- My List of Top Storybooks to Read in 2016
- Story and Real Life Merge
- Road Testing a Story Mock-Up
- Bringing People Together with Story
- Blogging for Writers
- New Year Writer: resolutions that work
- How to Find Great Storybooks
- International Appeal: how to write for it
- TOP Books for the Local Library 2015
- My List of Top Storybooks 2017
- Choosing to read a self published book over a traditional one.
- Why Powells Bookshops Are Awesome
- Inspiration at the London Book Fair
- Private: GSB Guest Blog Guidelines
What is my new List of Top Storybooks to Read in 2016? Find out what I’m asking the local library to order.
I love to read illustrated storybooks to kids. It’s fun (first and foremost) and it gives me some real insight into what kids like, love and don’t get. As a writer, this is really important.
Artwork by Jonny Lindner.
For nearly four years, I’ve been reading illustrated storybooks to kids at the local library. Afterward, we do a crafts project related to the book. I’m not a librarian, but the library has hired me on a contractual basis to work there for one hour per month, just for this reading event, the only one in the English language.
The library where I read is in the small town of Homburg, Germany. The kid’s section is whimsical and offers lots of space for ready listeners. There are kids from all over who come to hear an English-language story: the US and UK, but also Syria, Italy, Korea, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, etc. It’s something I love.
I get to pick the books, so that means around this time of year, I hunt down the up-and-coming storybooks that I think are most promising. Then I send my list to the public library so they can place the book order.
When I’m done with the reading and crafts event (what the librarians call Happy Palmtree – because there is a large plush palm tree people can sit underneath in the kid’s section and because Happy Palmtree is English-ish), the library keeps the book and it’s available for the town’s kids to borrow.
This is my list, the list I’ve emailed the local library so that they’ll order these as they become available (some are not yet released). In no particular order.
My List of Top Storybooks to Read in 2016
1. Mo Willems
The Thank You Book
2. Britta Teckentrup
Tree
3. Richard Collingridge
Lionheart
Watch Collingridge’s wonderful TEDx Talk HERE. It’s both inspiring and funny!
4. David Litchfield
The Bear and the Piano
5. Lita Judge
Hoot and Peep
6. Jane Yolen and Chris Sheban
What to do with a Box
7. Mac Barnett and Chris van Dusen
ISBN-10: 0763665568
President Taft is Stuck in the Bath
(cover not yet released)
Read more about Mac Barnett HERE, and Chris van Dusen HERE.
8. Tara Lazar and S. Britt
ISBN-10: 1454913215
Normal Norman
9. Michelle Robinson and David Roberts
A Beginner’s Guide to Bear Spotting
10. Susan McElroy Montanari and Anne Wilsdorf
My Dog’s a Chicken
How a book gets on this list.
To get on my radar, you need to have a history of creating quality stories. It doesn’t matter how a book is published, but it does need to be published during the year I read it at the library (read: not the year before). It also has to be in print, not just an ebook.
What new, up-and-coming books are you excited about? (Yes, it can be your own book. Of course!) Write below, let me know – or, as ever, send me an email.
Keep creating, no matter what.
--Download My List of Top Storybooks to Read in 2016 as PDF --