"Today The Atlantic launches "65 Essential Children's Books," a new editorial project that brings together important illustrated stories for young readers, beginning with The Story of Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf, published in 1936, all the way through Kyle Lukoff's I'm Sorry You Got Mad, released last year. This project follows the March 2025 release of "The Best American Poetry of the 21st Century (So Far)" and 2024 publication of "The Great American Novels.""
"a picture book is a deceptively complex object: Ideally, it should be mind-expanding, psychologically astute, vividly illustrated, and-that most elusive criterion-fun. It must entertain the child without boring the grown-up to tears. And it should teach children to match sounds to meaning, pictures to objects, cause to effect, without feeling like homework. Finding picture books is easy-the market is glutted with them. The hard part is picking out just the right ones."
The Atlantic launched "65 Essential Children's Books," a curated list of 65 illustrated stories for young readers, spanning Munro Leaf's 1936 The Story of Ferdinand through Kyle Lukoff's I'm Sorry You Got Mad (2024). The scope is limited to illustrated stories without long chapters that ease the transition from listening to independent reading and are meant to be shared. The selection process involved consultation with librarians and other experts and internal debate to stress-test classics and newer works. Picture books are described as deceptively complex—mind-expanding, psychologically astute, vividly illustrated, entertaining for children without boring adults, and teaching early literacy connections without feeling like homework.
Read at The Atlantic
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