2022 Sonderbooks Stand-outs — Books for Kids

Tonight I’m going to post my third and final batch of 2022 Sonderbooks Stand-outs — with Children’s Fiction and Nonfiction and Picture Books.

Sonderbooks Stand-outs are my personal favorite books from those I read this year. I’m not judging by literary merit, but simply by fondness. How much did these books warm my heart?

The ranking is very subjective, and I make multiple categories when it’s hard to decide. I split Children’s Fiction into Speculative Fiction and everything else, and I split Picture Books into Silly Fun and everything else. It seems like an awful lot of books, but I read even more.

All of these books are highly recommended and much loved:

Children’s Speculative Fiction

  1. Little Monarchs, by Jonathan Case
  2. The Ogress and the Orphans, by Kelly Barnhill
  3. Garlic and the Vampire, by Bree Paulsen
  4. The Last Mapmaker, by Christina Soontornvat
  5. Amari and the Night Brothers, by B. B. Alston

More Children’s Fiction

  1. The Secret Battle of Evan Pao, by Wendy Wan-Long Shang
  2. Merci Suárez Plays It Cool, by Meg Medina
  3. The Boys in the Back Row, by Mike Jung
  4. Those Kids from Fawn Creek, by Erin Entrada Kelly
  5. Different Kinds of Fruit, by Kyle Lukoff
  6. Answers in the Pages, by David Levithan
  7. Attack of the Black Rectangles, by Amy Sarig King
  8. Stuntboy #1: In the Meantime, by Jason Reynolds and Raúl the Third
  9. Premeditated Myrtle, by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Children’s Nonfiction

  1. Marshmallow Clouds, by Ted Kooser and Connie Wanek, illustrated by Richard Jones
  2. Before Music, by Annette Bay Pimentel, illustrated by Madison Safer
  3. Bake Infinite Pie with X + Y, by Eugenia Cheng, illustrated by Amber Ren
  4. Washed Ashore, by Kelly Crull
  5. The Tide Pool Waits, by Candace Fleming, pictures by Amy Hevron
  6. Molly and the Mathematical Mysteries, by Eugenia Cheng, illustrated by Aleksandra Artymowska
  7. Galloping Gertie, by Amanda Abler, illustrated by Levi Hastings
  8. Sylvie, by Sylvie Kantorovitz
  9. Make Way for Animals!, by Meeg Pincus, illustrated by Bao Luu
  10. Blips on a Screen, by Kate Hannigan, illustrated by Zachariah OHora

Silly Fun Picture Books

  1. Monsters in the Fog, by Ali Bahrampour
  2. A Spoonful of Frogs, by Vera Brosgol
  3. This Book Is Not For You!, by Shannon Hale, illustrated by Tracy Subisak
  4. How to Be Cooler Than Cool, by Sean Taylor, illustrated by Jean Jullien
  5. The Three Billy Goats Gruff, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen
  6. Zero Zebras, by Bruce Goldstone, illustrated by Julien Chang
  7. The Legend of Iron Purl, by Tao Nyeu
  8. How to Be on the Moon, by Viviane Schwarz
  9. Too Many Pigs and One Big Bad Wolf, by Davide Cali, illustrated by Marianna Balducci
  10. Here We Come!, by Janna Matthies, illustrated by Christine Davenier

More Picture Books

  1. Berry Song, by Michaela Goade
  2. Like, by Annie Barrows, illustrated by Leo Espinosa
  3. A Seed Grows, by Antoinette Portis
  4. I’ll Go and Come Back, by Rajani LaRocca, illustrated by Sara Palacios
  5. Gibberish, by Young Vo

I’ll post all the missing reviews as soon as I can. I hope you get a chance to try some of these books!

And here’s my permanent webpage for all my 2022 Sonderbooks Stand-outs!

Happy Reading!

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