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The best children’s books of 2018

Our top 45 picks for picture-book, early-reader, middle-grade, and young-adult titles

Lead art by Veronica Grech

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Picture Books

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  • The Wall in the Middle of the Book

    By Jon Agee

    A little knight appreciates how a wall protects him from the big ogre on the other side — until he needs a big rescue when his side of the wall floods. Ages 3-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for The Wall in the Middle of the Book
  • Hello Lighthouse

    By Sophie Blackall

    Meet the lighthouse and follow along through all weather and seasons as it guides ships to safety and provides a special home for the new keeper and his growing family. Ages 3-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Hello Lighthouse
  • Up the Mountain Path

    By Marianne Dubuc

    Every Sunday Mrs. Badger hikes up the mountain, taking care of creatures and observing the world along the way, until one day she meets a small cat named Lulu who joins her for an inspiring journey to be treasured and passed on. Ages 3-8..

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Up the Mountain Path
  • A House That Once Was

    By Julie Fogliano

    Perfectly written and illustrated to ignite the imagination, this story invites readers to follow two children into an abandoned house and wonder what it was like when it was once a home. Ages 3-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for A House That Once Was
  • Mustafa

    By Marie-Louise Gay

    Feeling invisible in his new country and city, Mustafa mostly finds comfort in nature — until he bravely accepts an overture of friendship from a girl and her cat. Ages 4-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Mustafa
  • A Parade of Elephants

    By Kevin Henkes

    Five energetic little elephants will march the youngest listeners all over this book until they settle down with a trumpet and a yawn and well-deserved stretch. Ages 2-5.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for A Parade of Elephants
  • A Big Mooncake for Little Star

    By Grace Lin

    Little Star and her mother live in the night sky where they bake a giant mooncake, launching an enchanting tale of the moon’s phases with illustrations full of stars, constellations, and other details to enjoy. Ages 4-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for A Big Mooncake for Little Star
  • Julián Is a Mermaid

    By Jessica Love

    When three women in mermaid costumes prompt Julián to create his own, his abuela has the best surprise. Ages 3-8

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Julián Is a Mermaid
  • Thank You, Omu!

    By Oge Mora

    The delicious scent of Omu’s stew lures so many hungry neighbors to her top-floor apartment that nothing is left for her own dinner — and then she hears another knock at the door. Ages 3-7.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Thank You, Omu!
  • Dreamers

    By Yuyi Morales

    In this visually striking, autobiographical picture book, a mother and child facing the challenges of being alone in a new country find welcome, hope, and a voice in the public library and in books; an author’s note and her terrific list of inspirational children’s books is appended. Ages 4-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Dreamers
  • The Little Barbarian

    By Renato Moriconi

    Up, down, and through this entertaining wordless picture book, the little barbarian and his horse encounter every kind of danger until the end, where readers will find a surprise. Ages 4-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for The Little Barbarian
  • Carmela Full of Wishes

    By Matt de la Peña, illustrated by Christian Robinson

    One birthday wish has come true for Carmela as she is now old enough to accompany her brother on errands, but a dandelion they find on the way promises another special wish — how will she ever choose? Ages 4-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Carmela Full of Wishes
  • Fox & Chick: The Party and Other Stories

    By Sergio Ruzzier

    Punctuated with their misunderstandings and struggles, Fox and Chick’s steadfast friendship survives an impulsive party, vegetarian soup, and the painting of a challenging portrait with the hope for many more adventures to come. Ages 4-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Fox & Chick: The Party and Other Stories
  • Kitten and the Night Watchman

    By John Sullivan, illustrated by Taeeun Yoo

    Based on an actual event, this heartwarming story captures the sights and sounds of the night as well as the powerful bond between a perceptive night watchman and the tiny kitten he befriends on his rounds. Ages 3-8.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Kitten and the Night Watchman
  • Florette

    By Anna Walker

    Mae misses her garden when her family moves to the city, but an intrepid little sprout growing through a sidewalk crack provides just the new start and encouragement she needs. Ages 4-7.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Florette

Middle Grade

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  • Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster

    By Jonathan Auxier

    The warm, mysterious lump of char that 11-year-old Nan’s mentor left her the night he disappeared stays with her always while she climbs and sweeps chimneys until the day the keepsake saves her life in this engrossing fantasy set in Victorian England.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Sweep: The Story of a Girl and her Monster
  • Be Prepared

    By Vera Brosgol

    In this funny, earnest graphic novel, Vera desperately wants to attend a summer camp like her school friends, until she gets her wish, and nothing is as she imagined.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Be Prepared
  • Saving Winslow

    By Sharon Creech

    No one thinks Winslow, the sickly, newborn miniature donkey, will survive the night — except Louie, who has an unfortunate track record with animals but plenty of heart and determination.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Saving Winslow
  • Louisiana’s Way Home

