picture books - where are all the good ones? A vent.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

My eldest daughter and I are frustrated at the lack of good picture books in stores here. We're actually starting to wonder if young children aren't being read to much any more, so there are no new children's authors coming into the industry.

We can find some of the classics - Mem Fox, Lynley Dodd, Eric Carle etc.

But these are the same authors of the books I read to my children. Where are the new authors? 

As an early childhood and Montessori teacher, I acknowledge that my opinion of what makes a picture book 'good' may be different. I am quite particular about what I'm looking for, as is my daughter.

We're after books based in reality, with rhyme and repetition, and not too many words per page, and with beautiful illustrations. 

And goodness, we'd love to find some decent touch and feel books. There's a series here, where the titles are things like 'Never Touch a Shark'. But then there's a picture of a shark with a sensory patch to touch. Don't touch it, but touch it. 🤔  What are we teaching the children here?

Do you have any suggestions of authors for us to look for?

[Acorn]

Little Dandelion seeds the World by Julia Richardson

 

Bloom Boom by April Pulley Sayre

 

[Carol in Cal.]

I agree—the current crop is terrible.

[historically accurate]

I just ran across a cute one that was new to me: Buffalo Fluffalo by Bess Kalb. 

[Acorn]

Another one that I bought recently because the illustrations are beautiful. They are paper quilling masterpieces. 
Just a Worm by Marie Boyd. It has a worm and insects conversing so not sure if that meets your idea of realistic. I love finding new picture books. I use multiple library systems for my classroom books. I typically just browse the new releases shelf and often find several great ones on each visit.

[Katy]

I went through a phase where I watched a lot of Montessori moms and teachers on YouTube, especially their book videos. But my youngest is 5, so I’m out of the loop on little ones. 

[73349]

Maybe you can ask a librarian for suggestions and then go to the book seller and ask for those authors/books specifically. They tend to see a lot of books go by.

[gardenmom5]

My grandsons really like Llama Llama books.  

[bookbard]

If you're on Facebook, check out "your kids next read" which is an Australian group run by writers which promotes great books. They have a podcast and so on but I basically follow the FB group. There are lots of librarians and writers as well as parents in the group. I can't really recommend picture books because my kids are past that age but there are definitely nice ones being recommended in the group all the time.

[Clarita]

An Egg Is Quiet, A Seed Is Sleepy, A Butterfly is Patient, etc. by Dianna Aston. They aren't silly like Eric Carle but I thought they were beautiful. It's lyrical writing although I don't think it all rhymed. 

Up In the Garden and Down in the Dirt by Kate Messner. 

Maple Hill Farm books weren't around when I was a child but they are 20 years old, but it's younger than Eric Carle.  

Maybe the books tend toward lyrical vs. rhyming. There's a bunch of really good wordless books and I liked to talk to my kids about them (Indestructible books were my favorites because they could be mouthed but were paper-like). 

I am currently reading "Odder" to my kids right now and I think they would have enjoyed it as toddlers, even though it doesn't have a ton of pictures and is more like a chapter book than a picture book. It's just a bunch of poems that weave into a story so you could break it up for a toddler's attention span. (You get the point of view of the Otter so it's fantasy in that way but it's telling a story based on real events that happened around Monterey and the Monterey Bay Aquarium.)

The touch and feel books for the tots I loved the Usborne series "That's Not My ___" is better than the "Don't Touch the ___" in the Brick and Mortar stores. I don't find the really good books at Target and the like. They might be at the smaller bookstores, Books Inc. or I find them in booklists and on Amazon. I think little kids are being read to but where people buy books is different.  

[Clarita]

Oh ... I don't really love repetition. So aside from the Touch and Feel books I stayed away from the repetitive books. 

[Dmmetler]

The Dolly Parton Imagination library list might be a good one to look at. I get a lot of the books donated for my LFL, and they seem to be well selected. 

 

https://imaginationlibrary.com/usa/book-list/

 

https://imaginationlibrary.com/au/book-list/

Edited May 4 by Dmmetler

[Elizabeth86]

As far as touch books we like the That’s not my…dog, cat, train and so on. I’m not 100 clear on the type of books you are looking dlr for, but I love Sarah Mackenzie’s booklists.

[busymama7]

Sarah Mackenzie of the read aloud revival.has good lists on her site and often highlights picture books on social media. She's finds amazing gems.  They just  aren't in bookstores for the most part. 

[Ausmumof3]

I love the read aloud revival podcast recommendations. Some do have a Christian bent if that worries you but many are just really nice books.

