Great New Books for Children and Teens in Person

Logo from ccbc.education.wisc.edu

 

IFLS Library System, Northern Waters Library Services, and Wisconsin Valley Library Service invites you to: 

Great New Books for Children and Teens

Presented by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) 

Thursday, April 9 from 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Celebration Hall  

235 E Main St, Gilman, WI 54433

 

Register by Sunday, March 29: https://forms.gle/byHRgBQjF7LdTKW66

 

CCBC Librarians Merri Lindgren and Tessa Michaelson Schmidt will discuss this year’s best books for ages birth to 18! Highlighted books will be available for hands-on book examination during lunch.

 

This free event is open to library professionals and educators.

 

9:30 - 10 a.m. Registration & Light Refreshments

10 - 11:30 a.m. Great New Books for Birth - Grade 5 *This morning session is worth 1.5 contact hours.

11:30 - 1 p.m. Book Browsing and Complimentary Lunch

1 - 2:30 p.m. Great New Books for Grades 6 - 12 *This afternoon session is worth 1.5 contact hours.

 

Space is limited! Please register by March 29: https://forms.gle/byHRgBQjF7LdTKW66

Questions? Reach out to Emily Rogers at erogers@wvls.org.

ICYMI Storytime Books of 2025

What books published in 2025 work best for storytime? We've got you covered with a roundup of  some best of 2025 lists!

Photo by Yan Krukau from Pexels

JBrary

Every year JBrary pulls together a list of their favorite picture books for storytime. This year Lindsey Krabbenhoft compiled the list her "top picks for picture books published in 2025 that make excellent read-alouds to groups of babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and school-age kids."

You can find the entire list here: https://jbrary.com/2025-favourite-storytime-picture-books/. 

The post includes links to Jbrary's Favorite Storytime Picture Books going back to 2013. Definitely worth going back through and seeing what gems you could add to your storytimes!

LaLa Librarian 

Alyssa Jewell, a.k.a. La La Librarian, read over 500 picture books published in 2025 to "painstakingly narrow that list down to a top 10 for storytime read-alouds." It's specifically, curated for with suggestions for storytimes with preschool, kindergarten, and 1st graders.

You can find her list: https://www.lalalibrarian.com/blog/best-storytime-books-of-2025.

 Fuse8

As part of her 31 Days, 31 Lists series in December, Besty Bird featured Picture Book readalouds sure to "shake up your readaloud game, all plucked from 2025 publications."

Bird links to her readaloud list from years past but I'd also encourage you to check out the full 31 Days, 31 Lists series like Great Board Books, Funny Picture Books, Nonfiction Picture Books and so many more great suggestions.

 

The Best 25 Picture Books of the Past 25 Years

Photo by Taylor Heery on Unsplash

 When you think about picture books, it's often easy to recall the classics of your youth. When someone asks about my favorite children's books, the first that come to mind are Corduroy, Caps for Sale, or anything by Richard Scarry. Then more current options pop up like Fluffy McWhiskers Cuteness Explosion, Julian is a Mermaid, or Your Birthday was the Best. 

Writing for Slate.com Dan Kois and Rebecca Onion have compiled a list of the best picture books from the past 25 years, proving that new(er) books have a place alongside those classics we remember. The article states, "Picture books have undergone a revolution in the past 25 years...The art form is now remarkably different from what it was when we were little." 

Read the full article and find out if any of your favorites made the list here.

[The 25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years. Kois, Dan & Onion, Rebecca. September 22, 2025. Slate.com.] https://slate.com/culture/2025/09/best-kids-books-2025-picture-read-aloud-new.html

Tuesday Tips - Jbrary's 2023 Favorite Storytime Picture Books

Sam Jones is the Youth Services Librarian at the Beaver Dam Public Library. She shares tips to make your job easier in her Tuesday posts.

Jbrary just posted their favorite storytime picture books that were published in 2023. If you don't know what Jbrary is, it is a fantastic storytime resource that I, and many others, use often. They recommended 38 picture books this year. You can see them all here.