    By Kate DiCamillo

    Adventure awaits when Louisiana’s granny insists they skip town at 3 a.m. to outrun a family curse, but Louisiana misses her cat, her friends, and what she knew as the safety of home.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Louisiana’s Way Home
  • The Parker Inheritance

    By Varian Johnson

    Past and present collide when 12-year-old Candace and her 11-year-old neighbor Brandon discover trouble, discrimination, and an unsolved mystery that might lead to a hidden fortune.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for The Parker Inheritance
  • Love to Everyone

    By Hilary McKay

    Amid love, loss, and no end of cruel realities, determined Clarry wins her readers’ hearts while paving her own way in England during WWI.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Love to Everyone
  • Merci Suárez Changes Gears

    By Meg Medina

    Encountering trouble both at home and school, Merci navigates sixth grade as a new scholarship student in an expensive private school with endearing humor and solid inner strength.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Merci Suárez Changes Gears
  • Detective Gordon: A Case for Buffy

    By Ulf Nilsson, illustrated by Gitte Spee

    Police detectives Gordon the toad and Buffy the mouse take things to a personal level in their fourth forest mystery. Readers, along with a couple of recruits from the “small police school,” can help solve the mystery of Buffy’s long lost family — there will be lots of cake.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Detective Gordon: A Case for Buffy
  • Knights vs. Dinosaurs

    By Matt Phelan

    When the bragging of King Arthur’s bumbling knights gets to be a bit much, Merlin sends them off on a quest that will lead to surprises — and nonstop, hilarious chaos in this illustrated chapter book.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Knights vs. Dinosaurs
  • Harbor Me

    By Jacqueline Woodson

    If you take six kids and leave them alone in an empty classroom, they will eventually start to talk, and their stories and conversation can teach us how to change the world.

    — Julie Roach

    A book cover for Harbor Me

YA

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  • The Poet X

    By Elizabeth Acevedo

    An Afro-Latina teen poet tells her coming-of-age story in searing verse, as she struggles with the unfair expectations placed upon her and her twin brother by their strict mother, her Dominican-American community, the Catholic church, and, of course, the patriarchy.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Poet X
  • Children of Blood and Bone

    By Tomi Adeyemi

    A sweeping fantasy epic, inspired by West African lore, serves as a stunning backdrop for the star-crossed love between a girl who might be able to restore her people’s lost magic and the prince who’s sworn to keep magic banished from the kingdom.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Children of Blood and Bone
  • The Hazel Wood

    By Melissa Albert

    It’s rare to find a novel that can bear a comparison to Shirley Jackson without buckling under the weight of expectations, but this beautifully written and supremely creepy fantasy about a young woman who finds out the myths that have dogged her family for generations are far less mythical than she’d previously supposed is excellent enough to support such praise.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Hazel Wood
  • The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge

    By M.T. Anderson, illustrated by Eugene Yelchin (Candlewick)

    Anderson and Yelchin’s funny, odd, allegorical yarn ​of a cloak-and-dagger operation masquerading as a peace mission is spun from dueling points of view. ​Yelchin’s illustrations represent the magically transmitted reports the inept elfin spy Spurge sends back from the goblin kingdom, while Anderson’s prose presents the same events from the perspective of his enthusiastic goblin host, Werfel the Archivist, revealing the challenges of cross-cultural communication.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge
  • The Cruel Prince

    By Holly Black

    Black’s latest is the first installment in ​a new urban fantasy series about human sisters, raised by the faerie who killed their parents, and the difficult choices the siblings must make to survive when the faerie High Court is threatened by civil war.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Cruel Prince
  • The Belles

    By Dhonielle Clayton

    ​Most in this an ​alternate-reality novel are born physically hideous. Only Belles, descendents of the Goddess of Beauty, can control appearances and manufacture the fanciful faces life at court demands. This book is full of twists, turns, and intrigue — plus an additional je ne sais quoi owing to ​its embrace of Creole folklore and tradition.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Belles
  • Give Me Some Truth

    By Eric Gansworth

    Historical fiction fans should check out this bittersweet and sharply funny book, narrated by the strong voices of two Native American teens on the Tuscarora Nation Reservation in upstate New York in 1980. Carson loves John Lennon and could really use the money from a local battle of the bands, if he can keep his cover band from breaking up, while Maggi draws inspiration from Yoko Ono’s art for her modern, conceptual twists on traditional beadwork, even though tourists never want to buy her creations.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Give Me Some Truth
  • The Way You Make Me Feel

    By Maurene Goo

    In this funny, heartfelt novel, cynical prankster Clara Shin learns to love a lot of things over a single summer: her dad’s Brazilian-Korean fusion food truck, where she is forced to work after one of her stunts nearly incinerates her school; her arch nemesis and new co-worker, Rose Carver, Queen of the High School Try Hards; and an almost fatally earnest boy named Hamlet, whose good looks and kindness are qualities from which Clara would usually flee in terror.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Way You Make Me Feel
  • Tess of the Road

