31 Days, 31 Lists: 2024 Picture Book Reprints
The title of today’s post is a bit of a misnomer, as there is at least one reprinted novel for kids on today’s list as well. Consider today’s list a bit of a low-key companion to the ones we’ve seen before. Picture book reprints are always risks. There’s no built in market for them. They cannot win literary awards anymore. Their existence, however, is proof of love. Someone, somewhere, remembered these books. Not only did they remember them, they adored them. They fought tooth and nail to bring them back in print. Sometimes more than once!
Today we are highlighting those rare titles that get a second chance at life. Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one and precious picture book reprint?
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Here is a pdf of today’s list, if you’d like one.
Care to see the previous years’ lists? Then check these out:
2024 Picture Book (and Some Novel) Reprints
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, ill. Tove Jansson
It seems to me that if a version of Alice exists out there that was illustrated by the creator of the Moomins, shouldn’t that be a big deal? I’m consistently amazed that contemporary illustrators are not engaged in illustrating Alice more these days. Where is the Erin E. Stead Alice? Where is the Jon Klassen Alice? And can you honestly explain to me why we never saw a Jerry Pinkney Alice when we had the chance? Our Alice possibilities should be flourishing right now and we’ve got nothing. Three words friends: Charly Palmer Alice. Oh. It would work. Until I get my Proper Alicing, however, I will be satisfied with knowing that Jansson had a version of her own. One will certainly find the influence of Tenniel in some of this art (it’s unavoidable) but she had her own spin. Rarely has the Cheshire Cat looked quite so inadvertantly alarming. This book was originally published in Finland, of course, and the publisher said that the style of this was “reminiscent of Studio Ghibli or Edward Gorey”. It may also contain the best March Hare I’ve seen in a book of this sort in years. If you’re an Alice fan at all, this is the one you need to locate and hold tight.
The Backward Day by Ruth Krauss, ill. Marc Simon
You know you’ve been in this business too long when the picture book reprints you see are reprints of reprints. Back in 2007 The New York Review of Books put out a new edition of this Ruth Krauss classic. Now out-of-print they’re at it again! This new edition matches the art of the book with a green spine that replicates the exact shade of green worn by our boy hero. Inside the book, Marc Simont manages to both typify the 1950s on the page (the book was originally released in 1950) while upsetting expectations with Krauss’s wonky text. The whole premise is that one day a boy decides to have a backwards day. That sounds pretty straightforward until you realize the lengths to which he is willing to go. The whole buttoned up family then totally gets into the swing of things, which makes this the ultimate child fantasy. Still fresh. Still fun. Still weird.
Day and Night by Roger Duvoisin
To all picture book author/illustrators out there I give you a blessing. May your works be followed and loved as long after your deaths as Roger Duvoisin’s have been so far. The man died in 1980 but here we are still putting out his books, and for good reason too. Day and Night holds up after all these years (it was originally published in 1960) and I dare say that were it to come out originally today, no one would blink an eye. In this story a dog and an owl share a rather special friendship. The catch? The dog’s only awake during the day and the owl at night. They solve this problem by communicating at dusk onward, which has the unfortunate effect of keeping the family awake with the dog’s howling (it’s just conversing, but they don’t know that). It’s the kid in the family (going by the marvelous name, that probably has dated, of “Little Bob Pennyfeathers”) who figures out the solution to everyone’s problems. Fabulous art, which alternates between black and while and color, and a sweet friendship tale.
Garmann’s Summer by Stian Hole, ill. Don Bartlett
You know you’ve been in the business a day or two when a book you reviewed when it was first released 16 years ago comes back as a republished title. I actually had this thought when I opened up my mail and saw this book of, “Ah. Looks like the hardcover just went to paperback.” As if a decade and a half means nothing. As the publisher is quick to point out, this little Norwegian darling won a Batchelder Honor when it first came out, as well as an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award (not easy for an author who doesn’t live in the States!), and the BolognaRagazzi Award. And it’s weird. No doubt about it, it’s weird. Weird and wonderful. It doesn’t look like any other book on your shelf, and it definitely doesn’t read like an American first day of school book, no sir. Why? Because nothing is really resolved by the end. I mean, the last sentence in the book is, “And Garmann is scared.” American picture books bend over backwards to reassure. Norwegian ones acknowledge the fright and don’t attempt to correct it. That, combined with the art (which, again, doesn’t look American) can be a bit of a turnoff for parents, but I just love the darn thing. This is best described as a book for a certain kind of reader. I don’t know if you know any kids that, even from a young age, want adults to be square with them. For those kids, this book will speak truths that they’d like to hear. If you missed it the first time around, check it out today!
Is This a House for Hermit Crab? by Megan McDonald, ill. Katherine Tillotson
I’m placing this book firmly in the “Picture Book Reprint” category even though it’s sporting all new art by the illustrious Katherine Tillotson. McDonald’s sort of having a banner year, between the release of this book and her new early chapter book series Bunny and Clyde (look for it on my Early Chapter Book list soon). This book was originally released in 1990 with art from S.D. Schindler. I would love to know the story behind how it moved from Orchard Books to the guiding hand of Neal Porter at Holiday House instead. Tillotson imbues the story with beautiful colors all the way throughout. So much so that I can’t help but believe that the book would pair very nicely with my other favorite hermit crab title, A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. There’s a little Note from the Author at the end where McDonald explains how this was her “very first picture book”. Sort of puts to shame those of us who wrote far less impressive first picture books in our own lives. A marvelous reintroduction to a story that never really gets old.
