While your child may request multiple readings of “Goodnight Moon” every evening, there are so many wonderful children’s books out
there just waiting to be discovered. We chatted with experts from
Scholastic, Barnes & Noble, The New York Public Library and the musical story hour mavens behind Storytime By Design, Inc. for their of-the-moment favorite books for every age.
For Babies (Board Books)
“How Do Dinosaurs Laugh Out Loud,”
by Jane Yolen
“Dot & Dash Meet Their Friends,”
by Emma Dodd
—recommended by Scholastic
“Guess How Much I Love You,”
by Sam McBratney
“Little Blue Truck,”
by Alice Schertle
—recommended by Barnes & Noble
“Hello, Animals!” and “Hello, Bugs!”
by Smriti Prasadam
“Pecan Pie Baby”
by Jacqueline Woodson
—recommended by the NY Public Library
“Beautiful Oops!”
by Barney Saltzberg
“Ten Tiny Babies”
by Karen Katz
—recommended by Storytime By Design
Picture Books (0-4)
“Mr. Putnety’s Quacking Dog,”
by Jon Agee
“And I Love You,”
by Ruth Krauss
—recommended by Scholastic
“We Are in a Book! (Elephant & Piggie Series)”
by Mo Willems
“How Rocket Learned to Read”
by Tad Hills
—recommended by Barnes & Noble
“Creak! Said The Bed”
by Phyllis Root
“Children Make Terrible Pets”
by Peter Brown
—recommended by Storytime By Design
“Farm”
by Elisha Cooper
“Chalk”
by Bill Thompson —recommended by the NY Public Library
Early Readers (5-8)
“From Caterpillar To Butterfly”
by Deborah Heiligman
“Stink: Solar System Superhero (Book #5)”
by Megan McDonald
—recommended by Barnes & Noble
“Ling & Ting: Not Exactly the Same”
by Grace Lin
“Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse”
by Marilyn Singer
—recommended by the NY Public Library
“Bink & Gollie”
by Kate DiCamillo and Alison McGhee
“Pierre The Penguin” by Jean Marzollo
—recommended by Storytime By Design
Middle Grade (7-10)
“The Clockwork Three”
by Matthew Kirby
“Bobby The Brave (Sometimes)”
by Lisa Yee
—recommended by Scholastic
“A Really Short History of Nearly Everything”
by Bill Bryson
“Strange Case of Origami Yoda”
by Tom Angleberger
—recommended by Barnes & Noble
“One Crazy Summer”
by Rita Garcia-Williams’s
“The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place:
Book One: The Mysterious Howling” by
Maryrose Wood
—recommended by the NY Public Library
“The Mysterious Benedict Society Collection”
by Trenton Lee Stewart
—recommended by Storytime By Design, Inc.
Young Adults/ Tweens
“Plain Kate” by Erin Bow
“Half Brother” by Kenneth Oppel
—recommended by Scholastic
“A Young People’s History of the United
States” by Howard Zinn
“Hunger Games (Hunger Games Book #1)”
by Suzanne Collins
—recommended by Barnes & Noble
“Manifest” by Artist Author
“For the Win” by Cory Doctorow
—recommended by the NY Public Library