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NYT, NYPL Announce Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2023

In its 71st year of highlighting children’s books, the New York Times Book Review and the New York Public Library have announced the 10 winners of the Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award. This year’s panel of judges included illustrator Sean Qualls, cultural critic and picture book author Maria Popova, and New York Public Library children’s librarian Christopher Lassen.

The 2023 Best Illustrated selections are:

As Night Falls: Creatures That Go Wild After Dark by Donna Jo Napoli, illus. by Felicita Sala (Random House Studio)

At the Drop of a Cat by Élise Fontenaille, illus. by Violeta Lópiz, trans. from the French by Karin Snelson and Emilie Robert Wong (Enchanted Lion)

Bear Is Never Alone by Marc Veerkamp, illus. by Jeska Verstegen, trans. from the Dutch by Laura Watkinson (Eerdmans)

Before, Now by Daniel Salmieri (Rocky Pond)

Bunny & Tree by Balint Zsako (Enchanted Lion)

How to Write a Poem by Kwame Alexander and Deanna Nikaido, illus. by Melissa Sweet (Quill Tree)

Mary’s Idea by Chris Raschka (Greenwillow)

Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll! Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll by Tonya Bolden, illus. by R. Gregory Christie (HarperCollins)

We Are Starlings: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of a Murmuration by Donna Jo Napoli and Robert Furrow, illus. by Marc Martin (Random House Studio)

The Young Teacher and the Great Serpent by Irene Vasco, illus. by Juan Palomino, trans. from the Spanish by Lawrence Schimel (Eerdmans)

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Maria Russo

Journalist, Editor, The New York Times

Maria Russo, a longtime cultural journalist, is the Children’s Books Editor at the New York Times, where she handles thousands of children’s books each year – from picture books to Young Adult novels.

She writes many reviews and feature stories herself, and assigns others to a team of freelancers that includes some of the biggest names in kidlit.

Russo has been a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times, the New York Observer, and Salon.com. Before entering journalism, she earned a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where she taught for three years in the School of General Studies. Before that, she graduated with an English degree from Georgetown University.

Russo lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with her husband and three children, only two of whom (alas!) are Harry Potter lovers.  

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Editor's picks.

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• How to Make a Sandwich | Dedicated Review

How to Make a Sandwich by Lorena M. Proia is a charming children’s picture book that blends good old-fashioned storytelling with joyful illustrations.

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The Best New Audiobooks for Little Listeners

Coyote lost and found, by dan gemeinhart | book review, play with me, by kat chen | dedicated review, black girl you are atlas, by renée watson | book review, the growing readers podcast, growing readers’ hearts: an interview with dan gemeinhart on coyote lost and found.

Facing Fears Together with Alysson Foti Bourque and ‘Alycat and the Sunday Scaries’

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Pam Muñoz Ryan’s narrative brilliance and Peter Sís’s evocative illustrations make The Dreamer a must-read that not only entertains but also inspires readers.

Mz Millipede: Tale Ticklers | Dedicated Review

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Eliott and the Red Boots is instructive and enjoyable to read—great for shared reading. Readers are shown the value of having family traditions.

The Gold Mystery Adventure, by Randy Kaufman | Dedicated Review

The Gold Mystery Adventure is a futuristic adventure with a richly imagined world of underwater cities, metallic monsters, and space travel.

Best Dinosaur Ever, by Lori Rotter | Dedicated Review

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• Jo’s Special Gifts, by Mariam Shapera | Awareness Tour

Join us on a virtual book tour for the heartwarming picture book Jo’s Special Gifts by Mariam Shapera, illustrated by Lorna Humphreys.

• How to Make a Sandwich, by Lorena M. Proia | Awareness Tour

Attention book lovers! You’re invited to join the virtual book tour for Lorena M. Proia’s delightful new picture book, How to Make a Sandwich!

Else B. in the Sea: The Woman Who Painted the Wonders of the Deep | Awareness Tour

Dive deep with us as we explore the world of Else B. in the Sea: The Woman Who Painted the Wonders of the Deep by Jeanne Walker Harvey.

Mama’s Love Language: Sometimes Love Tastes Like Hainan Chicken Rice | Awareness Tour

Immerse yourself in the pages of Mama’s Love Language: Sometimes Love Tastes Like Hainan Chicken Rice by Elisa Stad and Ry Menson.

Play with Me, by Kat Chen | Awareness Tour

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Little Red Driving Hood and the Three Repairs | Awareness Tour

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Roar-Choo! by Charlotte Cheng | Awareness Tour

Join us on an enchanting journey through the pages of Roar-Choo! by Charlotte Cheng, beautifully illustrated by Caldecott Medal-winning illustrator Dan Santat.

Milo and His Magic Skateboard | Awareness Tour

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Miranda Moose Loves Orange Juice | Awareness Tour

Join us on a journey through the pages of Miranda Moose Loves Orange Juice by Melanie Brazdzionis, joyfully illustrated by Ning Loo!

