31 Days, 31 Lists Returns!
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
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 Kirkus, 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 BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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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.
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.
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.
How kind of you to take time to respond.