Kirkus Best Books of the Year - Picture Books for Starting Conversations (Awarded by Kirkus)

Awards List

2024

Pepper and Me
(*)
Beatrice Alemagna

The Last Stand
(*)
Antwan Eady

Giant On The Shore
(*)
Alfonso Ochoa

The Last Zookeeper
(*)
Aaron Becker

Look! Look!
(*)
Uma Krishnaswami

Heatwave
(*)
Lauren Redniss

Simone
(*)
Viet Thanh Nguyen

The Yellow Bus
(*)
Loren Long

They Call Me Teach
(*)
Lesa Cline-Ransome

The Cat Way
(*)
Sara Lundberg

Griso: The One and Only
(*)
Roger Mello

A Map for Falasteen
(*)
Maysa Odeh

I Know How to Draw an Owl
(*)
Hilary Horder Hippely

2023

All Aboard the Schooltrain
(*)
Glenda Armand

The Bear and the Wildcat
(*)
Kazumi Yumoto

Yellow Butterfly
(*)
Oleksandr Shatokhin

Corner
(*)
Zo-O

The Hospital Book
(*)
Lisa Brown

To the Other Side
(*)
Erika Meza

The Tree and the River
(*)
Aaron Becker

The Shape of You
(*)
Muon Thi Van

Remembering
(*)
Xelena Gonzalez

Boyogi
(*)
David Barclay Moore

How This Book Got Red
(*)
Margaret Chiu Greanias

2022

Will It Be Okay?
(*)
Crescent Dragonwagon

Abuelita and Me
(*)
Leonarda Carranza

A Blue Kind of Day
(*)
Rachel Tomlinson

The Curiosities
(*)
Zana Fraillon

Sometimes I Grumblesquinch
(*)
Rachel Vail

The Moon from Dehradun
(*)
Shirin Shamsi

My Uncle Is Coming Tomorrow
(*)
Sebastian Santana Camargo

Until Someone Listens
(*)
Estela Juarez

The Circles in the Sky
(*)
Karl James Mountford

The Talk
(*)
Alicia D. Williams

Joao by a Thread
(*)
Roger Mello

Paradise Sands
(*)
Levi Pinfold

2021

The Big Bad Wolf in My House
(*)
Valerie Fontaine

The Big House and the Little House
(*)
Yoshi Ueno

Rissy No Kissies
(*)
Katey Howes

The Wind and the Trees
(*)
Todd Stewart

The Day the Rain Moved In
(*)
Eleonore Douspis

Jenny Mei Is Sad
(*)
Tracy Subisak

Black and White
(*)
Debora Vogrig

Bright Star
(*)
Yuyi Morales

Can You See Me?
(*)
Gokce Irten

The Longest Storm
(*)
Dan Yaccarino

The Sour Cherry Tree
(*)
Naseem Hrab

The Longest Letsgoboy
(*)
Derick Wilder

Award Categories

Affirming Picture Books

Bedtime Books

Beginning Readers

Board Books

Book Club Fiction

Books for Beginning Readers

Debut Fiction

Empowering Picture Books

Environmental Fiction

Fiction

Fiction in Translation

Fictional Families

Fictional Voices

Funniest Picture Books

Historical Fiction

Informational Picture Books

Joyous Picture Books

Middle-Grade About Speaking Up

Middle-Grade Activist

Middle-Grade Adventures

Middle-Grade Family Stories

Middle-Grade Fantasy and SF

Middle-Grade Fiction

Middle-Grade Friendship Stories

Middle-Grade Graphic Fiction

Award Years

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019