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The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award

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Ask a Librarian

Every year since 1952, the Book Review has asked a panel of judges to select 10 books from among the several thousand children’s books published that year.

Starting in 2017, the New York Times partnered with the New York Public Library in selecting these titles.  To reflect this change, the name of the award changed to "The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award."

• New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books Website

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2023

• Rock, Rosetta, rock! Roll, Rosetta, roll! : presenting sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock & roll
• At the drop of a cat
• We are starlings : inside the mesmerizing magic of a murmuration
• The young teacher and the great serpent
• Mary's idea
• As night falls : creatures that go wild after dark
• Before, now
• How to write a poem
• Bear is never alone
• Bunny & tree

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2022

• Yellow Dog blues
• Night lunch
• Telling stories wrong
• Bedtime for Bo
• The upside down hat
• The new rooster
• Where butterflies fill the sky : a story of immigration, family, and finding home
• Still this love goes on

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2021

• I am the subway
• The night walk
• Time is a flower
• It fell from the sky
• The little wooden robot and the log princess
• ¡Vamos! Let's cross the bridge
• While you're sleeping
• Unspeakable : the Tulsa Race Massacre
• Keeping the city going
• On the other side of the forest

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2020

Publishers Weekly has reported that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award has been cancelled, with plans to resume in 2021

• Publishers Weekly article

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2019

• Small in the city
• The lost cousins : a seek & find book
• A million dots
• Just because
• Child of glass
• The boring book
• Monkey on the run
• I miss my grandpa

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2018

• Ayobami and the names of the animals
• A house that once was
• She made a monster : how Mary Shelley created Frankenstein
• The funeral
• The visitor

The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award 2017

• Muddy : the story of blues legend Muddy Waters
• Frida Kahlo and her animalitos
• On a magical do-nothing day
• Ruth Bader Gisburg: the case of R.B.G. vs. inequality
• The way home in the night
• Town is by the sea
• King of the sky

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2016

• The cat from hunger mountain
• The dead bird
• Freedom in Congo Square
• The polar bear
• Preaching To The Chickens : The story of young John Lewis
• The princess and the warrior : a tale of two volcanoes
• The tree in the courtyard: looking through Anne Frank's window
• A voyage in the clouds : the (mostly) true story of the first international flight by balloon in 1785
• The white cat and the monk : a retelling of the poem "Pangur Bán"

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2015

• Big bear, little chair
• A fine dessert : four centuries, four families, one delicious treat
• Funny bones : Posada and his Day of the Dead calaveras
• Leo : a ghost story
• Madame Eiffel : the love story of the Eiffel Tower
• The only child
• Sidewalk flowers
• The tiger who would be king
• Tricky Vic : the impossibly true story of the man who sold the Eiffel Tower

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2014

• Shackleton's journey
• Haiti my country
• Harlem hellfighters
• Time for bed, Fred!
• Here is the baby
• Where's Mommy?
• The Promise
• The baby tree
• The Pilot and the Little Prince : the Life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2013

• My brother's book
• Jemmy Button
• Jane, the fox & me
• Nelson Mandela

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2012

• Red Knit Cap Girl
• The beetle book
• Bear despair
• Infinity and me
• Unspoken : a story from the Underground Railroad
• Little bird
• The Hueys in The new sweater
• One Times Square : a century of change at the crossroads of the world
• Stephen and the beetle
• House held up by trees

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2011

• Along a long road
• A ball for Daisy
• Brother Sun, Sister Moon : Saint Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the creatures
• Grandpa Green
• I want my hat back
• A nation's hope : the story of boxing legend Joe Louis
• A New Year's reunion

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2010

• Here comes the garbage barge!
• Children make terrible pets
• Busing Brewster
• Big red lollipop
• Henry in love
• A sick day for Amos McGee
• Bink & Gollie

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2009

• Only a witch can fly
• Moonshot : the flight of Apollo 11
• The odd egg
• A penguin story
• The lion & the mouse
• The snow day
• Tales from outer suburbia
• Yummy : eight favorite fairy tales
• White noise : a pop-up book for children of all ages
• All the world

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2008

• A river of words : the story of William Carlos Williams
• We are the ship : the story of Negro League baseball
• Ghosts in the house!
• The black book of colors
• The little yellow leaf
• A is for art : an abstract alphabet
• Pale Male : citizen hawk of New York City

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2007

• Every Friday
• Jabberwocky
• The arrival
• First the egg
• 600 black spots : a pop-up book for children of all ages
• The frog who wanted to see the sea
• The wall : growing up behind the Iron Curtain
• Old Penn Station
• The invention of Hugo Cabret : a novel in words and pictures

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2006

• Hello, twins
• The little red hen
• John, Paul, George & Ben
• The red lemon
• SoSleepyStory
• Adèle & Simon
• Gone wild : an endangered animal alphabet

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2005

• Dinosaurs : encyclopedia prehistorica
• The hello, goodbye window
• Brave Charlotte
• Are you going to be good?
• Chato goes cruisin'
• The problem with chickens
• Jitterbug jam
• Traction Man is here!
• Carmine : a little more red
• Carmine : a little more red E-Book

