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31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Picture Books

Can you believe it? The year is out and done and we’ve come to the end of the 31 Days, 31 Lists series. I’m just floored. While 2021 had some advantages over 2020, I can’t be the only one that it threw for a loop. And yet, in spite of everything, look at the truly beautiful plethora of picture books we got to experience! Today’s list represents just a handful of the titles published this year. This is some, but surely not all, of the finest. If you need a starting place where you can get a s...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Comics and Graphic Novels for Kids

We don’t go halfsies on the comics around here. In my household, bedtime consists of half an hour of fiction/nonfiction and half an hour of a graphic novel (I’ll be using the terms “comic” and “graphic novel” interchangeably in this post, by the way). As such, my kids have a voracious appetite for all the sequential images you can throw their way. That means I keep a very close eye on what’s published in a given year, just so that I can keep us stocked up. I know I missed stuff in 2021. Some...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Best Audiobooks for Kids

A BRAND NEW CATEGORY!!

Oh, I’m so excited. And I’d like to credit Overdrive’s Libby app for getting me into audiobooks so entirely. Of course, there is a catch to all of this. The more audiobooks you listen to, the more difficult it becomes to listen without getting finicky over details. There’s that certain male audiobook narrator who can’t do the voice of girls without making them sound whiny (you know who you are, dude). Or the narrator who couldn’t do an Irish accent to save her life...

31 Days, 31 Books: 2021 Nonfiction Picture Books

All right, folks. This is a big one. A whopper. You’ve seen me slowly leading up to it this month. Now I’m presenting to you the cream of the crop, as it were. These are the Nonfiction Picture Books of the year that I just feel went above and beyond the call of duty. Many you’ve seen on previous lists. Some will be entirely new to you (see immediately below). Whatever the case, they’re all marvelous and worthy of housing on any bookstore or library shelf.

2021 Nonfiction Picture Book...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Nonfiction Books for Older Readers

Middle grade fiction hogs so much of the award love each and every January. I’m a fan of it myself, absolutely, but throughout the year I make sure I’m keeping up with my Nonfiction reading as well. Alas, I’m not the best in this area, and I missed some truly amazing titles in 2021, no question. Still, here’s a brief smattering of some of the books that I think are deserving of your time and attention. If you know a kid that loves their informational texts, something on this list is bound to...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present by Charlotte Zolotow, ill. Maurice Sendak

“The Secret Garden meets Donnie Darko”.

Kate has informed me that I’m a bit of a “Debby Downer” in this episode, so consider yourself warned. This may have something to do with the fact that my immediate family came down with COVID and had to cancel our trip to DisneyWorld. Of course, you can’t keep a good talk about odd picture books of the past down! We discuss everything from whether or not the bunny in Mr. Rabbit and the Lovely Present betrays Maurice Sendak’s love of Mickey Mouse (an...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Unique Biographies for Kids

I’ve never written a biography of another human being. It’s a daunting prospect, don’t you think? To encapsulate another’s life in just a few scant paragraphs. That responsibility is only heightened when the receptive audience for that biography is children. I cannot imagine how the people on this list today were able to do what they did. Each and every one of them takes another human (or two, or three, or a dozen…) and synthesizes them down to what they deem to be their most essential parts...

31 Days, 31 Posts: 2021 Autobiographies for Kids!

A brand new category! You know, I’d never really done a list of memoirs and autobiographies in the children’s book sphere before. That’s probably less to do with an objection to the form and more because there just weren’t that many out there. Enter 2021 and it’s a WHOLE new ballgame! If I don’t miss my guess, the upcoming ALA award season is going to have to take into consideration at least some of the titles shown here today. How could they not? They exist in ABUNDANCE!

For your conveni...

Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer by Robert L. May, ill. Denver Gillen

Merry Christmas Eve! By gum we’re going to do at least one holiday book this month, if it kills me. Heck, for that matter, why not go local? You see, Kate and I both live in Evanston, Illinois and it just so happens that one of the most famous Christmas songs out there started its life as a children’s book by an Evanston author! Yes indeed, we doing a deep dive into Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer today circa 1939. And not just any book, but a reprint of the original story (pre-song and pre-t...

31 Days, 31 Lists: 2021 Science and Nature Books

We’re now cresting into some of the longer lists in our month long series. We hinted at the return of Nonfiction when I presented the Informational Fiction list, but today we have the real deal. And not just any Nonfiction either. Science and nature, baby. 2021 turned out to be a remarkably strong year for Nonfiction in general and science/nature in particular. From biologists to topography to the life cycles of clouds and smoke, there’s a little of someone for everyone here. Check it out:

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