65 Essential Children’s Books

A picture book is a deceptively complex object: Ideally, it should be mind-expanding, psychologically astute, vividly illustrated, and—the most elusive criterion—fun. It must entertain the child without boring the grown-up to tears. And it should teach children to match sounds to meaning, pictures to objects, cause to effect, without feeling like homework. Finding picture books is easy; the market is glutted with them. The hard part is picking out just the right ones. What follows is an effort to bring clarity to the earliest years of literacy, and to help foster a child’s lifelong relationship with books. We hope this selection will assist harried caregivers in sorting the wheat from the chaff, while also giving these formative works the respect and scrutiny they deserve.

Because children’s books vary so much according to age, we decided to limit our scope to titles that lead up to the transition from listening to an adult’s narration to reading independently: illustrated stories without long chapters, meant to be shared. We then asked authors, librarians, and other experts for suggestions and debated works among ourselves, stress-testing both classics and newer books to come up with our final list—of titles you know and those you should.

Over the course of our project, some trends emerged: 1955—peak Baby Boom—was an auspicious year for the genre (when Eloise, Miffy, and the crayon-wielding Harold were created). The 1960s and ’70s brought bold colors and loopier styles to the fore. The 21st century delivered a wider array of stories—migrant journeys, portraits of grief, African and East Asian folktales. No single trait unifies the works below, but each represents a feat of artistry, voice, or complexity that we found exceptional. They are the kinds of books that will be cherished well into the future, worn from use and perhaps replaced more than once. Because of this, they felt essential.