In the world of children’s literature, there’s been some recent debate about whether children’s books are mostly any good. This, dear reader, is a question that I feel particularly qualified to answer: I have spent forty years reading children’s books for fun, twenty years working in children’s publishing, and the past two and a half years reading dozens of new releases each month as I’ve worked on this column, so you can trust me when I say that I have read a lot of children’s books. And do you know what? In my professional opinion, they have been pretty great.
I don’t love every book I read, of course. I am picky and opinionated, and many stories aren’t the right fit for me. (Please don’t ask my children about the picture book that I had to hide from them because its uber-casual approach to poetic meter was making my brain melt!) But a lot of books of which I’ve been skeptical have taken me by surprise with their wit and beauty. Even when a story doesn’t match my tastes, I can imagine a kid somewhere in the world who will adore it. I can imagine a kid who will pick up that book and, in that moment, become a lifelong reader.
This ability to turn humans into readers is the unique magic of children’s books—yes, even the books that adults might not love. This is why I write for children and why I believe so strongly that every child should have access to a wide and diverse selection of literature, whether that’s at school, at the library, in their home, or elsewhere in the community. If you, too, believe in raising a new generation of lifelong readers, you can start by reading and sharing a few of these ten new books publishing this month, all of which look excellent:
