Best Picture Books of 2023

 Here's my list of favorite/best picture books published in 2023

The Search for the Giant Arctic Jellyfish by Chloe Savage

Dr Morley goes to the arctic with a skilled crew to find the legendary giant Arctic jellyfish, which no one has ever seen. As they search, they see beluga whales, orcas, narwhals, and polar bears; they see the aurora and icebergs; they dive into the depths of the sea and travel to new places. They work very hard, but still no jellyfish. Eventually the failure of their trip starts to sink in and they prepare to return home, when Dr Morley catches a glimpse of something--"could that be?" What the illustrations reveal that my description does not is that the jellyfish is there the whole time, hiding. Children will undoubtedly see this as they read. The ink and watercolor illustrations are beautiful and transporting. On some pages, we see intricate cross-sections of the boat, revealing every room and every person at work. Other pages display explorations and magnificent scenery both above and below the water. What made this a favorite of mine is the meaning, which I think could be summed up as: Have faith. Don't lose hope. 

How Do You Spell Unfair?: MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Frank Morrison

In 1936, eight grader Macnolia Cox won the Akron, Ohio spelling bee. She was the first African American to win, and she and another girl were the first African American students to advance and compete in the National Spelling Bee in Washington DC. This book tells the story of her academic excellence and the discrimination she faced on her way to prove that African American students were just as smart as everyone else. Macnolia excelled at the National Spelling Bee and only made a mistake when asked to spell a word that was not in the dictionaries provided by the spelling bee to study. "Can you spell U-N-F-A-I-R?" the narrator asks. Frank Morrison really takes this book to the next level with his illustrations. The colors are saturated and vibrant. The emotions are palpable. I love looking at Macnolia. She looks small on stage with her nerves, serene when studying, fierce when facing racism, and proud, knowing who she is. Wonderful.

Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang

Liddy is so excited to go to Dim Sum Palace, she can hardly sleep. But before she knows it, she's following an irresistible smell to the kitchens of Dim Sum Palace. There are treats of every size and shape, but before she can eat, she tumbles into a bowl of dumpling filling and gets folded into a dumpling to be served to a very hungry empress. This was a delight. I love the style of the illustrations--particularly all those round cheeked-faces. Now I need to go get some dim sum...

Afikomen by Tziporah Cohen and Yaara Eshet

In this wordless picture book, loved ones gather round the table to celebrate Passover. The children steal the afikomen and climb under the table with it, only something strange happens. When they pass under the tablecloth, they find themselves in Egypt. They watch a woman place her baby in a basket and put it in the river. They follow the basket, trying to keep it safe until it's found by Pharaoh's daughter. My favorite part of this book is the page where the children open the basket themselves to see Moses. Yaara Eshet captures the most wonderful moment of awe on the children's faces. I love how this book combines reverence and childlike play.

Have You Seen My Invisible Dinosaur? by Helen Yoon

The little narrator in this picture book is looking for her invisible dinosaur. It's a challenge because once she cleans him, he's...invisible. Many of her schemes to find him (like putting up Lost Dinosaur flyers which contain an empty square for a picture, because the dinosaur is invisible, after all) fail, until suddenly, she does find him. Funny, silly, and whimsical.

Roll, Roll Little Pea by Cécile Bergame, illustrated by Magali Attiogbé

In this picture book for younger readers, a pea rolls away across the floor, under the stairs, past the mouse and the cat, and you get the idea. There's some nice repetition and eye catching bold and bright illustrations.

You Go First by Ariel Bernstein, illustrated by Marc Rosenthal

There's a new slide in town, and Cat and Duck are excited to try it. Or at least Duck is. Cat is not so sure. Cat finds lots of ways to procrastinate trying the slide and eventually warns Duck of all that could go wrong. When Cat sees that Duck doesn't want to go anymore because of the worries he introduced, he sees the only solution is to show her how fun the slide is. A funny and sweet story about overcoming fears and being a good friend.

Simon and the Better Bone by Corey Tabor

Simon the dog sees another dog with a bone better than his. Only it's not another dog, it's his own reflection and he doesn't realize it. He tries various tactics to get the bone, but they mostly don't work (for obvious reasons). When he thinks his new friend has lost his bone, he offers him a new one. Based of Aesop's "The Dog and his Reflection," this one is sweet and funny. Tabor illustrated it so that you hold the book horizontally instead of vertically, so that the reflection is on the bottom and Simon is on the top. Fun.