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2004

• A child's Christmas in Wales
• Teeth, tails & tentacles : an animal counting book
• The people could fly : the picture book
• Walt Whitman : words for America
• Kitten's first full moon
• The boy, the bear, the baron, the bard
• The mighty asparagus
• Polar bear night

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2003

• While we were out
• The man who walked between the towers
• Charming Opal
• The wolves in the walls
• Otto's trunk
• The tree of life : a book depicting the life of Charles Darwin, naturalist, geologist & thinker
• When everybody wore a hat

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2002

• This little chick
• Close your eyes
• Hondo & Fabian
• Hondo and Fabian Book on CD
• The first thing my mama told me
• Stars in the darkness
• Yellow umbrella
• The last resort
• Knick-knack paddywhack!

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2001

• Awful Ogre's awful day
• Dumpy La Rue
• Martin's big words : the life of Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Olivia saves the circus
• A poke in the I
• The stray dog : from a true story by Reiko Sassa

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2000

• A day, a dog
• Henry hikes to Fitchburg
• I walk at night
• Mammalabilia : poems and paintings
• Market day : a story told with folk art
• Night garden : poems from the world of dreams
• One lighthouse, one moon
• Only passing through : the story of Sojourner Truth

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1999

• The collector of moments
• Emeline at the circus
• How are you peeling? : foods with moods
• I, crocodile
• Little bunny on the move
• Lottie's new friend
• Penguin dreams
• A straw for two
• A symphony of whales
• Winter eyes

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1998

• The gingerbread man
• A handful of beans : six fairy tales
• I lost my bear
• The little scarecrow boy
• Walter Wick's optical tricks
• The wild boy
• Window music

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1997

• Echoes of the elders : the stories and paintings of Chief Lelooska
• The girl who dreamed only geese, and other tales of the Far North
• The hired hand : an African-American folktale
• Hosni the dreamer : an Arabian tale
• Leon and Bob
• Mysterious Thelonious
• The sea king's daughter : a Russian legend
• There was an old lady who swallowed a fly

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1996

• The fantastic drawings of Danielle
• The graphic alphabet
• The lonely lioness and the ostrich chicks: a Masai tale
• My very first Mother Goose
• Roman numerals I to MM = Numerabilia romana uno ad duo mila : liber de difficillimo computando numerum
• The seasons sewn : a year in patchwork
• The wizard of Oz

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1995

• Alphabet city
• Dogs everywhere
• My mama had a dancing heart
• She's wearing a dead bird on her head!
• Someplace else
• When the whippoorwill calls
• Why the sun & the moon live in the sky
• Zin! zin! zin! : a violin

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1994

• The boy and the cloth of dreams
• The boy who ate around
• How Georgie Radbourn saved baseball
• Ship of dreams
• The Sunday outing
• Swamp Angel
• A teeny, tiny baby
• The three golden keys
• The wave of the Sea-Wolf

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1993

• The bracelet
• Grandfather's journey
• Grandfather's journey E-Book
• Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput
• Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas present
• How dogs really work!
• Man-of-war: Stephen Biesty's cross ections
• A number of animals
• The perilous pit
• A small tall tale from the far Far North

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1992

• Boodil my dog
• The cataract of Lodore
• The fortune-tellers
• Li'l Sis and Uncle Willie : a story based on the life and paintings of William H. Johnson
• Martha speaks Note: this is included in the book Martha speaks : story time collection
• Mirette on the high wire
• The Stinky Cheese Man and other fairly stupid tales
• Where does it go?
• Why the sky is far away : a Nigerian folktale

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1991

• Another celebrated dancing bear
• Follow the dream
• Little red riding hood
• The marvelous journey through the night
• Old Mother Hubbard and her wonderful dog
• Ooh-la-la: (Max in love)
• Punch in New York
• Tar Beach Note: this book is also part of the kit ”African-Americans”
• What can rabbit hear?

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1990

• Beneath a blue umbrella
• Christmas carol
• The dancing palm tree, and other Nigerian folktales
• Fish eyes : a book you can count on
• The fool and the fish: a tale from Russia
• I'm flying!
• One gorilla : a counting book
• The tale of the mandarin ducks
• War boy : a country childhood

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1989

• The dancing skeleton
• Does God have a big toe? stories about stories in the Bible
• The heartaches of a French cat
• How pizza came to Queens
• Nicholas Cricket
• Olson's meat pies
• Peacock pie: a book of rhymes
• Theseus and the minotaur
• Turtle in July

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1988

• Cats are cats
• Fire came to the earth people : a Dahomean folktale
• I want to be an astronaut
• Look! Look! Look!
• A river dream
• Shaka : king of the Zulus
• Sir Francis Drake : his daring deeds
• Stringbean's trip to the shining sea
• Theodor and Mr. Balbini

