People often ask me what makes for a truly great children’s book. A few characteristics come to mind: stellar writing, impeccable plotting, and immersive illustrations. But there’s also an element of je ne sais quoi. Sometimes, the most powerful stories are the ones we never knew we needed. So many of the best picture books of 2024 took me by surprise with their inspired visions, like Loren Long’s The Yellow Bus (Roaring Brook Press, June 25), a contemplative ode to the passing of time. An anthropomorphized school bus finds meaning in a variety of new roles after she’s abandoned to the elements—sheltering first unhoused people, then a herd of goats. An image of the bus, submerged underwater yet happy to be providing a home for the fish, brings the tale to an eerily beautiful conclusion.
Doing double duty as an introduction to numbers and an ecological call to action, Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Animal Countdown (Neal Porter/Holiday House, Oct. 1) pushes the concept book to new heights. Starting with 10 sea otters, the author/illustrator presents a dwindling number of melancholy-looking animals; she concludes with a lone snow leopard gazing out at readers—and a cogent warning that without our help, these creatures, all endangered or threatened, may truly vanish.
Andrea L. Rogers’ Chooch Helped, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz (Levine Querido, Oct. 8), speaks to more quotidian concerns. Fed up with little brother Chooch, Sissy explodes in anger, but her parents explain that children require guidance—and that Sissy is key to helping Chooch learn and grow. Rogers and Kunz imbue text and art alike with motifs from Cherokee culture; the result will earn nods of recognition from Indigenous readers yet will also reverberate with beleaguered big siblings the world over.
The list of the year’s best middle-grade books is filled with gems, too. G. Neri’s My Antarctica: True Adventures in the Land of Mummified Seals, Space Robots, and So Much More, illustrated by Corban Wilkin (Candlewick, March 5), offers highlights of the author’s 2017 grant-funded trip. Though readers will love the strange and sometimes gross facts, they’ll be most inspired by the author’s trajectory as he overcomes uncertainties (the STEM-averse Neri found living among scientists an exercise in humility) and emerges more confident about his abilities as a “science translator.”
Mo Netz’s The Lumbering Giants of Windy Pines (Clarion/HarperCollins, March 12) centers on Jerry, a young girl who learns that the woods near the motel where she and her mother now live are filled with terrifying secrets. Filled with thrills and chills, this tale breaks boundaries in its depiction of a wheelchair user as a bold hero willing to put herself in danger—and who resists the labels that many adults attempt to place on her.
Debbie Fong’s graphic novel Next Stop (Random House Graphic, March 19) follows Pia on a road trip as she wrestles with feelings of grief and guilt in the aftermath of her younger brother’s death. Intertwined with revelatory flashbacks and by turns whimsical and achingly raw, this is a richly layered meditation on mourning while still attempting to live in the here and now.
Mahnaz Dar is a young readers’ editor.
