This year was another outstanding one for picture books. Once again, narrowing down this list to just ten was an almost insurmountable task. I encourage you to take a trip to your local independent bookstore and spend some time paging through picture books. You won’t be disappointed. The topics covered in picture books this past year are timely, relevant, and helpful for children (young and old) as they start to grasp the complexities of this world. Picture books have become so relevant that if you are a middle or high school teacher, I challenge you to find a picture book or two that would tie into your lessons and read them to your students. You might be surprised by how much your students will enjoy listening and by the conversations and learning that will take place. Not sure how to find that perfect picture book? Go to the children’s section of your public library and talk to a librarian. They’d love to help!

Off & Away by Cale Atkinson

Jo’s dad runs a message-in-a-bottle delivery service out at sea. He makes sure bottles are delivered to the right homes and then returns to tell Jo of his adventures. Jo longs to be a brave adventurer like her dad, but her fear of what lurks below the surface of the water gets the best of her. One day Jo’s dad comes down with a “severe sea cold” and bottles begin to stack up. Jo decides that something has to be done. The bottles must be delivered, and Jo is the only one who can do it. Jo faces her fear as she sets sail. She encounters several monsters that just turn out to be figments of her imagination. Jo discovers that she can overcome her fears and that the world isn’t as scary as she thought. Cale Atkinson has created a book that helps children see that the world isn’t so scary and that they can overcome their fears.

What If . . . by Samantha Berger

What If . . .  is a celebration of creativity. The little girl in the book is determined to be creative, no matter what. If her pencil disappears, she will fold up the paper. If there is no paper, she will carve and chisel the chair. What if there is no chair? Not a problem, she’ll simply peel the wallpaper. Students will pick up the pattern by asking, “What if there is no floor? What if there are no leaves? What if there is no land? What if . . . ?” The illustrations themselves are celebrations of creativity. Through the use of collage, the idea that we can use anything to be creative is clearly portrayed. This would be a great book to use with STEM projects or even to kick off a STEM week.

Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell

When I first read Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse, I thought of the quote by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer, “When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.”  That quote became popular when Wonder by R. J. Palacio was published in 2012, and this book would be a perfect pairing to help students understand that quote. Adrian Simcox sits by himself in the cafeteria each day but tells anyone who is willing to listen that he has a horse. Adrian tells people that his horse is beautiful, but Chloe simply doesn’t believe it. One day at recess, Adrian is telling some younger students about his horse when Chloe yells out, “He’s lying! Adrian Simcox does NOT have a horse!” Adrian is crushed, but Chloe is convinced she did the right thing. When Chloe tells her mom about Adrian, her mom decides to take Chloe for a walk where they happen to end up at Adrian’s house. Adrian’s house is small, in a rough part of town, and there is clearly no room for a horse in the backyard. Chloe ends up talking with Adrian and suddenly discovers that “he had the most beautiful horse of anyone, anywhere.” The illustrations, by Corinna Luyken, are stunning. Horses are hidden the background throughout the book and students love trying to find them. Does Adrian Simcox have a horse? Does it matter if he actually has a horse? “When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.”

Mixed: A Colorful Story by Arree Chung

Reds, Yellows, and Blues live in relative peace and harmony until the day the Reds declare that they are the best! The Yellows and Blues disagree that the Reds are the best which leads to the colors all living in separate parts of the city. Walls are built and fences are put up in order to keep the colors apart. One day, however, a Yellow and a Blue meet, fall in love, and mix, much to the dismay of the rest of the colors. Together, Yellow and Blue have a daughter named Green. The rest of the town is suddenly fascinated by this new color, and they start to see new potentials. The town starts to mix and mix and mix. Walls come down and the new city is vibrant and full of color. Everything isn’t perfect; nothing ever is, but it is home. This book has so many uses. It would be a great back-to-school book to talk about how we need to work together to build community. It would be a perfect book to celebrate the diversity God has placed in this world. Mixed is very simply an important book that should absolutely be in your classroom.