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1987

• The cremation of Sam McGee
• Fox's dream
• Halloween A B C
• Handtalk birthday : a number & story book in sign language
• In coal country
• Jump again! more adventures of Brer Rabbit
• The mountains of Tibet
• Rainbow rhino
• 17 kings and 42 elephants
• The yellow umbrella

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1986

• Brave Irene
• Cherries and cherry pits
• Molly's new washing machine
• One morning
• The owl scatterer
• Pigs from A to Z
• Rembrandt takes a walk
• The stranger
• The ugly duckling

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1985

• Hazel's amazing mother
• The inside-outside book of New York City
• Legend of Rosepetal
• Nightingale
• The people could fly : American Black folktales
• The Polar Express
• The Polar Express Twentieth anniversary edition
• The relatives came
• The story of Mrs. Lovewright and Purrless her cat

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1984

• Animal alphabet
• Babushka : an old Russian folktale
• If there were dreams to sell
• Jonah and the great fish
• The mysteries of Harris Burdick
• The napping house
• La casa adormecida "The napping house" in Spanish
• Saint George and the dragon : a golden legend
• Where the river begins

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1983

• Leonard Baskin's Miniature natural history: first series
• Little Red Cap
• Simon's book
• Twelve cats for Christmas
• The wreck of the Zephyr

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1982

• Anno's Britain
• Ben's dream : story and pictures
• The gift of the magi
• Paddy goes traveling
• Rainbows are made : poems
• Smle, Ernest and Celestine
• Squid and spider: a look at the animal kingdom
• The strange appearance of Howard Cranebill, Jr.
• The tiny visitor

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1981

• The crane wife
• Flight: a panorama of aviation
• The maid and the mouse and the odd-shaped house: a story in rhyme
• On Market Street
• My mom travels a lot
• The nose tree
• Outside over there
• The story of Mrs. Brubeck and how she looked for trouble and where she found him
• Where the buffaloes begin

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1980

• Gorky rises
• The Headless Horseman rides tonight : more poems to trouble your sleep
• The headless horseman rides tonight : more poems to trouble your sleep
• The lucky yak
• Mr. Miller the dog
• Stone & steel: a book about engineering
• The wonderful travels and adventures of Baron Münchhausen, as told by himself in the company of his friends and washed down by many a good bottle of wine : the adventures on land

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1979

• By camel or by car: a look at transportation
• The garden of Abdul Gasazi
• Happy birthday Oliver!
• King Krakus and the dragon
• The long dive
• Natural history
• Ox-cart man
• The tale of Fancy Nancy : a Spanish folk tale
• Tilly's house
• The treasure

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1978

• Cloudy with a chance of meatballs
• The forbidden forest
• The Great song book
• Hanukah money
• The legend of Scarface : a Blackfeet Indian tale
• The nutcrackers and the sugar-tongs
• Odette: a bird in Paris
• A Peaceable kingdom : the Shaker abecedarius
• There once was a woman who married a man
• This little pig-a-wig and other rhymes about pigs

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1977

• The church mice adrift
• Come away from the water, Shirley
• It could always be worse : a Yiddish folk tale
• Jack and the wonder beans
• Merry merry Fibruary
• My village, Sturbridge
• When the wind blew

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1976

• As right as right can be
• Ashanti to Zulu : African traditions
• The bear & the fly : a story
• Everyone knows what a dragon looks like
• Fly by night
• Little though I be
• Merry ever after
• The Mother Goose book
• A near thing for Captain Najork

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1975

• Anno's alphabet; an adventure in imagination
• A book of a-maze-ments
• Mr. Michael Mouse unfolds his tale
• The pig-tale
• There's a sound in the sea...a child's eye view of the whale
• The tutti-frutti case

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1974

• The girl who cried flowers, and other tales
• The man who took the indoors out
• Miss Suzy's birthday
• Rosie and Michael
• There was an old woman

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1973

• Cathedral: the story of its construction
• The emperor's new clothes
• Hector penguin
• The juniper tree and other tales from Grimm
• King Grisly-Beard : [a tale from the brothers Grimm]
• A prairie boy's winter
• The silver pony; a story in pictures
• Tim's last voyage

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1972

• Behind the wheel
• Count and see
• George and Martha
• Jorge y Marta Spanish translation
• Hosie's alphabet
• Just so stories
• A little Schubert
• Miss Jaster's garden
• Simon Boom gives a wedding
• Where's Al?

