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Picture Books

Once upon a time.... may be the oldest trick in the writer's bag, but we still fall for it—especially if it's accompanied by pictures. There's a sense in which all picture books are fairy tales (even the ones that take place in New York City or a log cabin) simply because they're able to transport us in a way words alone can't. We become part of the story viscerally, sensing the subtleties of mood and place and texture.

Not all picture books are created equal, of course. We don't go in for VeggieTales, or Disney, or Sesame Street (etc. etc.), preferring the more classic style (like Caldecott winners) and newer ones that are more artistic (as opposed to merely visual). The only thing a second-rate illustration can do is make you mourn the preeminence of Saturday morning cartoons, whereas a good one has the capacity to take you inside.

We're not trying to be snobs about this, but if we offer our children picture books to read and look at, we want them to be of the highest quality. We want the text to be excellently written, the plot well-crafted, the illustrations rich and vibrant. There's a very real sense in which a child's imagination is formed by the things he or she sees as a small human, and if they only get to look at poor drawings there's a pretty good chance their creative powers will end up severely limited.

If you've encountered the illustrations of Trina Schart Hyman, Robert McCloskey, Maurice Sendak, or Michael Morpurgo, you'll know what we're talking about. Good picture books have a way of showing us things we've always seen or imagined a little differently, tilting the canvas of the familiar to make it seem a little less so, more wild, more mysterious, more real.

Which is precisely why they're such a great way to introduce kids to reading. They don't have to know what the words say to get the gist of the story, yet when they do begin to learn what the words say, it's easier for them to grasp the meaning since they're already familiar with the basic premise. Many kids have learned to read this way, and we suspect many more will do so in the future.

That is, if they have access to quality picture books at a young age. We like them proliferating throughout the house like small landforms, squeezing out of bookcases, turning up beneath the couch and on top of dressers. Just remember—they aren't only for children. In fact, adults often need them more, to connect with their progeny, to recapture a sense of youth, or simply to rest when words stop making sense and only pictures are able to communicate.

When we say "picture book," there are a couple of things we aren't talking about: first, illustrated fiction. A great book, primarily text with illustrations here and there, are not the same as picture books, which focus on the artwork. Second, we don't include here non-fiction. There are lots of excellent science, math, biographical, and other types of picture books—we have plenty—but they are in separate sections (see below).

