Home | All Board Books, Fiction Picture Books, and Nonfiction Picture Books
With a subtle conversational tone, Electricity: Bulbs, Batteries, and Sparks by Darlene Stille (illustrated by Sheree Boyd; Picture Book Window, 2004; Amazing Science series) throughout suggests trying experiments . For example, it suggests things such as flicking switches, or rubbing socks on the floor. It also asks questions such ash as “have you ever…?” Facts …
The Apartment: A Century of Russian History by Alexandra Litvina (illustrated by Anna Desnitskaya; Harry Abrams, 2017) illustrates 100 years of Russian history through the lives of the changing residents in a Moscow apartment and the lives they lead. With the Muromstev family as a connecting link, the reader learns of the dozens of children …
Plants that Never Ever Bloom by Ruth Heller (Puffin, 1984) is an older picture book that provides examples off various fungi that grow around the world as well as evergreens, illustrating how these living organisms do not bloom as we might assume all plants do. Since it is older, the illustrations and cover have that …
The lovingly illustrated One Tiny Turtle by Nicola Davies (illustrated by Jane Chapman; Candlewick, 2005) combines just the right amount of rhythmic text, full page illustrations, and factual subtexts to immerse the reader into world of sea turtles. The picture book begins with a scientific note about turtles. Then, a story starts with a young …
In Michael Recycle by Ellie Bethel (illustrated by Alexandra Colombo; IDW Publishing, 2008), the goofy illustrations and the rhyming text make for an amusing read aloud. The picture book gives the reader helpful information on how to recycle when a superhero (the titular “Michael Recycle”) comes to town to help the town learn what it …
Author-illustrator Sophie Blackall captures an imagined large farm family’s journey through the years in Farmhouse (Little Brown Books for Young Readers, 2022). Her text tells about the things the family does in the house and her detailed collage illustrations go from room to room illustrating the large and loving family growing up in the house. …
The picture book My Book and Me by Linda Sue Park (illustrated by Chris Raschka; Red Comet Press, 2024) is a poem championing a child’s favorite book. It’s told with a first person child’s voice and, with Raschka’s distinct and unique, almost childlike, illustrations, it becomes universal with many children sharing their thoughts about their …
Children love the ridiculous. The first picture book to be a runner-up (Honor) book for the Newbery Award, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág (published 1928), certainly meets the “ridiculousness” standards for a young child to giggle at. With silly but adorable plot, quaint black-and-white illustrations, and hand-formed text, the book still has eye-rolling childhood …
The nonfiction picture book Volcanoes by Franklyn M. Branley (illustrated by Megan Lloyd; Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out book, Level 2; published 1985/reissued 2008) starts by telling the story of a few famous volcanoes, including Mount Tambora, Mount Vesuvius, and Mount Saint Helens. These very real stories immediately draw in the reader to the subject. Subsequent pages cover the …
The uniquely illustrated picture book A Log’s Life by Wendy Pfeffer (illustrated by Robin Brickman; Simon & Schuster, 1997) shows the interconnectedness of ecosystems through the life of an oak tree. Three-dimensional collage illustrations bring the different creatures and textures to life in the illustrations. This picture book explains the cycle of decomposition with a …
Seymour Simon’s nonfiction picture books have the bonus of being illustrated with full-color photographs. In his Coral Reefs (Harper Collins, 2013), the beauty of the coral reef is shown in the rich photos. Simon begins with a thorough discussion of various types of corals, along with images that show their distinct shapes and patterns. He …
The text-heavy picture book The Island that Moved: How Shifting Forces Shape Our Earth by Meredith Hooper (illustrated by Lucia deLeiris; Viking, 2004) may be too wordy for a read-aloud, but it is an illustrated example of the changing geologic earth from era to era, thanks to the many forces at work on the tectonic …
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