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1971

• Amos & Boris
• Bear circus
• The beast of Monsieur Racine
• Changes, changes
• Look again!
• Look what I can do
• The magic tears
• Mr. Gumpy's outing
• One dancing drum
• The shrinking of Treehorn

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1970

• Finding a poem
• The gnu and the guru go behind the beyond
• Help, help, the globolinks
• In the night kitchen
• Lift every voice and sing : words and music
• Matilda who told lies and was burned to death
• Timothy's horse
• Topsy-turvies; pictures to stretch the imagination
• You are ri-di-cu-lous

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1969

• Arm in arm; a collection of connections, endless tales, reiterations, and other echolalia
• Bang bang you're dead
• The circus in the mist
• The dong with a luminous nose
• Free as a frog
• The light princess
• Sara's granny and the groodle
• What is it for?
• Winter's eve

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1968

• Harriet and the Promised Land
• A kiss for Little Bear
• Malachi Mudge
• Mister Corbett's ghost
• The real tin flower
• The secret journey of Hugo the brat
• Story number 1
• Talking without words; I can. Can you?
• The very obliging flowers

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1967

• Animals of many lands
• Brian Wildsmith's birds
• A dog's book of bugs
• Fables of Aesop
• The honeybees
• Knee-deep in thunder
• Seashore story

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1966

• Ananse the spider
• A boy went out to gather pears
• The jazz man
• The magic flute
• The monster den, or, Look what happened at my house -- and to it
• Nothing ever happens on my block
• Shaw's fortune
• Wonderful time
• Zlateh the goat, and other stories

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1965

• Alberic the wise and other journeys
• The animal family
• A double discovery
• Hide and seek fog
• Kangaroo & kangaroo
• Please share that peanut! : a preposterous pageant in fourteen acts, concerned with the exquisite joys and extraordinary adventures of young ladies and gentlemen engaged in the pleasurable practice of sharing
• Punch & Judy
• Sven's bridge

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1964

• The bat-poet
• Casey at the bat
• Alfred Lord Tennyson's charge of the Light Brigade
• Exactly alike
• The giraffe of King Charles X
• The happy owls
• I'll show you cats
• The life of a queen
• Rain makes applesauce

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1963

• The great picture robbery
• Gwendolyn and the weathercock
• A holiday for Mister Muster
• Hurly Burly and the knights
• John J. Plenty and Fiddler Dan : a new fable of the grasshopper and the ant
• Karen's curiosity
• Once upon a totem
• Plunkety plunk
• Where the wild things are
• Where the wild things are 50th anniversary edition

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1962

• The Emperor and the drummer boy
• The island of fish in the trees
• Kay-Kay comes home
• The princesses
• The singing hill
• The tale of a wood
• The three robbers

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1961

• The big book of animal stories
• The happy hunter
• Listen the birds
• My time of year
• Once a mouse ... A fable cut in wood
• The snow and the sun : a South American folk rhyme in two languages = La nieve y el sol
• Umbrellas, hats, and wheels
• The wing on a flea : a book about shapes

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1960

• The adventures of Ulysses
• Baboushka and the three kings
• Inch by inch
• Inch by inch Book on CD
• Open house for butterflies
• Scrappy, the pup
• The shadow book
• This is New York
• 26 ways to be someone else
• Two little birds and three

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1959

• Animal babies
• Father Bear comes home
• The first noel
• Full of wonder
• The girl in the white hat
• Kasimir's journey
• Little blue and little yellow : a story for Pippo and Ann and other children
• Pablo paints a picture
• The reason for the pelican
• This is London

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1958

• The daddy days
• A friend is someone who likes you
• The golden book of animals
• The house that Jack built = La maison que Jacques a bâtie : a picture book in two languages
• How to hide a hippopotamus
• The magic feather duster
• What do you say, dear?

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1957

• Big red bus
• The birthday party
• Curious George gets a medal
• Dear garbage man
• This is the story of Faint George who wanted to be a knight
• The fisherman and his wife
• The friendly beasts
• The red balloon
• Sparkle and spin; a book about words
• The unhappy hippopotamus

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1956

• Babar's fair will be opened next Sunday
• Les larmes de crocodile
• I know a lot of things
• I want to paint my bathroom blue
• I will tell you of a town
• Jonah the fisherman
• Little Big-Feather
• The little elephant
• Really spring
• Was it a good trade?

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1955

• Beasts from a brush
• The happy lion in Africa
• A little house of your own
• Rumpelstiltskin
• See and say, guarda e parla, mira y habla, regarde et parle ; a picture book in four languages
• Switch on the night
• The three kings of Saba
• Uncle Ben's whale

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1954

• Andy says...Bonjour!
• The animal frolic
• Circus ruckus
• The happy lion
• Heavy is a hippopotamus
• I'll be you and you be me
• Jenny's birthday book
• A kiss is round
• The sun looks down
• The wet world

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1953

• Fast is not a ladybug
• Florina and the wild bird
• The golden Bible for children: the New Testament
• A hero by mistake
• Lucky Blacky
• Madeline's rescue Note: this book is also part of the kit ”Stories from Europe”
• Mother Goose riddle rhymes
• Who gave us ... peacocks? planes? & ferris wheels?

New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 1952

• The animal fair
• Beasts and nonsense
• The dogcatcher's dog
• Five little monkeys
• The happy place
• A hole is to dig; a first book of first definitions
• The magic currant bun

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will help you locate the different The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award that are in our collections.  Just click on a name to go to the record!

Please note: if a title is not linked, it means that we currently do not have it in our collection.  Please check the Kearney Public Library or consider ordering it from Interlibrary Loan

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Jennifer Krauss Named New Children’s Books Editor

Jennifer Krauss, who has deep roots in the literary world, will also continue as our Paperback Row columnist. Read more in this note from Pamela Paul and Tina Jordan.