    By Rachel Hartman

    In this richly detailed fantasy Tess Dombegh is sent away by her harsh family to live in a convent but decides instead to chop off her hair and wander the countryside in search of a better future, finding her place in a kingdom full of dragons.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Tess of the Road
  • The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza

    By Shaun David Hutchinson

    The titular character of this quirky, thought-provoking, genre-defying book was born by parthogenesis — a technical term for virgin birth. That can be explained by science, but it’s harder for Elena to explain why the mermaid in the Starbucks logo has suddenly begun speaking to her, or why she is miraculously able to heal her love interest after the young woman gets shot, or why the gunman mysteriously disappears.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza
  • Darius the Great is Not Okay

    By Adib Khorram

    The protagonist of this moving and funny story is Darius Kellner, a half Persian and half American teen with clinical depression and a nerdy sense of humor, who doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere until he visits Iran ​to meet his dying grandfather and befriends a ​fellow misfit.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Darius the Great is Not Okay
  • Hey Kiddo

    By Jarrett Krosoczka (writing and illustration)

    Krosoczka’s unflinchingly honest graphic memoir chronicles the way he used art to cope with being raised by his grandparents as his mother struggled with addiction and his father abandoned him to start a new family. It is also a poignant testament to the power of art.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Hey Kiddo
  • Blood Water Paint

    By Joy McCullough

    A work of historical fiction that feels shockingly timely, “Blood Water Paint’’ is a novel told in beautiful verse, based on the true story of 17th-century Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi, who took her rapist to court despite overwhelming societal pressure against her.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Blood Water Paint
  • Blanca & Roja

    By Anna-Marie McLemore

    McLemore’s gorgeous retelling of the fairy tale “Snow-White and Rose-Red’’ is a moving work of magical realism that traces the plight of the del Cisne sisters, one of whom will be taken by the cruel swans when they come of age — unless the sisters can outwit the curse with help from some new friends who are not quite whom they appear to be.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Blanca & Roja
  • Hullmetal Girls

    By Emily Skrutskie

    This propulsively plotted and fascinatingly dark science-fiction novel ​centers on two fully developed female characters. ​Aisha Un-Haad is a devout woman from a poor district who must surrender her humanity and become a machine-enhanced “Scela” to save her younger brother’s life, and Key Tanaka is a wealthy, pampered young woman who wakes melded to a Scela’s “exo-rig” with no recollection of what drove her to make this irrevocable choice. The two must work together to save their Federation — or dismantle it in the name of justice.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Hullmetal Girls
  • The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles)

    By Amy Spalding

    If the words “teen rom-com” fill your heart with joy, you owe it to yourself to read this extraordinarily charming love story about Abby Ives, a plus-size fashion blogger who hates having her picture taken; Jordi Perez, the aspiring photographer who teaches her to love it; and the fizzy romance that blossoms between the two girls as they compete for their dream job at a local boutique.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles)
  • Odd One Out

    By Nic Stone

    With “Odd One Out,’’ Nic Stone shows more timid authors all the possibilities that bisexuality can add to a love triangle, telling a giddy and surprisingly emotional love story about 16-year-old Coop (star basketball player and male cheerleader) who’s either in love with Jupiter Charity-Sanchez, his ​lesbian best friend, or Rae Chin, the bisexual transfer student who’s fascinated them both.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Odd One Out
  • Sadie

    By Courtney Summers

    A timely feminist page-turner that follows the titular Sadie as she seeks justice for her sister’s murder, interspersed with transcripts of a Serial-style podcast investigating Sadie’s disappearance. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat until the last page, rooting for Sadie every step of the way.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Sadie
  • Check Please: #Hockey

    By Ngozi Ukazu (writing and illustration)

    If the teens in your life spend any time on Tumblr, they are probably already obsessed with this excessively charming graphic novel about two hockey players who fall in love, adapted from Ukazu’s popular Web comic of the same name. If they aren’t, or you aren’t, prepare to fall in love with the boys of Samwell University’s hockey team, particularly pie-baking sweetie pie Eric Bittle and his heartbreakingly closed-off (but secretly beloved) team captain, Jack Zimmerman.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for Check Please: #Hockey
  • The Prince and the Dressmaker

    By Jen Wang

    This darling love story, beautifully written and illustrated by Wang, is a fairy tale that blends ​traditional satisfactions with delicious twists: It opens with a dashing prince sweeping a beleaguered commoner away from her humdrum life so that she can design breathtaking gowns for the prince’s secret alter-ego, fashion icon Lady Crystallia.

    — Margaret H. Willison and Renata Sancken

    A book cover for The Prince and the Dressmaker