The Biggest Mistake by Camilla Pintonato

Lion thinks catching gazelles will be easy, but each time he tries, he learns that maybe it's not so easy. Bright, bold and fun.

A Walk in the Woods by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney

A boy finds an envelope with a map from his father who recently passed away. He goes into the woods and finds a box his dad made when he was his son's age. It's filled with drawings of and poetry about the woods. One of the things that makes this book really special is the story behind those that made it. Celebrated illustrator Jerry Pinkney died before this books could be finished. But he had made the sketches for the book, and they were used for the illustrations. Then Jerry's son Brian finished the sketches by adding color in his own style. They're pretty fantastic. So this is book about a boy grieving the loss of his father and walking in the woods as his father loved to do, illustrated by a son grieving the loss of his father who loved to take walks in the woods. Beautifully written by Nikki Grimes, and beautifully illustrated by the Pinkneys. 

Honorable mention:

The Real Story by Sergio Ruzzier

The Red Fruit by Lee Gee Eun

Problem Solved! by Jan Thomas

See the Ghost by David LaRochelle, illustrated by Mike Wohnoutka

Mine! A Story of Not Sharing by Klara Persson, illustrated by Charlotte Ramel

How to Count to 1 by Caspar Salmon, illustrated by Matt Hunt

Books of 2023

Books read: 38
Adult: 15
Teen: 5
Children's: 17
Fiction: 23
Nonfiction: 13
Graphic novels: 11

(See everything I read in 2023 at the end)

Paradise Lost by John Milton

A Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis

I started Paradise Lost in 2022 and finished in 2023. It was work to get through, but it was worth it. I was amazed how often I've thought of it since. Part of Milton's genius is his rich portrayal of Satan. Satan is the embodiment of pride and selfishness, with a fair amount of resentment and deceit thrown in. You can see so much of what he says being said in today's world. I also loved the depiction of Adam and Eve and the Fall. His portrayal of them as husband and wife in the garden is tender, and the Fall and the sins that follow heart-breaking. But God appears to them and sends His Son to cover their nakedness both outward (with "skins of beasts") and inward ("with his robe of righteousness"). Later as Adam and Eve are consumed with so much despair that they consider suicide, they remember the love and grace of God: "with what mild / And gracious temper he both heard, and judged, / Without wrath or reviling." They conclude:

He will instruct us praying, and of grace
Beseeching him; so as we need not fear
To pass commodiously this life, sustained
By him with many comforts, till we end
In dust, our final rest and native home.

Overall a beautiful and rich work, with depths that could be explored again and again. I would be remiss if I didn't mention C. S. Lewis's A Preface to Paradise Lost, which I found very helpful, especially as I struggled with sections that bothered my modern sensibilities.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

It's all about chapter 17. I found the world Huxley created to be prophetic and also kind of icky. While the world is designed to be a place of continual happiness, the Savage sees the absence of all genuine life experience, emotion, and meaning. When he defiantly claims or welcomes the sufferings and misery that is part and parcel of a fully lived life, I got chills:

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."

"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."

"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."

"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in the constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.

"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson

This one is personal. After Covid emptied my life, I became interested in the topics of meaning and suffering, which is how I ended up picking up this book, knowing next to nothing about Peterson himself. I found Peterson's rules and perspective to be very helpful as I tried to rebuild my life. His analyses of biblical stories were illuminating as well.

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann*

An exciting tale of survival that reads like a novel. A British ship called the Wager left England in 1742, then wrecked on an island at the edge of the world. Months later a boat of dying sailors landed in Brazil, telling the tale of their shipwreck and survival. Then six months later another even more ramshackle boat of three sailors arrived in Chile, claiming there had been a mutiny. You just can't make this stuff up. And what a life it was being a sailor back then! Interesting and fun to read from beginning to end.

The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel*

Truth is stranger in fiction in this biography of a self-proclaimed "liberator" of art who stole hundreds of artifacts purely to view them in the comfort of his own home. Or at least that's how it started. As he steals more and more, his obsession starts to look like an addiction so much that even his longtime girlfriend and accomplice starts to worry. Nothing about this story is predictable--especially not the end! (Also, it's super short, if that matters to you. No judgment.)