We are thrilled to announce that Jennifer Krauss will be our new children’s books editor. Many of you already know Jennifer from her years working in the Reader Center, where she was a Times Insider editor and also spearheaded and edited the Understanding The Times and the Behind the Byline series.

What you may not know is that Jennifer also has deep roots in the literary world. After studying English literature at Brown and getting a master’s in English at Cornell, Jennifer joined The New Republic as the assistant literary editor and later moved on to The New York Review of Books. Later she became the deputy book review editor at New York Newsday and then the arts editor at Talk magazine. Her book reviews have been published in The Times, The Washington Post, The New Republic and Newsday.  She went on to pursue a career on the business side at Story Worldwide, Time Inc., Hearst, Dow Jones and Federated Media before returning to journalism at The Times.

Jennifer will be the eighth person to take on the role of children’s books editor in the Book Review’s 124-year history, and we can’t wait for her to bring her literary chops, editorial skills, taste and sensibility to the role. She succeeds Maria Russo, who, after five years at The Times, is leaving for a position in children’s books publishing.

Jennifer  will also contribute to the Book desk’s overall mission in adapting our journalism and criticism to the coronavirus era and beyond, both on kids’ books and on books coverage as a whole. And she will continue as our Paperback Row columnist, a job she assumed immediately after quarantine began, giving her the unique challenge of starting at the Book Review without physical access to the books themselves. Having already knocked it out of the park these last few weeks, we have no doubt she will continue to adapt and innovate our coverage of books for all readers over the age of one day.

Please join us in congratulating Jennifer on her new role.

Pamela and Tina

Explore Further

Changes in the books department, jaime green joins book review as a romance columnist.

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A Tale of Young Flames, and Their Dark Futures, After a Coup

In Lily Meyer’s first novel, “Short War,” love and family ties are tested by a nation’s upheaval.

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By Jamie Fisher

Jamie Fisher is a writer who focuses on culture and literary criticism. She is working on a biography of the musician and songwriter Elliott Smith.

SHORT WAR, by Lily Meyer

The translator and critic Lily Meyer’s first novel opens in Santiago, Chile, with a lovely, eerie assuredness, a moment like an incantation: a girl walking toward a boy through a crowded party, illuminated. “He knew, with inexplicable, terrifying certainty, that she was coming for him,” the boy, Gabriel Lazris, thinks. He refers to this later as “the true start of his life,” the night he met Caro Ravest, in 1973.

Gabriel is 16, Jewish, American; he came to Santiago with his family as “a monolingual 8-year-old terrified to make eye contact with the school priests or anyone else” and is barely more confident now. His friend Nico gently calls him “our quiet American.” When Caro kisses Gabriel, he has a “soft, cracked-open feeling.” They clink beers in the kitchen, Gabriel reciting the Lazris family toast, an almost charmingly imperialistic relic of the Second World War. “Short war,” he says, and they drink.

But the reader knows what Gabriel doesn’t: that they are all five months away from a coup.

It’s the texture of Gabriel’s story that grabs you, much more than its portrait of American complacency and complicity. Gabriel waiting outside Caro’s school, faint with nerves, “the candied-nut cart streaming sugary smoke” in the plaza. His sullen mother and her tennis diamonds, his conservative journalist father and his bullying dinner-table arguments over black-market fish that has seen better days.

Gabriel knows his father peddles lies about President Salvador Allende to American audiences; when he goes rummaging in his father’s office, he realizes that the C.I.A. will orchestrate a takeover. In June, as Santiago is sealed off and Gabriel prepares to return to the United States, Caro tells him she’s pregnant.

“Short War” is a novel built from novellas, and we move next to Gabriel’s daughter, Nina, in 2015, when she’s a grad student researching a protest movement in Buenos Aires. She thinks of herself as a scholar of connection, someone who believes in learning “to pay real, sustained attention to others.” At the same time she’s started to worry that her career is only an excuse to waste time on social media. Gabriel looms at the edges of her story — depressed and lonely in Chicago, calling Nico on weekends, too broken by loss to return to Santiago even now. “Short war,” he says to Nina before she leaves for Argentina, clinking her glass.

Meyer’s interest is the absurdity of that phrase, a toast, we learn in her acknowledgments, borrowed from her own family. The book that changes Nina’s life — with its intertwined stories of kidnapping, torture and survival — is called “Guerra Eterna,” its title a refutation: eternal war. She reads about a Chilean survivor sheltering in Mexico City with her Jewish toddler and her nightmares, and feels a stab of foreboding when she learns the child’s father was American. She calls Gabriel and asks him, over the hiss of the line: Are you in a book? “I was afraid this would happen,” he says. And Nina begins to piece together her family’s haunted past.