 

[LauraClark]

Karma Wilson's books are fantastic (rhyming, but not realistic since they have talking animals). We got to meet her at a library author visit. Is Jan Brett considered newer? Her books are wonderful (but maybe not rhyming? I can't remember). Mo Wilson is a good author, but not rhyming. Loren Long's Otis books are great, but not rhyming. Other newer books we've enjoyed: 

Grumpy Goat (Helquist)-not rhyming

Chickens/Pigs/Cows to the Rescue (Himmelman)- not rhyming

[ScoutTN]

3 hours ago, Ausmumof3 said:

I love the read aloud revival podcast recommendations. Some do have a Christian bent if that worries you but many are just really nice books.

 

Same with Redeemed Reader. Some of their choices have Christian content, but most are just high quality books. They are purposefully reviewing new books. 

Edited May 4 by ScoutTN

[Lawyer&Mom]

Memoria Press puts together amazing picture book sets for the early grades, but you can just look at the list for inspiration if you don’t want to buy all of them at once.  We bought two sets during the pandemic and it was money so well spent.

[chocolate-chip chooky]

20 hours ago, Clarita said:

Oh ... I don't really love repetition. So aside from the Touch and Feel books I stayed away from the repetitive books. 

As I said to my daughter, one of the key elements of a good children's book is that adults actually want to read them. There's no point having a book no-one reads. 

I personally love repetition done well in stories for children. I love that the child can anticipate and join in, and the repetition solidifies the nature of the rhyme or alliteration or onomatopoeia or content. 

Have you ever read any of Lynley Dodd's books?  My current favourite is Hairy Maclary and Zackery Quack. It ticks all my boxes 🥰

[chocolate-chip chooky]

18 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

As far as touch books we like the That’s not my…dog, cat, train and so on. I’m not 100 clear on the type of books you are looking dlr for, but I love Sarah Mackenzie’s booklists.

We're basically looking for two different types of books. Firstly, picture story books, and secondly, touch and feel books. 

While elements like rhyme and repetition are preferred, we certainly love plenty of books without these. 

 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Just now, chocolate-chip chooky said:

We're basically looking for two different types of books. Firstly, picture story books, and secondly, touch and feel books. 

While elements like rhyme and repetition are preferred, we certainly love plenty of books without these. 

 

I'll also add that I'm not specifically after newer authors. I'll happily buy books from any author if they meet our needs.

It's just that the lack of suitable books in stores made us wonder if there aren't many new authors of children's books, which led us to wonder if reading to young children was declining.  A sad thought.

[bookbard]

16 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

t's just that the lack of suitable books in stores made us wonder if there aren't many new authors of children's books, which led us to wonder if reading to young children was declining.  A sad thought.

I don't think that's the case. I do think publishing houses and bookshops are more conservative - if they can sell '10 little fingers and 10 little toes' year after year, why bother with a new author? You will notice the same few authors over and over (Pamela Allen, Mem Fox) with a heap of books to their name. It's the same for the other stages too. There isn't room for a lot of Australian authors, just a handful doing a lot. 

Also, bookshops can only stock a limited number of books which they'll know will sell (again, possum magic and so on). Libraries have a huge selection of picture books, I find, and I would say most people buy books online. Half the price of a book in a bookshop. There isn't even a single bookshop in my local council area. It's Big W or nothing. 

[Ausmumof3]

29 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

I'll also add that I'm not specifically after newer authors. I'll happily buy books from any author if they meet our needs.

It's just that the lack of suitable books in stores made us wonder if there aren't many new authors of children's books, which led us to wonder if reading to young children was declining.  A sad thought.

I think you have to order online unfortunately. I almost find Target/BigW have a bigger range than our bookstore. I agree when buying baby presents etc what’s available in store is quite limited.

[Heartstrings]

33 minutes ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

just that the lack of suitable books in stores made us wonder if there aren't many new authors of children's books, which led us to wonder if reading to young children was declining.  A sad thought.

Honestly, they aren’t buying the books from bookstores, everyone orders them from Amazon.  Book stores only sell books they can reliably count on to move.  When they only dedicate 2 rows to kid books, half of which are classics and half of which are toys, there is very little room for the type of books that you’re talking about.  I bet you can find good titles on Amazon though, or even Barnes and Nobles online.  If you use Amazon for your research it’s very likely that your local bookstore will order the books for you if you’d prefer to buying from Amazon.  
 

