Bonus Recs #5: Best Picture Books

The children's books I never stop thinking about

For much of my late twenties, I worked at a children’s technology company whose DNA was rooted in picture books. My friend Raul, the CEO, made sure we had a library filled with old children’s encyclopedias, lesser known William Steig, and old science and how-to manuals. There was a compendium on gnomes, nature tomes, lots of Tomi Ungerer, Bruno Munari, Margaret Wise Brown, Ed Emberley, and Arnold Lobel. Volumes sourced from eBay and Thriftbooks would show up on the regular, creating a colorful library adjacent to our monitors. At the time, I didn’t have kids, but would thumb through these books for inspiration, trying to understand the mind of the child and how they came to understand language, play, word play, concepts.

Great picture books are layered with meaning and can be read repetitively. They introduce ideas that a child can grasp even if they don’t understand words and ideas in the same way your adult brain does. They tell tales that aren’t pedantic or obvious. They anthropomorphize animals and rearrange reality. They have interior logic but don’t have to abide to real-world rationality. They understand that kids crave the dark, weird, and funny. They respect a kid’s intellect, pay attention to detail, and leave gaps for the imagination.

Here are my favorites — both specific books and author/illustrators, that I’ve read countless times with my kids.