During this episode of the Booklovers Podcast, two librarians with passion for children’s book join me. And they share their 11 awesome kids’ books of 2020 with you.

11 awesome kids’ books

Laura: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Clermont County Public Library’s Booklovers Podcast. I’m your host, Laura. And today I’m joined by two librarians with a real passion for children’s books. Say hi to Cara and Stacy. And they’re going to share some of their very favorite children’s book titles from 2020.

I love it when you come on and talk kids’ books!  Who wants to start?

Play With Your Plate

Cara: [00:00:47] I’ll jump right in with my first two books. So they’re from different age categories- and what I picked is things that I don’t think they’ll necessarily win any awards for last year, but I just think that they’ll appeal to kids the most. And some of them I have used with my own kids, so I can vouch for them including this first one.

So, this one’s a toddler book, it’s got nice sturdy pages. It’s called Play with Your Plate by Judith Rossell. And it kind of fits into that interactive category that we’ve been seeing a lot more of recently. This one doesn’t have a story but hopefully the kids will be talking with their grownups as they’re paging through it and talking about the great food that they’ve put together.

What you’re actually doing is creating a plate of food with these little tiny books. So, it has four tiny books in it and they each have a piece of a plate. And then it has the food name too. So, it’s really great for print recognition to connect the word with the object.

And it gives some initial prompts of ideas, look for red foods or green foods, but really you could just make whatever kind of plate you want. And then it says that there are over 4,000 combinations, so lots of opportunities to play with this book.

Available as:

* Book

These Hands by Hope Lynne Price

These Hands

Stacy: This first book I chose in the toddler category, it’s actually a re-released book in a new board book format. These Hands by Hope Lynne Price illustrated by Brian Collier. And this book combines Price’s gentle rhymes with Collier’s warm and vibrant illustrations.

It’s a sweet story that encourages young ones to consider all the things that they can do with their hands, from sharing, to clapping, to exploring how they can make the next day even better.

So, it’s a really sweet story to read at bedtime. It’d be a great storytime choice. I think it’s just a really sweet book and I love the illustrations. Brian Collier is a Caldecott honor winner, Coretta Scott King winner. And he’s just a fabulous illustrator and I love the illustrations.

Available as:

* Book

Laura: [00:03:51] That sounds beautiful. So, who has the next book?

Dozens of Doughnuts by Carrie Finison

Dozens of Doughnuts

Cara: [00:03:55] We have picture books up next.