It’s hard for the light liberal satire of Nina’s story to compete with the immediacy of Gabriel’s, or the life and color around him — Caro, unapologetically lovely and smart-mouthed; the vulgar funniness and kindness of Gabriel’s friends. When Nina comes in, a sensual urgency leaves the narrative and never really comes back. And that may be the point. The question at the core of Nina’s story is whether she can ever have a life separate from her father’s, something that isn’t small in comparison. She calls herself “a story leech,” wearing “her dad’s grief like hand-me-down clothes.”

As Caro walks toward a teenage Gabriel at the party in 1973, he knows the rest of his life is about to begin. Nothing for Nina will ever be so clear.

SHORT WAR | By Lily Meyer | Deep Vellum | 275 pp. | Paperback, $16.95

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A new photo book reorients dusty notions of a classic American pastime with  a stunning visual celebration of black rodeo.

Two hundred years after his death, this Romantic poet is still worth reading . Here’s what made Lord Byron so great.

Harvard’s recent decision to remove the binding of a notorious volume  in its library has thrown fresh light on a shadowy corner of the rare book world.

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Each week, top authors and critics join the Book Review’s podcast to talk about the latest news in the literary world. Listen here .

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Chapter Books: New York Times Best-Sellers

Want to know about the biggest page-turners for kids and young adults before you buy? Check out our list of New York Times best-selling chapter books. Not only will you find the hottest new arrivals, you'll also see the insanely popular books that stick around on the list for months. Each week, we'll update our list with the New York Times' top five best-sellers for middle grade readers and the top five best-sellers for teens that we've reviewed. So be sure to come back often, as new books come hot off the presses every week. And for older best-selling titles, check out our list of award-winning books .

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Harrowing page-turner sheds light on child refugees.

Divine Rivals: Letters of Enchantment, Book 1

Two gods, two teens, two typewriters in apocalyptic romance.

Ruthless Vows: Letters of Enchantment, Book 2

Thrilling end to magical epic of teens in love, gods at war.

Powerless: Powerless, Book 1

Blood-soaked romantic fantasy lacks originality.

Murtagh: The World of Eragon: The Inheritance Cycle, Book 5

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Nightbane: The Lightlark Saga, Book 2

Second volume is still dark but marred by weak plotting.

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November 13, 2023 by Travis Jonker

Gallery: NYT Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2023

November 13, 2023 by Travis Jonker   Leave a Comment

CLICK IMAGES TO SEE LARGER VERSION (WHEN AVAILABLE)

Filed under:

The New York Times announced their annual Best Illustrated Children’s Books List , and it’s full of great picks. How’d I do on my predictions ?

I correctly predicted . . . one ( At the Drop of a Cat ).

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However! If you also take into account my insanely long (and oft-ridiculed) list of other possibilities at the end of the post, you can up that number to six ( At the Drop of a Cat, Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!, We Are Starlings, The Young Teacher and the Great Serpent, Mary’s Idea, As Night Falls ). But that would be cheating. So I’m calling it one.

Let’s have a look at the winners!

Filed under: Uncategorized

About Travis Jonker

Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.

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The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children: 3rd Edition Revised and Updated Paperback – November 14, 2000

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• Print length 560 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Harmony/Rodale
• Publication date November 14, 2000
• Dimensions 7.38 x 1.4 x 9.25 inches
• ISBN-10 0812930185
• ISBN-13 978-0812930184
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From publishers weekly, from booklist, from the inside flap, from the back cover, about the author, excerpt. © reprinted by permission. all rights reserved., product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harmony/Rodale; Third edition (November 14, 2000)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 560 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812930185
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812930184
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.38 x 1.4 x 9.25 inches
• #375 in Children's Literary Criticism (Books)
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• #1,592 in Parenting & Family Reference

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Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels

An ungrammatical egg; a demystifying approach to death; 10 new poets to read aloud; and a stunning gothic mystery

My Mother’s Tongues by Uma Menon, illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell, Walker, £12.99 Written by a 16-year-old author, this richly textured picture book is a moving celebration of immigrant multilingualism: languages “woven together like fine cloth” until “the seams are invisible”.

We Are the Wibbly! A Tadpole’s Tail by Sarah Tagholm , illustrated by Jane McGuinness, Bloomsbury, £7.99 A hilarious, original picture-book account of one bemused (and ungrammatical) egg’s journey from frogspawn to frog.

Clever Crow by Chris Butterworth, illustrated by Olivia Lomenech Gill, Walker, £12.99 A gorgeously designed nonfiction picture book with fascinating text and dynamic illustrations, effortlessly conveying corvid charisma.

The Magic Callaloo by Trish Cooke , illustrated by Sophie Bass, Walker, £12.99 This colourful, fabulous Rapunzel retelling features a magic wishing callaloo plant, a selfish thief and a dauntless girl with huge beautiful curls, inspired by stories of enslaved Africans who wove patterns and escape maps into their cornrowed hair. A wonderful text-rich picture book for readers of 5+.

