In which Annie (high school teacher, mother of two young girls and a younger boy) and her aunt Deborah (children's bookseller, mother of two young women in their 20s) discuss children's books and come up with annotated lists.

Picture books


Animal books:
Little Gorilla, by Ruth Bornstein
Life-Size Zoo, by Kristin Earhart and Toyofumi Fukuda
Actual Size, by Steve Jenkins
Animal Faces by Kyoko Toda and Akira Satohi
Animal Faces, take 2
Animal Alphabet (Sesame Street)
There Are Cats in This Book, by Viviane Schwarz
There Are No Cats in This Book, by Viviane Schwarz
The Mitten, retold by Alvin Tresselt
the Llama Llama series, by Anna Dewdney
Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr, ill. Eric Carle 
Bird, Butterfly, Eel, by James Prosek
Ollie, by Olivier Dunrea
My Friends, by Taro Gomi
This is Not My Hat, by John Classen
Mr. Wuffles!, by David Wiesner

Art-related books:
Norman the Doorman, by Don Freeman
The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, by Eric Carle
Mouse Paint, by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Painting with Picasso, by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober
My First ABC
Museum Shapes
Can You Find It?
I Love to Draw!, by Jennifer Lipsey
The Dot, by Peter Reynolds
Ish, by Peter Reynolds
I Can Draw People, by Ray Gibson
I Can Draw Animals, by Ray Gibson

Awesomely British:
The Tiger Who Came to Tea, by Judith Kerr
Out and About, by Shirley Hughes
Cops and Robbers, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Alfie's Feet, by Shirley Hughes

Bad behavior is entertaining:
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss 
No Jumping on the Bed! by Tedd Arnold
Maya Makes a Mess, by Rutu Modan
Manners, by Aliki
Feelings, by Aliki

Beach books (see also Summer books):
The Sand Castle Contest, by Robert Munsch
Traction Man and the Beach Odyssey, by Mini Grey
Flotsam, by David Weisner
One Morning in Maine, by Robert McCloskey
Belly Button Book, by Sandra Boynton
How Will We Get to the Beach? by Brigitte Luciani

Birthday books:
Little Gorilla, by Ruth Bornstein
Who Made This Cake? by Chihiro Nakagawa
So Much, by Trisha Cook

Books for grumpy, tired toddlers:

Books it's fun to read aloud with funny accents:

Books it's fun to read aloud because of rhythm and rhyme:
Books with racially diverse/mostly non-white characters:

Books with songs in them:

Caldecott winners:
2011: A Sick Day for Amos McGee, by Philip Stead, ill. Erin Stead
2012: This is Not My Hat, by Jon Klassen

Deborah's choices for what should have been Caldecott winners:
2012: Sleep Like a Tiger, by Mary Logue (longer review here)

Childhood perception books:

Classic (and lovely strange):

Concept books:
Cookbooks/Books with recipes in them:

Counting books:

on Death:

Dinosaur books:
Emotion books (identifying and dealing with strong emotions):

Expanding the notion of Princess:

Fairy Tales and Folk Tales:
Family focused books:

First words:
First 100 Words

Friendship and communication:

Friendship and its pitfalls:

Gay-themed/gay-friendly books:
In Our Mothers' House, by Patricia Polacco
Everywhere Babies, by Susan Meyers, ill. Marla Frazee
Heather Has Two Mommies, by Leslea Newman
A Tale of Two Mommies, by Vanita Oelschlager
A Tale of Two Daddies, by Vanita Oelschlager
Mommy, Mama, and Me, by Leslea Newman
Daddy, Papa, and Me, by Leslea Newman
Donovan's Big Day, by Leslea Newman
King and King, byLinda de Haan and Stern Nijland
And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
The Different Dragon, by Jennifer Bryan
ABC a Family Alphabet Book, by Bobbie Combs
123 a Family Counting Book, by Bobbie Combs
The Family Book, by Todd Parr
Lucy Goes to the Country, by Joseph Kennedy
Monday is One Day, by Arthur A. Levine
The Trouble with Babies, by Martha Freeman
The Great Big Book of Families, by Mary Hoffman
Uncle Bobby's Wedding, by Sarah S. Brannan
Operation Marriage, by Cynthia Chin-Lee 
The Boy Who Cried Fabulous by Leslea Newman
Piggy Bunny, by Rachel Vail

Girls (spunky, independent, dog-owning):

Goodnight books:

Historical fiction:

Holiday Books:
Humor:

Hospital/Injury stories (see Sickness, too):
Magic:
Moon books:

Mother-related books:
New baby books:

Non-fiction/Fact-based books:

On Love:

Opposites:
Picky eaters:
Bread and Jam for Frances, by Russell and Lillian Hoban

Picture books for much older kids:
Place-specific books:
Poetry/Poetic books:
Quirky and out of print:

Rhyming books:
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
The Gruffalo, by Julia Donaldson, ill. Axel Scheffler
The Snail and the Whale, by Julia Donaldson, ill. Axel Scheffler
The Cat in the Hat, by Dr. Seuss
The Llama Llama series, by Anna Dewdney
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, by Dr. Seuss
Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss

Self-aware books (books that acknowledge their own book-ness):
There Are Cats in This Book, by Viviane Schwarz
There Are No Cats in This Book, by Viviane Schwarz
Press Here, by Herve Tullet
We Are in a Book! (Elephant and Piggie), by Mo Willems
The Monster at the End of This Book (Sesame Street)
The Book with No Pictures, by B.J. Novak

School books:
Chrysanthemum, by Kevin Henkes
Ruby the Copycat, by Peggy Rathmann
Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse, by Kevin Henkes
Officer Buckle and Gloria, by Peggy Rathmann
Timothy Goes to School, by Rosemary Wells
Henry in Love, by Peter McCarty
Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten, by Joseph Slate
The Night Before Kindergarten, by Natasha Wing

Sibling relationship books:
Social Messages:
Tall Tales:

Train/Truck/Heavy Equipment books:

Underdogs succeeding:
Norman the Doorman, by Don Freeman

on War:
Wordless or spare of text books:
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