pleased to announce that in spite of COVID-19 doing its best to remove the memory of physical galleys and ARCs from our collective consciousness, I was able to work on these lists all the year. I definitely missed things. We all did! How could we not? But thanks to the efforts of my library’s 101 Great Books for Kids committee, I have a pretty good sense of the year. I’ve seen beautifully written, horribly depressing middle grade novels galore (more than usual, I think). The physical abuse of girls? Everywhere! Picture books, on the other hand, couldn’t be sunnier, though many tackled serious issues with aplomb. I don’t envy the Newbery/Caldecott/ALA YMA committees this year one smackerel. However, I bet they’ll all do a stand up and cheer job.

Starting tomorrow, here are the lists I’ll be releasing. All 2020 titles. All good as gold.

Want to see other lists? Stay tuned for the rest this month!

December 1 – Great Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Reprints & Adaptations

December 3 – Transcendent Holiday Picture Books

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Funny Picture Books

December 7 – CaldeNotts

December 8 – Picture Book Reprints

December 9 – Math Books for Kids

December 10 – Bilingual Books

December 11 – Books with a Message

December 12 – Fabulous Photography

December 13 – Translated Picture Books

December 14 – Fairy Tales / Folktales / Religious Tales

December 15 – Wordless Picture Books

December 16 – Poetry Books

December 17 – Unconventional Children’s Books

December 18 – Easy Books & Early Chapter Books

December 19 – Comics & Graphic Novels

December 20 – Older Funny Books

December 21 – Science Fiction Books

December 22 – Fantasy Books

December 23 – Informational Fiction

December 24 – American History

December 25 – Science & Nature Books

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

December 29 – Best Audiobooks for Kids

December 30 – Middle Grade Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

Enjoy!

Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books of 2020

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

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About Betsy Bird

Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Emily Schneider says

    November 30, 2020 at 7:00 am

    Betsy, I’m looking forward to your lists. Some of the recently released ones have been quite disappointing. I also appreciate your humorous observation about the number of depressing middle-grade books, and the notable number of books focused on the physical abuse of girls. We would never want to return to the old days when a book on that topic would have been anathema. But I’m glad that someone has pointed out how prevalent they have now become, suggesting that we might want to think about why. Thanks.

  2. Judy Weymouth says

    November 30, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    This time last year I was just beginning to deal with the sudden death of my husband of 58 years. Needless to say, my mind and heart were unable to appreciate 31 Days 31 Lists in quite the same way as I had for all the previous years you have done this. Betsy, you make the entire month of December a much-loved gift for me. THANK YOU for continuing this in 2020. The COVID nightmare and disappointing results of Senate races plus mourning the loss of my husband has made 2020 the most difficult year of my life. I’ll appreciate your 2020 lists even more considering you prevailed in a time where all of us have lost so much.

    • Elizabeth Bird says

      November 30, 2020 at 9:52 pm

      Judy, I’m sorry to hear about your husband. Thank you for your kind words. I hope these give you a bit of cheer. 2020 may have been lousy for the world, but it produced some truly wonderful children’s books. Let’s send off 2020 with a bang! And I really appreciate your reading them.

      • Judy Weymouth says

        December 3, 2020 at 12:20 pm

        How kind of you to take time to respond.

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