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The 10 Best Picture Books of 2024…So Far
By Michael Giltz,
8 hours ago
Here are the 10 best picture books of 2024…so far. You need picture books in your life, whether you have kids or your relatives have kids or your friends have kids or a kid might be brought to your house sometime or you just want to fill the guest room with something a little more surprising than a tattered old paperback. Imagine the smile on the face of your sleep-over friends when they see some classic novels and a handful of picture books in their room–picture books they grew up with and some new ones they haven’t read. It’s as delightful a treat as a cup of hot cocoa and some homemade cookies before bedtime. Trust me.
I love picture books, one of the simplest seeming but most challenging genres out there. Everyone thinks they could whip up a great picture book. They appear so easy to do because when they’re well done they make it seem so easy, like Fred Astaire. (Or really, like Ginger Rogers dancing in heels. Backwards.) I can’t tell you how many times people tell me they have a great idea for a picture book. But ideas are easy to dream up. What’s hard is crafting a story with exactly the right words paired with exactly the right pictures in a way that you won’t mind reading them over and over and over again. Because kids are like that–they enjoy repetition. These picture books accomplish just that. So let’s get reading. At the head of the Parade are…
Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing already feels like a classic. It begins:
One day, Big Bear says to Little Bear, I’m just in the mood for fishing. Me too, says Little Bear. Just in the mood.
Its gentle rhythms and perfect pairing of text and illustrations–each of which stand easily on their own–is pitch perfect. Like all the books listed here, it will take years and dozens of rereads to really test a title and call it a classic. But sometimes you just know. Big Bear and Little Bear Go Fishing by Amy Hest; illustrated by Erin Stead ($18.99; Neal Porter Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
The First Week of School features an awesome, crayon-inspired look (the book title is also cleverly done), along with pages jam-packed with dialogue and incident. Quietly bold in style and execution, it breaks all the “rules” of a good picture book. And it’s one of the best of the year. The First Week of School by Drew Beckmeyer ($18.99; Atheneum Books for Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
The best picture books demonstrate words and pictures working in perfect harmony. But sometimes the sheer gorgeousness of the artwork will leave you spellbound. That’s the case with Everywhere Beauty Is Harlem, where writers Gary Golio and artist E.B. Lewis celebrate the work of photographer Roy DeCarava, who walked around Harlem in the 1940s and saw beauty everywhere he looked. From the stunning cover illustration of kids playing in a fire hydrant to images that show DeCarava at work and the people and places that caught his eye, all in a style that pays homage to DeCarava but makes its own mark as well. And once you’ve recovered from the beauty of it all, Gollio’s precise, elegant text will be waiting for you to savor it as well. Everywhere Beauty is Harlem by Gary Golio; illustrated by E.B. Lewis ($18.99; Calkins Creek) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
The NYRB imprint is a sure bet. If you see a novel reissued by NYRB, pick it up; it’s gonna be good. They do similar great work with NYRB Kids, rescuing forgotten classics that went out of print. The acclaimed Roger Duvoisin is a great example. He won a Caldecott Medal during his career (the top award for picture books) but too many of his books simply weren’t available. Not anymore, now you can easily find The House of Four Seasons and Donkey-Donkey alongside classics like Petunia and White Snow, Bright Snow. His Day and Night stands right alongside those gems. It’s the story of the friendship between an owl called Night and a poodle called Day, who fill each other on all the goings-on when they’re fast asleep. Yes, it’s as delightful as you’re already imagining. Day and Night by Roger Duvoisin ($18.99; NYRB Kids) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
Courtesy of Dial Books
5. I Am La Chiva! by Karol Hernández; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez
The bus–the chiva–is navigating the Andes mountains, picking up passengers and pigs and plants and fruit and vegetables along the way. Colorful and beautifully calibrated in text, I Am La Chiva! invites read-aloud fun and has such hummable words, you might even try to sing-aloud. A very promising debut for author Karol Hernández. I Am La Chiva! by Karol Hernández; illustrated by Lorena Alvarez Gómez ($18.99; Dial Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
Thomas Jefferson’s Battle for Science features marvelously detailed and inventive illustrations to tell a very atypical story for kids. It shows how the Founding Father used the scientific method (!) to refute a French scientist’s dismissive attitude towards the New World. Great fun.
A little girl finds her home too noisy, too loud, too… much ! So she builds a boat and sails off into the mouth of a whale. It’s quiet and peaceful and she can read and no one bothers her. Perfect! Until a boisterous little boy shows up and won’t stop talking and ruins everything! He does, however, really like the stories she tells. A whimsical, lovely tale. Or is that tail? I Lived Inside A Whale by Xin Li ($18.99; Little, Brown Books For Young Readers) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
I generally avoid picture books that seem educational and more like work than play. Charles and Ray had that vibe. Do kids really want a picture book about the designers and artist couple Charles and Ray Eames? They do when the result shows the husband and wife team in such colorful, Eames-like settings that you’re already falling hard for their designs before you even know what they do. Plus, a picture book focusing on a happily married couple who collaborate and are fulfilled by work is very, very rare. It’s subtitled Designers at Play and fulfills that promise with charm. Sure, I learned something, but I didn’t mind a bit. Charles and Ray: Designers at Play by James Yang ($18.99; Viking Books for Young Readers) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
In the delightfully retro Lighthouse and the Little Boat, a small boat new to the harbor is guided and advised by the lighthouse. “Stay close to me,” says the Lighthouse, though inevitably the little boat becomes bolder and edges farther and farther away. Ah, parenting. Lighthouse and the Little Boat by Katie Frawley; illustrated by Ben Mantle ($19.99; Quill Tree Books) Buy now on Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
Why is this picture book listed last? That’s Not Fair! In Shinsuke Yoshitake’s sweet story, a little girl wants to complain to her daddy about all the things that aren’t fair. Why does she always have to take a bath when he says? Why does she have to go to sleep when he stays up? His..inventive answers will amuse adults, even if a skeptical kid might respond with “is that really true?” Umm, how about a snack? That’s Not Fair by Shinsuke Yoshitake ($17.99; Chronicle Books) Buy now from Amazon , Barnes & Noble , Bookshop.org
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