The library is also probably a good place to look, they have way more titles than most bookstores.  I read to my kids all the time but tend to buy mostly 2nd hand when I have toddlers and use the library 90% of the time past that.  I just do not have the income required to buy all of the books we’re going to read, especially at Books A Million prices.  I want all of the books, I just can’t buy the 20+ books a week we get from the library at $15 a piece.  

[Momof4sweetkids]

Julia Richardson and Karma Wilson are good for rhyming. We also love Dinnertime!  by Sue Williams.

[caffeineandbooks]

I agree with you that there don't seem to be current Aussie authors to replace the likes of Alison Lester and Mem Fox.  I've had more luck buying on Amazon than in bookstores, and mainly US and UK authors. Perhaps you're right and the increase in good kids TV is coming at the expense of good picture books 😢

Julia Donaldson would be on my Top 10 picture book authors list!  Nick Sharratt did some great interactive rhyming books too.  Also Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie series.  Slightly newer than those: Jon Klassen (I Want My Hat Back and sequels) and Mac Barnett (The Wolf, The Duck & The Mouse; Sam and Dave Dig A Hole) were popular with my kids.  Nominating these more for the stories than the illustrations 🙂

[LauraClark]

12 hours ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

personally love repetition done well in stories for children. I love that the child can anticipate and join in, and the repetition solidifies the nature of the rhyme or alliteration or onomatopoeia or content. 

That reminds me of a few newer ones: 

Napping House (Wood)

Owl Moon (Yolen)- not repetitive, but a great realistic story

The House that Jack Built (can't remember the author) 

Stomp Dinosaur Stomp

Little Blue Truck

Goodnight Construction Site

[happypamama]

I don't really go to bookstores very often, library or Amazon more often, but with my littler guys (17 year gap between oldest and youngest), we discovered the Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site series and Touch the Magic Tree series; both of those are sweet, cute, not too annoying for adults. Little Blue Truck and Bear Wants More (and their series) are also good. 

 

My 5yo adores Goodnight Goon, and its companion We're Going on a Goon Hunt (which are funnier to the adults when tbey have read the originals eighty gazillion times), and anything by the guy who wrote Dragons Love Tacos. . . They're very silly and a little wacky. Maybe not as wacky as the Alpacalypse books (Jonathan Stutzman), but I'm not sure what is. 

 

But The Very Hungry Caterpillar and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie are also favorites of his, so I can't complain. 

[TechWife]

The book Honey for a Child’s Heart is a wonderful resource and includes book lists for all ages. I recently re-read it and I can’t recommend it highly enough. 

Edited May 5 by TechWife

[Mothersweets]

On 5/4/2024 at 2:07 PM, chocolate-chip chooky said:

As I said to my daughter, one of the key elements of a good children's book is that adults actually want to read them. There's no point having a book no-one reads. 

I personally love repetition done well in stories for children. I love that the child can anticipate and join in, and the repetition solidifies the nature of the rhyme or alliteration or onomatopoeia or content. 

Have you ever read any of Lynley Dodd's books?  My current favourite is Hairy Maclary and Zackery Quack. It ticks all my boxes 🥰

Oh my goodness - what a fun series! Thank you for the rec! 

I rarely find something new and "good" at the bookstore unless it is a classic they're sure to have. I have found most of our favorite picture books from everyone here, Honey for.. rec'd above, and by getting lucky at the library. 

[Faith-manor]

"How do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food" and the other titles from that series have lovely artwork, funny little rhyming stories. My grandsons love them. Human parents with dinosaur children, and the thrust of the series is teaching manners and good character traits. The artwork is absolutely adorable. We enjoy reading them to our grands.

[Condessa]

On 5/5/2024 at 3:48 AM, LauraClark said:

That reminds me of a few newer ones: 

Napping House (Wood)

Owl Moon (Yolen)- not repetitive, but a great realistic story

These ones are great, but they were favorites of my preschoolers in my life before motherhood, so not new.

[LauraClark]

10 hours ago, Condessa said:

These ones are great, but they were favorites of my preschoolers in my life before motherhood, so not new.

Ah, thanks. I never check the pub dates and in my mind if it doesn't look old like a Mike Mulligan or a Make Way for Ducklings then it must be new 😂

[bookbard]

Oh, I was thinking about this - my two year old was obsessed with Margaret Wild's book "Miss Lily's Fabulous Pink Feather Boa". Margaret Wild has written a lot of books so still available (There's a Sea in my Bedroom is a real classic). We even drove 3 hrs on her 3rd birthday to see a potaroo because of that book (no, not worth it). It was one of those books that we could all quote because we read it everyday, but it is extremely weird. A bit of a hint to her personality at age 13, I think!