Deliberating over the Atlantic 10 list is, in some ways, a test of memory. Does a novel we read in January still thrill us? Does the reportage that impressed us midyear still feel surprising when we turn back to it in the fall? We're asking ourselves, in short, which books have kept our attention, sometimes months after we've first encountered them.
Kane: So in trying to find the best fiction and the best nonfiction of a year it means doing a ton of research, which, thankfully, we're a bunch of good-natured nerds, and we love any excuse to research and any excuse to read more books. I mean, it was a great self-assigned homework project this year. [Laughs.] So some of the most important things that we were looking at for every book is it had to have an exceptional voice in writing and an incredible story.
A picture book is a deceptively complex object: Ideally, it should be mind-expanding, psychologically astute, vividly illustrated, and-the 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.