Booklists for Kids: Picture Books

This page contains affiliate links. I participate in the Amazon Associates and Bookshop.org programs and can earn from qualifying purchases. Please read my full statement here.

There are about a million great kids books out there. If I listed all the books we enjoyed, this page would go on way too long. So I’m just picking some of my kids’ favorites.

This page focuses on Picture Books, but take a look at my Early Reader, Short Chapter Books, Longer Chapter books, and Magazine pages.

And I’ll add that while this tip may be obvious, the best way I’ve found great new books for my kids is by asking children’s librarians.

Below the list, I included a link to the same book list in my Bookshop.org shop. Every purchase at Bookshop.org directly supports independent bookstores, which I think is pretty cool!

• Magic School Bus books by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen.

• Women Artists A to Z by Melanie LaBarge

• Living Sunlight/Rivers of Sunlight/Ocean Sunlight/Buried Sunlight by Molly Band and Penny Chisholm. These books are beautiful and have lots of scientific info. Better for the preschool and up crowd.

• When Sophie gets Angry- Really, Really Angry by Molly Bang. Great way to introduce the concept of anger and thinking about emotional regulation.

• The Kissing Hand and A Pocket Full of Kisses by Audrey Penn. This is particularly great for separation anxiety or kids starting daycare/preschool/kindergarten.

• Bedtime for Batman and Be a Star, Wonder Woman! by Michael Dahl

• The Legend of Rock Paper Scissors by Drew Daywalt and Adam Rex

• The Book with No Pictures by BJ Novak.

• The Day the Crayons Quit and related stories by Drew Daywalt

• Nothing Rhymes with Orange by Adam Rex

• Jolly Postman books by Janet and Allen Ahlberg, Previously, and really any book by Allen Ahlberg.

• The Good Egg, Bad Seed, Smart Cookie, Sour Grape, Couch Potato, Big Cheese, and Cool Bean books by Jory John

• Press Here by Herve Tullet

• Arthur books by Marc Brown

• Books by Rosemary Wells. My kids loved Max and Ruby books, but she has a ton of good ones.

• Daniel Tiger books

• Scaredy Squirrel books by Melanie Watt. These are funny books my kids loved. Probably better for preschool and older to understand the jokes.

• Books by Jane Yolen. We love the Dinosaur books (How do Dinosaurs Learn to Read?, Say Goodnight? Trick or Treat? etc.) but she has other good ones (Owl Moon, Not All Princesses Dress in Pink).

• Mark Teague books, like The Secret Shortcut and the LaRue books, funny books narrated by a dog.

• The Miss Nelson collection by Harry Allard and James Marshall.

• How I Met my Monster, I Need My Monster, Hey, That’s My Monster, and other related books by Amanda Noll.

• Awesome Man: The Mystery Intruder/The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man by Michael Chabon

• Llama Llama books by Anna Dewdney. There are a ton, I’ve loved all the ones we read: Llama Llama Red Pajama, Mad at Mama, Holiday Drama, Time to Share, and the Bully Goat.

• Charlie & Mouse books by Laurel Snyder. These could probably double as early reader books.

• Extra Yarn, and other books by Mac Barnett.

• Watercress by Andrea Wang

• Big Words for Little People, Is There Really a Human Race?, My Mommy Hung the Moon and other books by Jamie Lee Curtis

• Snowmen at Night/Christmas/Halloween, etc. by Caralyn and Mark Buehner. The illustrations are beautiful in this book, plus there are tons of pictures hiding in each illustration. You can spend a lot of time looking through these books!

• Animalia, The Waterhole, The Eleventh Hour and any book by  Graeme Base. His pictures are so beautiful and intricate, and the thought he puts into his books is amazing. The ones we’ve read double as puzzles best for slightly older kids, but even younger kids can appreciate the “main story.” We’ve spent so much time looking at these books.

  You can also view this Picture Books booklist on my Bookshop.org page here.