Keeping up with all. those. lists.

I don’t know about you, but I’m already flinging my hands skyward in surrender. Uncle!

There’s simply no way I can find/read every Best-Picture-Books-of-2024 list dropping about now, not during this, the busiest (most wonderful?) time of the year. My dream is to catch up next month….

With that in mind, please go ahead and mention your favorite, can’t-miss, year-end list in our comments section so we can all enjoy clicking through them next month.

The one I do keep up with (and have been for years) is SLJ’s Fuse #8 blog, written by Chicago Librarian Betsy Bird. Every day in December she posts a new list–in 31 different categories, and OH BOY she posts the covers. Not dinky thumbnails you have to squint at, either, but in a decent size you can appreciate. And I do. A slow scroll through those bright beauties is day lifter. But she doesn’t stop with the covers; she also gives her take on WHY each one is a standout.

So, here’s my fave: https://afuse8production.slj.com

What’s yours?

Jill Esbaum

Jill Esbaum has been picture book crazy since her 3 kids were little, and especially so after her first was published in 2004 (Stink Soup). Recent titles: Bird Girl - Gene Stratton-Porter Shares Her Love of Nature With the World, Parrotfish Has a Superpower, Stinkbird Has a Superpower, Sea Turtle Swims, Kangaroo Hops, Jack Knight's Brave Flight, We Love Babies!, Where'd My Jo Go?, Frog Boots, How to Grow a Dinosaur, Frankenbunny, If a T. Rex Crashes Your Birthday Party, Elwood Bigfoot– Wanted: Birdie Friends!, Teeny Tiny Toady, I Am Cow, Hear Me Moo!, and more. Coming in 2025: Polecat Has a Superpower!, It's Corn-Picking Time!, Giraffe Runs. She's also the author of many nonfiction books for young readers, as well as an early graphic reader series, Thunder & Cluck. Learn more at http://jillesbaum.com.

8 Comments:

  1. 1. A Cozy Winter Day by Eliza Wheeler
    2. Mr. Fox’s Game of No by David LaRochelle
    3. We Are a Class by Rob Sanders
    4. The Other Side of Tomorrow by Iowa writer Tina Cho (This is a MG graphic novel and it is so well written!)
    5. So Cold by John Coy
    6. Just Us by Molly Beth Griffin

  2. Oh, good idea! Thanks, Jill! So busy this month…

  3. Debra Kempf Shumaker

    Yes, there are SO many “Best of Lists”. I’m with you, Jill. My go-to is Betsy Bird’s.

  4. I agree with following Betsy Bird’s month of splendor! I also like to see which books made NCTE poetry/novel-in-verse list.

  5. That sounds like a good one, too, Buffy!

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