I've also enjoyed a lot of these books. One of those books is Bing! Bang! Chugga! Beep! By Bill Martin Jr. and Michael Sampson and illustrated by Nathalie Beauvois. It has a great, repetitive story and can be sung to the tune "This Old Man." Kids liked repeating "Bing, bang, chugga, beep." 

As a dog lover, I knew that Boop! by Bea Birdsong and illustrated by Linzie Hunter would be one of my personal favorites when I bought it. Kids can boop the dogs' snoots. 

Finally, I just read I’m Going to Build a Snowman by Jashaw Awan to a group of kids in a 4k class, and they LOVED it. We pretended to build a snowman while I read the book, and they were super engaged throughout the story. I'm excited to see how the other recommendations play out during my storytimes.

Best Multicultural Children's Books List Available

In December, the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature (CSMCL) selected its Best Multicultural Children’s Books of 2019. The list, curated by Dr. Claudette Shackelford McLinn, Lessa Kanani'opua Pelayo-Lozada, Lettycia Terrones, and Dr. Naomi Caldwell, is available as a printable PDF. For more information on each of the titles chosen, visit the CSMCL website. 

--From the February 2020 issue of the ALSC Matters Newsletter

2020 Rainbow Book List - GLBTQ Books for Teens and Children

The Rainbow Round Table of the American Library Association has just released a powerful list of 92 titles of the best of youth books featuring significant GLBTQ content.

From their website: "The Rainbow Book List Committee is proud to announce the 2020 Rainbow Book List. The List is a curated bibliography highlighting books with significant gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer/questioning content, aimed at children and youth from birth to age 18. This list is intended to aid youth and those working with youth in selecting high-quality books published in the United States of America between July 1, 2018 and December 31, 2019."

You can find the entire list here

Book Lists Galore!

'Tis the season for oodles of book lists, fa la la la, la la la la

Best of, notable, can't miss book lists, fa la la la la, la la la la



The New York Times Book Review recently announced their Notable Children's Books of 2018.

Paste Magazine shared their picks for the 30 Best Young Adult Novels of 2018.

Chicago Public Library, rockin' out oodles of book lists with their Best of the Best Books, 2018 edition.

The annual Goodreads Choice Awards 2018 winners have also been announced!

Holy guacamole, that's a lot of fabulous books!  (and the lists are still coming, believe you me!)

Happy perusing!

NCTE Best Science Books of 2018 for Gr K-12

The annual National Science Teachers Association list is out. 

Hope you have all of these great 2017 science books in your school or public library collections!!

Best Book Word Clouds

Tired of boring old book lists?  How can you share some great teen books in a visually arresting way?

I came across some beautiful word clouds that compile information from best books lists to create a beautiful, engaging design.  For a more traditional word cloud, check out the one Erin Daly created for the Hub (YALSA's blog).  For a funky, star-shaped cloud, check out this one, created by Gina Beirne.

Best Books Lists - Useful or Not?

The website education.com published a list of fifty books they recommend that kids be familiar with before they start Kindergarten.  It joins other lists like NYPL's 100 Picture Books Everyone Should Know.  Recently updated, the ALSC School Age Services Committee revised the Early Elementary Reads List in a downloadable format.

Do you try to make these types of booklists available to your community (whether homegrown or sharing lists like this)?  What do you think of the choices made by the above lists?

NYPL recommends 100 children’s books from 2010

From the New York Public Library Blog, Dec. 2

Jeanne Lamb writes: “Librarians have been recommending books to children for well over 100 years, and children have been just as eager to pass on their favorites. The New York Public Library’s Children’s Books 2010 (PDF file) provides a snapshot of some of the outstanding books published this year.

Over 20 librarians read several hundred books, often sharing advance copies with the children in their branch libraries. Their choices range from books to share with toddlers to books that will keep the most sophisticated readers on the edge of their seats.”