MORE 'BEST-BOOKS-OF-2016' POSTS
When I was in college I temporarily rejected my natural inclinations to be a librarian (an occupation I dismissed as boring and nightmarishly appealing) and decided I would become a photographer. So got a B.A. with a concentration in Fine Arts – Photography. And what I learned from my stint as an architectural/portrait/sports photographer was […]
Hm. Awkward title on today’s post. “Books With a Message”. Be a lot cleaner if I just said “Didactic Books” or “Books That Try to Teach You Something.” No . . . no . . . that’s worse. I think you get the general gist of what I’m going for, though. Today we’re highlighting books […]
I know it gets confusing but this list is a bit different from the Calde-not list from a couple days ago. The reason is simple. While the Calde-not list looks primarily at books with illustrations so distinguished they could easily win major illustration awards if given half a chance, this is list is more for […]
I wish I had the numbers in front of me. I wish I could tell you how many bilingual books for kids have been published in the past and how that number compares to today. If we’re going to speak to my experience as a children’s librarian over the past decade, all I can say […]
God has a sense of humor. How else to explain the fact that for the past three or four years I have been a founding and contributing member of the Mathical Book Award committee? Yep, each year I read a slew of math-related books for kids. I do it because while I personally was not […]
Sometimes I talk about how books with illustrators from countries other than America get a bum rap because there are so few awards that they can win. And this isn’t untrue, but there are a couple lists that give them their due. There’s the New York Times Best Illustrated list, and the Society of Illustrators […]
A list based entirely on what a book is not? And what precisely is a Calde-not? Well, we’re getting into semantics and rules today, so buckle up. First and foremost, I direct your attention to the illustrious Caldecott Award. The most famous award given to the most distinguished examples of American illustration for children. Note […]
Every single list that appears on this blog is subjective. I mean, here I am declaring stuff to be great based entirely on a single solitary opinion: my own. That’s okay when you’re talking alphabet books or readalouds, but humor is a far trickier matter. There are a LOT of humorous picture books that come […]
“In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all.” That catchy little ditty was from one of the earlier abecedarian picture books for children in America (the 1784 edition of The New England Primer, in case you’re curious). Practically from our nation’s inception, alphabet books were a go-to resource for teaching children to read. Every year more and […]
If potential authors of picture books are given one piece of advice when they’re first starting out, it tends to be, “For the love of all that’s good and holy DO NOT let your picture books rhyme!!!” And for good reason. Few things in life are quite as painful as poorly rhymed picture books. Too […]