99 Picture Books to Study

Over at Playing by the Books, the UK blogger (bilingual Dutch/English), is talking about picture books. The UK Secretary for Education, Michael Gove has suggested that kids read at least 50 books a year.

Playing by the Books took up the challenge:

I approached six brilliant UK-based illustrators and asked them to contribute towards a list of books every child should be read. Tim Hopgood, James Mayhew, Jan Pieńkowski, Katie Cleminson, Viviane Schwarz and Clara Vulliamy all very gamely accepted my challenge of producing a list of 10 or so books each that they love.

The result is this post:
50+ picture books every child should be read – a non-prescriptive list for inspiration

In a follow-up, though, Playing by the Books realized that many of the books on the list were classics. She wondered what a list might look like if the titles were restricted to the last five years.

To help me in this quest I turned to this year’s winners of the Booktrust New Best Illustrators Award. These illustrators “represent the best rising talent in the field of illustration today, [they] demonstrate remarkable creative flair, artistic skill and boundless imagination in their work“, so who better to ask for some suggestions as to the best, fresh picture books?

Here’s the list of 49 recent, recommended books:
49 brilliant picture books from the past 5 years as chosen by award winning illustrators

Yes, these are UK books, but what a visual feast both these lists are. The short descriptions are instructive, too, in how to pitch a picture book.

What books, published in the last five years in the US, would YOU recommend?

One thought on “99

  1. Darcy,
    I was asking how to format text. Mem Fox has a site and says to do this way:

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    She writes a complete line with a period and then skips two spaces and writes the next line with a period. It looks like the example above. Some of her double-spaced lines have more than one line with a period.

    Bassically, I’m asking is it: (She does not write it all out in one long parag, either)
    _________
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    __________
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    or

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    ____________. etc

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