Betty Steady and the Toad Witch by Nicky Smith-Dale, illustrated by Sarah Horne, Farshore, £6.99 Stronger than an ogre in yoga pants, Betty Steady is the hero of Wobbly Rock – but when Betty’s hubris lets the terrible Toad Witch shrink her to the height of two Jammie Dodgers, she’ll need the help of a nerdy imp and a trumpeting mouse to save the day. An irrepressible catchphrase-riddled 7+ debut, full of surreal, riotous fun.

The Life-Changing Magic of Skateboarding by Sky Brown , illustrated by Shaw Davidson, Magic Cat, £12.99 This welcoming, joyous 7+ handbook by a young Olympian breaks down the mysteries of stance, stopping and gnarly tricks via bright accessible panels.

Ballet Besties – Yara’s Chance to Dance by Yasmine Naghdi with Chitra Soundar, illustrated by Paula Franco, Piccadilly, £7.99 Yara’s excited to join a new ballet school – but the cantankerous landlady is threatening to close the studio. Can Yara and her besties pull off a day-saving performance? Written by a Principal of the Royal Ballet, this bubbly, inclusive story, filled with meticulous detail, will be a winner for 7+ dance fanatics.

We Need to Talk About Death: An Important Book About Grief, Celebrations, and Love by Sarah Chavez, illustrated by Annika Le Large, Neon Squid, £9.99 This little book’s chatty warmth and calm, demystifying approach belies its intimidating title; written by one of the founders of the Death Positive movement, it covers what death is, what happens to dead bodies, the different ways in which people process grief, and global rituals of remembrance. A 7+ school-library essential.

Keedie by Elle McNicoll, Knights Of, £7.99 As their 14th birthday approaches, autistic Keedie and her neurotypical twin, Nina, are drawing steadily apart – fierce, forthright Keedie can’t tolerate injustice, while Nina’s trying to fit in with a bullying crowd at school. Meanwhile Keedie is more and more protective of Addie, her quiet little sister … This powerful coming-of-age story for 9+, set five years before the award-winning A Kind of Spark, is a clarion call for better treatment of neurodiverse kids.

Spin! 10 Exciting New Voices in Poetry edited by Joseph Coelho, illustrated by Ruthine Burton, Otter-Barry, £8.99 This anthology of work from 10 debut poets, intended to be shared aloud, touches on everything from names to nerves to nonsense, with ice-rink visits and multi-family summer picnics “on a patch of grass, / Between the M32 and an ochre-coloured river”. A lovely collection for 9+, showcasing a formidable breadth of new talent.

Me and Aaron Ramsey by Manon Stefan Ros, Firefly, £7.99 Sam and his dad share a deep love of football – but when an accident curtails his dad’s soccer career, sadness, worry and silence invade their lives. Sam focuses on the Welsh star Aaron Ramsey to cope with his anxiety, but will his relationship with Dad ever be repaired? A tender, pared-back, touching contemporary story for 9+, from a Carnegie-winning author.

The Island at the Edge of Night by Lucy Strange, Chicken House, £7.99 When Faye is packed off to school on a remote Scottish island, she discovers every student is there because they’ve done wicked things. But Faye can’t remember what happened on the night that led to her banishment. As she searches the island for its secrets, and discovers a curious affinity, can she bring herself to probe the depths of her own memory? A stunning 9+ gothic mystery, filled with bleakness and unexpected magic.

Homebody: Discovering What It Means to Be Me by Theo Parish, Macmillan, £14.99 This gentle, meandering 14+ graphic novel takes the reader on a journey without a destination – following the protagonist’s search for self-acceptance, so that the house of their body can feel like a true home. Investigating the subtleties of trans and non-binary identities, its soft greys and pinks and joyful emphasis on self-discovery will appeal to Heartstopper fans.

The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson, Electric Monkey, £14.99 Bel Price’s mother Rachel disappeared when Bel was 2. Now Bel is 18, and her mother presumed long dead. With care bills pressing, the family agree to a true crime documentary – only to be staggered by Rachel’s shocking reappearance. But does her story make sense? An instantly gripping, corkscrew-twisty 14+ thriller from the author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder.

King of Nothing by Nathanael Lessore, Hot Key, £7.99 Anton relishes his status as Year 9 playground king – but when he winds up in serious trouble at school, his mum takes drastic action. To earn Wifi back, Anton must join the Happy Campers activity group, alongside ultimate loser Matthew. After a dramatic trip, Anton and Matthew form an unlikely bond – but can Anton bear to acknowledge him at school? Rib-achingly funny, poignant, thoughtful and sly, Lessore’s second YA novel confirms him as a uniquely talented writer.

These Stolen Lives by Sharada Keats, Scholastic, £8.99 When the Skøls invaded six years ago, they culled the Crozoni, killing nine out of every 10. Those left are now Repayers, owing the Skøls life debts they must pay off to survive. Repayer Mora has time to do almost nothing but work – until the Skøl governor threatens to execute her beloved friend, 12-year-old Zako, and her thoughts turn to rebellion. A striking, thought-provoking YA dystopia, layered with meaningful questions about worth and productivity.

• Children's book roundup
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