The best children's books of 2014

November 22, 2014 4:59 PM

Maria Popova on the story, art, and universal truths of this year's best books for kids.

Previously, Maria Popova has come up on several occasions, including another year-end best-of list.

posted by Banknote of the year (6 comments total)

Lovely stuff. Cheers
posted by dng at 5:09 PM on November 22, 2014

These look great!
posted by Artw at 5:10 PM on November 22, 2014

Oooh, terrific, thanks to the magic of the library hold system I have already put several of these books on hold... for my kids. Great resource!
posted by dawg-proud at 7:27 PM on November 22, 2014

Children's book art can be ridiculously beautiful. Thanks for posting! I couldn't resist buying the cactus one for an upcoming baby shower.
posted by Alexandra Michelle at 7:42 PM on November 22, 2014

I saw this list earlier this week, and the excerpts of the art from Hug Me (the cactus one) -- especially this page -- drove me to check out the book from the library (thank you for being a ridiculously good public library, Denver Public Library). I read it the other day, and it made me cry, really hard. I grew up in a affection-withholding family where the best this was to just keep things to yourself and never show emotion, and I spent a lot of time as an adult figuring I didn't need people, either. I'm realizing now that this was a really messed up way to grow up and cope with growing up like that, but it's weird that this book hit me in a place books for adults and therapy really hasn't. Children's books sometimes encapsulate emotional truths in ways adult books can't, and this is one of them.

Oh yeah, the art is also really charming.
posted by heurtebise at 9:23 PM on November 22, 2014 [1 favorite]

My four year old niece is a big fan of this Maps book. The drawings of the featured countries are great at conveying information about the country from kids' names to favorite meals to landmarks.
posted by icaicaer at 6:14 PM on November 25, 2014