The best picture books that have beautiful, detailed, color illustrations. Obviously a good storyline as well! NOT CARTOONISH or "CUTE"

FELLOW LIBRARIANS PLEASE HELP US RID THIS LIST OF SELF PROMOTING SPAM.

Caldecott Contenders aka Mock Caldecotts by year:
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Picture Books by Decade:
2020s, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s and before

Picture Books by Year:
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
2020, 2021, 2022

See also:
Best Popular Picture Books on Goodreads
Best Picture Books
Charlotte Zolotow Award Winners and Honors
Children's Picture Books With Beautiful Illustrations
Caldecott Medal Winners
Caldecott Honor Books
Wordless Picture Books
1

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17

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18

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3.99 avg rating — 19,129 ratings
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19

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20

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21

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22

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23

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24

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25

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4.18 avg rating — 8,678 ratings
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26

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4.21 avg rating — 54,046 ratings
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27

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4.24 avg rating — 18,246 ratings
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28

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4.33 avg rating — 230,780 ratings
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29

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4.32 avg rating — 6,354 ratings
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30

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4.38 avg rating — 12,756 ratings
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31

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32

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4.23 avg rating — 1,400 ratings
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33

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4.27 avg rating — 47,334 ratings
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34

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4.05 avg rating — 12,446 ratings
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35

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4.37 avg rating — 2,205 ratings
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36

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4.35 avg rating — 21,087 ratings
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37

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4.30 avg rating — 42,564 ratings
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38

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4.21 avg rating — 8,128 ratings
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39

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4.08 avg rating — 59,722 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 3,632 ratings
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41

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4.26 avg rating — 13,370 ratings
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42

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4.16 avg rating — 25,068 ratings
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43

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4.35 avg rating — 60,463 ratings
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44

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4.18 avg rating — 16,716 ratings
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45

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4.22 avg rating — 7,667 ratings
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46

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4.06 avg rating — 1,503 ratings
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47

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4.56 avg rating — 794 ratings
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48

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4.44 avg rating — 1,982 ratings
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49

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4.24 avg rating — 27,175 ratings
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50

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51

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4.42 avg rating — 62 ratings
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52

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53

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54

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4.09 avg rating — 22,843 ratings
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55

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4.34 avg rating — 7,225 ratings
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56

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4.38 avg rating — 13,651 ratings
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57

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58

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4.04 avg rating — 2,865 ratings
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59

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60

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4.23 avg rating — 18,864 ratings
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61

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4.35 avg rating — 373,206 ratings
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62

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63

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64

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65

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68

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77

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4.13 avg rating — 547 ratings
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79

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4.39 avg rating — 148,268 ratings
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80

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81

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4.32 avg rating — 196,440 ratings
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82

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4.27 avg rating — 2,461 ratings
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83

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4.24 avg rating — 3,469 ratings
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84

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4.30 avg rating — 29,720 ratings
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85

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4.16 avg rating — 1,803 ratings
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86

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4.36 avg rating — 36 ratings
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87

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4.58 avg rating — 543 ratings
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88

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4.35 avg rating — 137 ratings
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89

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4.20 avg rating — 117,308 ratings
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90

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4.17 avg rating — 6,356 ratings
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91

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92

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4.09 avg rating — 8,753 ratings
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93

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4.26 avg rating — 11,513 ratings
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94

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4.29 avg rating — 1,079 ratings
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95

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3.87 avg rating — 8,958 ratings
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96

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4.38 avg rating — 249,086 ratings
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97

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4.27 avg rating — 3,078 ratings
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98

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4.32 avg rating — 4,415 ratings
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99

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4.26 avg rating — 90,565 ratings
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100

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4.41 avg rating — 2,284 ratings
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2,228 books · 1,333 voters · list created December 7th, 2008 by Emily (votes) .
335 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Emily 1536 books
20 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3388 books
851 friends
Heidi 951 books
25 friends
Dara S. 7648 books
389 friends
Caitlin 1992 books
77 friends
Sári 1341 books
23 friends
Katty 2199 books
144 friends
Liaken 1614 books
12 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Bernadette (new)

Bernadette An ABC Escapade through Egypt

has beautiful photos of modern Egypt


Debbie is on Storygraph I removed some graphic novels that appeared on the list - 300, Wolverine: Weapon X, and Batman: Year One. Definitely not children's books.


message 3: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman and as with many lists, what looks like author spam, rules. A minimum of 500 ratings or being a book at least 10 years old would seem to make a difference.


message 4: by Capn (last edited Jun 21, 2022 02:41AM) (new)

Capn I was just wondering if there has been a spin-off list for this made since? I know some "beautifully illustrated picture books" that ARE cartoony and cute, but still very worthy of being listed in view of their illustrations alone.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Here are some examples of the books I would like to include, but which aren't 'realistic', which I presume is a crucial aspect of the inclusion criteria for this list:

Phileas's Fortune: A Story about Self-Expression
Rosa
Strega Nona
Days of the Blackbird
I Ate Sunshine for Breakfast: A Celebration of Plants Around the World
and virtually all of Bettina Ehrlich's and Kaya Doi's books

Cartoonish does not necessarily equate with unskilled or hurried... it seems a shame to not be able to list these purely by dint of their artistic merit. :S


message 5: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Capn wrote: "I was just wondering if there has been a spin-off list for this made since? I know some "beautifully illustrated picture books" that ARE cartoony and cute, but still very worthy of being listed in ..."

feel free to create a new list


message 6: by Capn (new)

Capn What's one more when you have 172, right? ;)

I'm always interested in reducing redundancy on Listopia.

Does anyone have any suggetions of extant lists, or is making a new list really the only option at this point? ;)


message 7: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Capn wrote: "What's one more when you have 172, right? ;)

I'm always interested in reducing redundancy on Listopia.

Does anyone have any suggetions of extant lists, or is making a new list really the only opt..."


I looked up lists tagged as picture-book and picturebook and picturebooks and found nothing more relevant.

My issue with creating a new list is how to make it so specific that any librarian would be comfortable removing any intentional or unintentional spam. And I don't have a way of describing this concept in that manner. And I've created 236 lists.


message 8: by Mitchell (last edited Jun 22, 2022 04:36PM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman Using Flotsam as a starting point I was reminded of https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6... and https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

both would seem to fit your bill from a concept - but most likely the lists themselves will be disappointing


message 9: by Capn (new)

Capn Oh Mitchell - THANKS! :) Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to find. There's just so much to sort through, and the search function is abyssmal. A clever way to find lists - I will use your trick in the future.

I think the "Picture Books with Amazing Art" will be the one I'll add these less-realistic-but-still-impressive-picture books to (your first link, or: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6... for ref).


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