We Don’t Eat Our Classmates by Ryan T. Higgins

Penelope Rex is very nervous because today is her first day of school. She has so many questions about her classmates, such as, “How many teeth will they have?” Penelope is shocked to find out that all of her classmates are . . . children! So, Penelope eats them! Mrs. Noodleman, her teacher, demands that Penelope spit them out immediately. So, she does. Penelope clearly has a difficult time making friends after this and leaves that first day feeling lonely. Penelope’s dad reminds her that it is difficult to make friends if she eats them and that children are the same as her on the inside, but they are just more delicious. Will Penelope figure out how to stop eating her classmates? Will Penelope make friends? You will have to read the book to find out. We Don’t Eat Our Classmates is a hilarious book for the first day of school. Students across grade levels can understand the humor and the message of the book. This would be a great book to use as you start to discuss classroom expectations and how students should treat one another.

Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang

Jim Panzee is not in a good mood, and his friends don’t understand why. Everyone keeps asking Jim why he is grumpy, but Jim insists that he isn’t grumpy. Jim’s friends encourage him to try smiling, singing, swinging, strolling, or stomping his feet to cheer up. Jim, however, is simply having a bad day, and there is no explanation for it. In the end, Jim admits, “I’ll probably feel better soon enough, too. For now, I need to be grumpy.” Grumpy Monkey is a hilarious book that reminds us all that it is OK to have grumpy days without a reason. This book is fun to read aloud and leads to great discussions about how to treat people who are having bad days.

Drawn Together by Minh Lê

What happens when a grandfather and grandson speak different languages and appear to have nothing in common? Minh Lê and Dan Santat explore the idea of how creativity can connect us in this exquisitely illustrated picture book. Told mostly through pictures, this story shows how a grandfather and grandson connect through a common love of sketching. Words are not important when there is a common ground that can draw them together. Drawn Together would be a great book to use to discuss cultural or age differences and how to overcome them. Drawn Together would also be a great book to use to practice gathering information from illustrations because understanding the story mostly comes from reading the pictures.

Dreamers by Yuyi Morales

Picture books that do an excellent job of telling complicated stories through both words and pictures are not always easy to find. Dreamers tells a complex story in a way that even young readers can understand. Yuyi Morales immigrated to the United States with her son in 1994. Dreamers is her story of being in a land very different from her home in Mexico. Dreamers shares the struggle of not being able to understand the language or the culture of a new place. It also shares the wonder and learning that takes place through libraries and books. “Books became our language. Books became our home. Books became our lives. We learned to read, to speak, to write, and to make our voices heard.” Dreamers would be a great book to use for many different topics in your classroom: the power of books, immigration issues, what perseverance looks like, or simply the idea of hope. Dreamers has the potential to spark beautiful discussions in your classrooms or homes.

Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Sadly, whenever a book or movie tells the story of a child and a dog growing up together, you know what the ending is going to be. So, when my students spotted the paw print on the cover of Blue, a couple of them actually said, “Oh no! Is the dog going to die?” Spoiler alert: yes. Blue is a simple story told with only two words on each page, but the bigger story of a boy and his dog, Blue, will tug at your heartstrings. The boy and his dog journey together through different shades of blue: baby blue, berry blue, ocean blue, midnight blue, etc. The illustrations were done with acrylic paint on canvas, but the magic of the book are the die-cuts. There are some die-cut books (books with cutouts on the page) that are well done, and then there are the die-cut books that take this art to a whole new level. Blue is in a whole different league of die-cut books. Blue could be used to teach the concept that words can have different meanings. Blue is just a beautiful book that tells a beautiful story with beautiful illustrations.

The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson

The Day You Begin is another excellent book for using on those first days of school when children are unsure of their place in your classroom and a new community begins to take shape. Jacqueline Woodson is the current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and this book was inspired by a poem in her Newbery Medal book Brown Girl Dreaming. The way Woodson weaves words together is nothing short of spectacular. The Day You Begin gives a voice to every student who feels different. It gives a voice to every student who thinks they won’t fit in. The Day You Begin celebrates diversity by allowing students to acknowledge that their individual stories are important. The Day You Begin is another book that belongs in every classroom.  

Mary Jo Staal is a pre-K–5th librarian at Hudsonville Christian School in Hudsonville, Michigan