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.
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All Kinds of Planes
by Seymour Reit, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti
from Golden Press
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$2.50 (1 in stock)
Animals on the Farm
by Feodor Rojankovsky
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Around the Corner
by Jean B. Showalter, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
from Doubleday & Company
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Beastly Boys and Ghastly Girls
by William Cole, illustrated by Tomi Ungerer
for 2nd-6th grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
Blaze Finds the Trail
by C. W. Anderson
from Macmillan
for 1st-3rd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Brian Wildsmith's Birds
by Brian Wildsmith
from Franklin Watts
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Bridges Are to Cross
by Philemon Sturges
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 1st-4th grade
in Architecture and Sculpture (Location: ELE-ARC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Bundle Book
from Harper & Brothers
for Nursery-1st grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Case of the Scaredy Cats
An I Can Read Book Level 2
by Crosby Bonsall
from Harper & Row
Mystery/Suspense for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in I Can Read Books (Location: EAR-ICR)
Circus
by Jack Prelutsky, illustrated by Arnold Lobel
from Aladdin Books
Rhyming Books for Preschool-2nd grade
in Poetry for Children (Location: POET-CHIL)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Cobweb Christmas
by Shirley Climo
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Company's Coming for Dinner
by Myra Berry Brown, illustrated by Dorothy Marino
from Franklin Watts
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Cook-A-Doodle-Doo!
by Janet Stevens and Susan Stevens Crummel, illustrated by Janet Stevens
from Harcourt, Brace & Company
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Coppertop
by Bob Hunt, illustrated by Jeanne Manget
from Coward McCann
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Copycat
by Helen Borten
from Abelard - Schuman
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Cranberry Easter
by Wende and Harry Devlin
from Four Winds Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Curious George Learns the Alphabet
by H. A. Rey
from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Fantasy for Preschool-1st grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Down to the Beach
by May Garelick, illustrated by Barbara Cooney
from Four Winds Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Elmer and the Dragon
My Father's Dragon Trilogy #2
by Ruth Stiles Gannett
from Random House
Fantasy for 1st-3rd grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Five Cent, Five Cent
by Edna Walker Chandler, illustrated Betty Stull
from Albert Whitman & Company
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
by Arthur Ransome, illustrated by Uri Shulevitz
from Sunburst Book
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 1st-4th grade
1969 Caldecott Medal winner
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Giraffe Twins
by Inez Hogan
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Goggles!
by Ezra Jack Keats
First Printing from Macmillan
for Preschool-2nd grade
1970 Caldecott Honor Book
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Great Gorilla Grins
by Beth Hilgartner
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Holiday for Edith and the Bears
by Dare Wright
from Doubleday & Company
for Preschool-3rd grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Hooray for Jasper
by Betty Horvath, Illustrated by Fermin Rocker
from Franklin Watts
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$25.00 (1 in stock)
Hopis
by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve, illustrated by Ronald Himler
from Holiday House
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Native Americans (Location: HISA-19NAT)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
House for Little Red
by Margaret Hillert; illustrated by Kelly Oechsli
from Follett Publishing Co.
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
I Saw the Sea Come In
by Alvin Tresselt, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin
from Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books
for Preschool-1st grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$32.00 (1 in stock)
If You Were an Eel, How Would You Feel?
from Follett Publishing Co.
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Inch by Inch
by Leo Lionni
from HarperCollins
for Preschool-2nd grade
1961 Caldecott Honor Book
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Jerusalem, Shining Still
by Karla Kuskin, illustrated by David Frampton
from Harper & Row
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Johnny Crow's Garden
by L. Leslie Brooke
from Frederick Warne & Company
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Johnny Crow's New Garden
by L. Leslie Brooke
from Frederick Warne & Company
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Johnny Crow's Party
by L. Leslie Brooke
from Frederick Warne & Company
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
King of the Golden River
Rainbow Classics
by John Ruskin, illustrator
from World Publishing Company
for 2nd-6th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Let's Celebrate Thanksgiving
by Peter and Connie Roop, Illustrated by Gwen Connelly
from Millbrook Press
for 2nd-5th grade
in Holidays (Location: HOLIDAY)
Let's Go Home
by Cynthia Rylant, illustrated by Wendy Anderson Halperin
from Simon and Schuster
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lion
by William Pene du Bois
from Puffin Books
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Long Way to a New Land
An I Can Read Book Level 3
by Joan Sandin
from HarperCollins
Historical Fiction for 1st-3rd grade
in I Can Read Books (Location: EAR-ICR)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Loopy
by Hardie Gramatky
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Macbeth
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
by Leon Garfield (Abridgement), William Shakespeare
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Shakespeare Materials (Location: LIR-SHA)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Margot Austin's Churchmouse Stories
by Margot Austin
from E.P. Dutton & Co.
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Midsummer Night's Dream
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
by William Shakespeare
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 5th-8th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Mittens
by Clare Turlay Newberry
from Harper & Brothers
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Mousekin's Christmas Eve
by Edna Miller
from Prentice Hall
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$28.00 (1 in stock)
Never Tease a Weasel
by Jean Conder Soule, illustrated by Denman Hampson
from Parents Magazine Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
New Road!
by Gail Gibbons
from Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Noah's Ark
by Peter Spier
from Dell Publishing
Bible Stories for Preschool-2nd grade
1978 Caldecott Medal winner
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Once Upon a Banana
by Jennifer Armstrong, illustrated by David Small
from Simon and Schuster
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Out! Out! Out!
by Martha Alexander
from Dial Press
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Pelican
by Brian Wildsmith
from Pantheon Books
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Polar Bear Night
by Lauren Thompson
from Scholastic Press
for Preschool-1st grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
by Leon Garfield, William Shakespeare
First Edition Thus from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Run Run Run
by Clement Hurd
from Hale-Cadmus
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
by Carol Heyer
from Ideals Children's Books
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Sooner Hound
by Harvey Weiss
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for Kindergarten-3rd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Tales From Fern Hollow: The Tortoise Fair
Tales From Fern Hollow
by John Patience
from Derrydale Books
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Tall Book of Mother Goose
by Feodor Rojankovsky
from Harper & Brothers
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Tempest, The
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
by William Shakespeare
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 5th-8th grade
in Shakespeare Materials (Location: LIR-SHA)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
The Egg
by Shelley Gill, illustrated by Jo-Ellen Bosson
from Charlesbridge
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Zoology (Location: SCI-ZOOL)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
This is the United Nations
by Miroslav Sasek
1st edition from Macmillan
for 3rd-6th grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$75.00 (1 in stock)
Travels of Doctor Dolittle
by Al Perkins (adapter), original story by Hugh Lofting, illustrated by Philip Wende
from Random House
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
Twelfth Night
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales
by William Shakespeare
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 5th-8th grade
in Picture Books (Location: PICTURE)
Two Little Bears
by Ylla
from Harper & Brothers
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Up Goes the Skyscraper
by Gail Gibbons
for Preschool-2nd grade
in Oversized Picture Books (Location: PIC-OVER)
Very Little Girl
by Phyllis Krasilovsky, illustrated by Ninon
from Doubleday & Company
for Nursery-Kindergarten
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
What Do They Say!
by Grace Skaar
from William R. Scott Inc.
for Nursery-1st grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
What Do You Think?
by Rainey Bennett
1st edition from World Publishing Company
for Nursery-2nd grade
in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Yankee Doodle
by Steven Kellogg (illustrator), text by Edward Bangs
from Parents Magazine Press
for Preschool-2nd grade
in American Revolution (1765-1783) (Location: HISA-18REV)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
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