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated by Oliver Ready

I don't usually think of classics as page-turners, but this one gripped me from the start. Raskolnikov is obsessed with the idea that he could be above the rule of law and morality and decides to murder someone he thinks the world would be better off without. He goes through with it, but many things, internal and external, do not go the way he expects. The moment that really captured me and sticks in my mind months later, is the story of Sonya which is related by her father, Marmeladov, in chapter one. Marmeladov tells Raskolnikov of how his own alcoholism resulted in his daughter going into prostitution to provide for the family. Nothing is stated outright as I just did. It's implied, and it'll rip your heart out. That was the moment I thought, whoa, Dostoevsky knows how to tell a story. And if those two storylines weren't enough, Raskonikov's sister gets caught in a dramatic scandal involving the unwanted affections of her employer. Crime and Punishment is intense and psychological. I read Oliver Ready's translation. And now that I've read it, the cover of this edition seems pretty on point.

Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable*

The only horror I enjoy is horror for kids, and this graphic novel is wonderfully, deliciously eerie. As an example, in one tale, three kids spot a drone and it's being controlled by a ghost, which they decide to chase after. They chase and bully and mock this ghost all the way into an abandoned house and then that's it. The next page shows an eerily familiar drone, spotted by some children we haven't seen, controlled by four ghosts, one we've seen before and three who closely resemble the kids who did the chasing. Great illustrations, pacing, and use of color. A delight. (Children's/middle grade)

How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. Rudd*

Twelve-year-old Raymond comes home from school one day to find his parents gone. They've cleared out of their trailer, leaving only the dog. Raymond doesn't want to end up in a group home again, so he tries to find a way to survive on his own. Raymond learns about his own tenacity, but more importantly, he learns about the kindness of others. A heart-warming book that affirms the goodness of humanity. Who doesn't need that nowadays? (Middle grade)

Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez*

Written in free verse, this is the story of Aniana, who loves swimming more than anything. But she and her father have to hide her participation on the swim team because of trauma her mother suffered years before. When mysteriously stiff and swollen joints suddenly prevent her from moving in the most ordinary ways, she must admit her secret to the doctors as they try to figure out what's wrong. Swimming becomes a point of conflict, as Ani tries to figure out how to advocate for herself, improve her health, and maintain her relationship with her mother, who tends to interpret maladies as punishments from God. (Middle grade/middle school)

Dagfrid, Viking Girl: No More Ear Buns! By Agnes Mathieu-Dade*

Dagfrid is a Viking. She thinks her name is terrible. She hates wearing her hair in the prescribed "ear buns." She doesn't like long dresses. She hates fish. And she's bored, but she's not allowed to sail to America. So she decides to "sail for the high seas" and go exploring. In this easy chapter book, Dagfrid quickly became my favorite grumpy Viking girl. The illustrations of her perpetually grumpy face and her Viking adventures are hilarious and so is the story. (Easy chapter book)

Books Read in 2023:

Ride On by Faith Erin Hicks • Notre Dame: The Soul of France by Agnes Poirier • The Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat • Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake • Born Standing Up by Steve Martin • A Preface to Paradise Lost by C. S. Lewis • Paradise Lost by John Milton • The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi • Frizzy by Claribel A. Ortega, illustrated by Rose Bousamra • 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson • Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessic Day George • The One and Only Ivan by Katharine Applegate • Courtiers by Valentine Low • Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos • Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky • Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe • The Last Battle by C. S. Lewis • Throwback by Maurene Goo* • A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat* • Brave New World by Aldous Huxley • Flamer by Mike Curato • The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions by Jonathan Rosen* • Four Eyes by Rex Ogle • Take by Jennifer Bradbury* • Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang* • The Art Thief: A True Story of Love, Crime, and a Dangerous Obsession by Michael Finkel • How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. Rudd • Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez* • Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable* • Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham* • Lost Boy by Jay Martin* • Squished by Megan Wagner Lloyd, illustrated by Michelle Mee Nutter • When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi • The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann • The House of the Lost on the Cape by Sachiko Kashiwaba* • The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx • Dagfrid, Viking Girl: No More Ear Buns! By Agnes Mathieu-Dade* • The Book That No One Wanted to Read by Richard Ayoade*

*indicates published in 2023

If you are ever interested in content warnings or other info on any book I've read, feel free to ask!f.