Best Illustrated Books 2009

(Taeeun Yoo, from Only a Witch Can Fly)

I had the pleasure of judging this year's New York Times Best Illustrated Books, along with writer Adam Gopnik (!) and librarian Lisa Von Drasek. The process basically involved being sequestered in a room for 8 hours (with a lovely 3-course lunch in between), hashing through many hundreds, if not thousands, of children's books.

Here are the books we chose. Here is Adam Gopnik talking about the process.

It was an extremely interesting day. Obviously, my exposure to children's books is almost solely from an illustrator's perspective. I learned so much from Adam and Lisa in terms of the "other side" of reading/evaluating an illustrated book.

Lisa, in particular, should conduct some sort of seminar for people who want to write or illustrate children's books. Things like "read-aloud-ability", continuity, rhythm, surprise, appropriateness of voice... all elements to consider very carefully when creating books children actually want to read.

Thank-you to Julie Just for asking me to participate.