Little Red Riding Hood and Other Stories by Lucy Cousins
Years ago when my children were small we had this giant compendium of five or six Lucy Cousins fairy tales called Yummy. Now Candlewick has cut that down to a mere three (Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Little Pigs, and The Enormous Turnip). I’ve always adored her take on these stories, since there’s something so fantastic about seeing a style usually equated with the Maisy books and watching a pig boil a wolf alive in a pot with it. This is for those parents unafraid to instill a little good old-fashioned Grimm in their Grimm Brothers for small children. Folks get eaten but everything turns out all right in the end, just way it should be (by gum).
The Man Who Lost His Head by Claire Huchet Bishop, ill. Robert McCloskey
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As with The Backward Day, this is a book that was originally reprinted by NYRB Kids a number of years ago (2009, to be precise) and has now been re-reprinted in 2024. For good reason too. The book has a wondrous, wacky, and downright weird take that one does not always associated with picture books circa 1942. It was also kind of a meeting of the minds with a multi-Caldecott winner and a multi-Newbery winner coming together to make a book that is, quite frankly, unpredictable. The premise sounds like something Dr. Seuss might have come up with. One day a man wakes up to find his head missing. His sets out to find it using a variety of other things as heads, all to no avail. It does have the standard it-was-all-a-dream ending, which ain’t great but it’s a small price to pay for what is otherwise a really fun and odd book.
Open Me… I’m a Dog! by Art Spiegelman
There was always something mildly unnerving (in a good way) about this Spiegelman picture book. Originally published in 1997, the book always struck me as a fairly effective diversion on the part of adults for those offspring determined to have a dog for their birthday/gift-giving holidays. In its latest iteration it comes with its own bookmark/leash, and has all kinds of pop-up elements and tactile moments. The endpapers alone, all plushy and soft, will easily have a kid petting them for hours. The premise of the book is that a perfectly nice dog was transformed into a variety of things, ending at last as the book you now hold in your hands. The dog seems to be pretty good-natured about its current state, just so long as you treat it like a dog and take it with you. One could easily imagine a kid taking it for a “walk” with its built-in leash and all. A charmer through and through, it’s lovely to see it back, particularly in its current 7.25” x 5.25” state.
A Rose, a Bridge, and a Wild Black Horse by Charlotte Zolotow, ill. Julie Morstad, afterword by Crescent Dragonwagon
Rarely have I encountered a reinterpretation of an old publication quite as lovely, or thought out, as this. In the original 1964 publication of this bppk, a boy tells his younger sister all the marvelous things he’d do for her. In the new 2024 republication, orchestrated by original author Charlotte Zolotow’s daughter Crescent Dragonwagon, the focus switches to that of a daughter telling her mother what she’d do for her instead. It’s a subtle shift in focus but it makes all the difference. To hear a boy talking about the rocks he’d break, the enemies he’d fight, or the fast cars he’d drive, it’s fine but derivative. We’ve seen it all before. But to hear a girl saying she’d do those same things for her mom? Remarkable! Original! Beautifully conceived. Julie Morstad (an artist I fell in love with long ago when first I saw her board book edition of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Swing) gives her dark-eyed heroines an interesting, almost French, disconnect at times. There are moments when the mother smiles and there are moments when the expressions on the characters are almost dour. Even so, the overall sense you gain from the book is one of this incredible love a child can have for their parent. I was incredibly grateful for the child’s last give. “I’ll leave you a friend to keep you company, while I explore the world.” It’s that promise that the child will someday go off to lead their own life that makes the whole book feel whole. An extensive Afterword by Dragonwagon about the book and its history is nice, but in many ways unnecessary. This new reinterpretation speaks entirely for itself.
Tell Me a Mitzi by Lore Segal, ill. Harriet Pincus
When author Lore Segal died in October of this year, I couldn’t help but think how clever New York Review of Books was to have already publishing this picture book of hers. Ho ho! My sister and I feature this book on our podcast in 2019 and now it just happens to see a new publication in 2024. Coincidence? Yes, actually. That is literally a coincidence. After all, this book is hugely beloved out there. It’s not every picture book whose republication is promoted with a blurb from Ottessa Moshfegh (My Year of Rest and Relaxation) after all. As I mentioned on my podcast episode at the time, back in 1970 when this book came out, everyday contemporary stories about Jewish kids that weren’t strictly holiday based were rarities. Just kidding. TODAY everyday contemporary stories about Jewish kids that aren’t strictly holiday based are STILL rarities. Into that gap fell this story of siblings. To prep for it, I recommend that you seek out the Marjorie Ingall article called Lore Segal’s Warm and Weird ‘Tell Me a Mitzi’. That should tell you absolutely everything you need to know about it.
So with all that in mind, here are the other lists for 2024:
December 1 – Great Board Books
December 2 – Picture Book Readalouds
December 3 – Simple Picture Book Texts
December 4 – Transcendent Holiday Picture Books
December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books
December 6 – Funny Picture Books
December 7 – CaldeNotts
December 8 – Picture Book Reprints
December 9 – Bilingual Books for Kids
December 10 – Math Books for Kids
December 11 – Books with a Message / Social Emotional Learning
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 – Gross Books
December 25 – Science & Nature Books
December 26 – Unique Biographies
December 27 – Blueberry Award Contenders (Celebrating the Environment)
December 28 – Nonfiction Picture Books
December 29 – Nonfiction Books for Older Readers
December 30 – Middle Grade Novels
December 31 – Picture Books
Filed under: 31 Days 31 Lists, Best Books, Best Books of 2024
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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I am so delighted you are pleased with this new incarnation of Charlotte’s A ROSE, A BRIDGE AND A WILD BLACK HORSE. Much credit on the changed POV and protagonist goes to brilliant Amy Novesky, my then-editor at Cameron. She came up with the mother-to-daughter idea; we had tried several including friend-to-friend. I think she was exactly right. I love Julie’s art, too!