№ 704. Best Children's Books of 2023

Here are the year’s most notable picture, chapter and middle grade books, selected by our children’s books editor:

• “An American Story,” by Kwame Alexander. Illustrated by Dare Coulter.
• “Big,” by Vashti Harrison
• “Do You Remember?,” by Sydney Smith
• “Kozo the Sparrow,” by Allen Say
• “There Was a Party for Langston: King O’ Letters,” by Jason Reynolds. Illustrated by Jerome and Jarrett Pumphrey.
• “A Walk in the Woods,” by Nikki Grimes. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney.
• “What If One Day…,” by Bruce Handy. Illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin.
• “The Skull,” by Jon Klassen
• “Who Will Make the Snow?” by Taras and Marjana Prokhasko. Translated by Boris Dralyuk and Jennifer Croft.
• “Alebrijes,” by Donna Barba Higuera. Illustrated by David Álvarez.
• “Big Tree,” by Brian Selznick
• “The Eyes & the Impossible,” by Dave Eggers. Illustrated by Shawn Harris.
• “Glowrushes,” by Roberto Piumini. Translated by Leah Janeczko.
• “Mexikid,” by Pedro Martín
• “Remember Us,” by Jacqueline Woodson

№ 467. Crayons

№ 303. Peregrines

The Arrival tells a universal story of immigration. The story is about a man leaving his home to find work and support his family. The "graphic novel" conveys messages of solitude, alienation, and hope in a foreign land.


Shaun Tan - The Arrival Animation from Frederik Vorndran on Vimeo.

№ 201. Thursday Book Find

Happiness. Birth. Sadness. Death. Suffering. Love. Comfort. Indifference. Fall. Weakness. Redemption. Strength.

Happy Feet are well worn by walking.
July 2015 Taal Food and Heritage Tour.

All the invisible stuff that our so-called life is made of. Do these metaphysical realities somehow explain the mass of the universe?

№ 140. Walk, Run, Jump and Skip

Walk This World from Big Picture Press on Vimeo.

№ 98. All the Wrong Questions

Asking can get you in trouble.
Looking can lead you to more questions.
Questions don't necessarily beget answers.
Answers don't necessarily quiet the mind.
So why ask?
So why look?
Because the door begs to be opened.
Because the gift begs to be unwrapped.
What's on the other side?
What's inside the box?
Go ahead, open and look.
Go ahead, tear and untie.

№ 47. A Missing Piece of Alexandria

from doctorbulldog:  The great Library of Alexandria,
established by Ptolemy II (circa 280 BC),
has come to symbolize the receptacle of knowledge of Classical civilization.
This great repository was barbarously razed in the Middle Ages.

I bought a hardbound copy of the book, "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers", at Book Sale. For P120, it was a steal!

The narrator spoke of the high adventure of a tightrope artist but with a quiet remembrance of the Twin Towers, at the very end.

As books exist to be told and retold, and to survive the many retelling, our copy was meant to bear battle scars and dog ears. I think I read it for my nephews a number of times.

Then Ondoy belched into our walled urban lives.