Before we look at the 2023 BOOK + GIFT Picture Book List...here's a sneak peek of a gift that made the 2023 list. Can you guess which 2023 book is paired with these Emergency Googly Eyes?
BUT first, before revealing the answer and the list, let's recap our year with ALL the perfect pairings you should add to your holiday shopping list!
Ten picture book debuts have been featured on BOOK + GIFT this year!
It's Chinese New Year, Curious George! + paper lantern and red envelope
City Feet + colorful wooden blocks
Harold the Iceberg Melts Down + egg carton seed garden
The Planet We Call Home + green science experiments
Animals in Pants + animal magnets
Great Carrier Reef + coral reef grow kit
Paula's Patches + simple sewing kit
I Ship: A Container Ship's Colossal Journey + container ship and shipping yard set
The Monster Above the Bed + daisy string lights
Giraffe is Too Tall for this Book + giraffe pool toy
Not to mention a Pop-Up Party featuring 10 additional stellar BOOK + GIFTS!
To Find Treasure in the Mountains + DIY kaleidoscope
Get Ready Mama! + pink dancing shoes
Mending the Moon + moon phases blocks
Old Friends + learn to knit kit
Brave Like Mom + personalized tic tac toe
Simon the Hugger + sloth paint-by-number
When I'm With You + carved stone heart rocks
Ode to a Bad Day + grasshopper pull toy
Pando + grow a crystal aspen tree
Your Mama + mama & mini aprons
And two editions of BOOK + GIFT featuring prolific creators--Julie Fogliano and The Fan Brothers. Slide through the slideshows to see even more BOOK + GIFT pairings!
Is your holiday shopping cart full already? Let's hope not because...drum roll...here's the year-end 2023 BOOK + GIFT Picture Book List!
The 2023 BOOK + GIFT Picture Book List
A hilarious book featuring a guessing game of unusual animal butts and faces plus these googly eyes to make your own faces on objects...even ones that may look like butts.
BUTT OR FACE by Kari Lavelle
Buy on Bookshop
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"He wasn't smushed in a waffle iron by a sleepy short-order cook"...but these cats are!
FLAT CAT by Tara Lazar and Pete Oswald
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"Bubbles make very fine hats, if temporary."
VERY GOOD HATS by Emma Straub and Blanca Gómez
Buy on Bookshop
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"I listen, as I'm weaving, to the rhythm of the loom. I imagine skeins of history unfurled across the room..."
WOVEN OF THE WORLD by Katey Howes and Dinara Mirtalipova
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"Once there was a girl with a big laugh and a big heart and very big dreams."
BIG by Vashti Harrison
Buy on Bookshop
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"Down, down, Jumper ventures deeper into the garden, still searching for prey."
JUMPER: A Day in the Life of a Backyard Jumping Spider by Jessica Lanan
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"It is a tadpole that swims under la luna blanca."
NOT A MONSTER by Claudia Guadalupe Martínez and Laura González
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"I leave you these drawings, these scribbles, and mostly, this forest--the true treasure."
A WALK IN THE WOODS by Nikki Grimes, Jerry Pinkney and Brian Pinkney
Buy on Bookshop
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"My mom and dad are too busy for a garden, but my Baba kept seeds from her sun-gold cherry tomatoes."
MY BABA'S GARDEN by Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith
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"But Evergreen was not afraid of soup."
EVERGREEN by Matthew Cordell
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"She packed my backpack. Water. Sandwiches. I fetch her cane...AND WE WALK ON."
THE WALK by Winsome Bingham and E. B. Lewis
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"But deep inside her something glimmers and glows, growing stronger."
THE FIRE OF STARS: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of by Kirsten W. Larson and Katherine Roy
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"Iridescence is why so many of us are attracted to glitter...For some among us, 'obsessed with glitter' is more like it. You know who you are."
GLITTER EVERWHERE! by Chris Barton and Chaaya Prabhat
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Mess-Free Glitter Sheets
"In every birth, blessed is the wonder."
IN EVERY LIFE by Marla Frazee
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"Your bear guided us all through the city, all the way here."
DO YOU REMEMBER? by Sydney Smith
Buy on Bookshop
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It is an honor to be able to promote authors and illustrators on BOOK + GIFT. If you are debuting in 2024 (picture book OR novel-in-verse) and would like to be featured on BOOK + GIFT, please fill out the Google Form as soon as you are ready! Let's go, 2024!!!
And thanks to everyone for supporting BOOK + GIFT. From a single random tweet to a blog and an email mailing list that keeps growing, thank you!
YOU ARE A GIFT!
*Did you catch it? The order of these books was planned to make book title cover poetry. But that's not the reason I'm writing this here... There was also a super secret bonus BOOK + GIFT that won't be included on social media. So only for you dedicated blog readers, number nerds, and those with incredible eyesight. Every year I painstakingly narrow the year-end list down to 14. Why 14? I have no idea. It isn't my lucky number. I don't have 14 goldfish or any goldfish. It doesn't have a reason. But, I'm breaking tradition with #15. You might have noticed I included the same illustrator twice. A clue! I even broke my own rule of not having a stuffed animal featured on BOOK + GIFT. Yet another clue I am up to something! But since this is a super secret bonus #15 then it is not "technically" on the list. But, why, Aimee? Why? For a very good reason indeed! Manifestation my friends. If Travis Kelce can manifest Taylor Swift, maybe I can manifest a certain illustrator for one particular book that is near and dear to my heart. I'm ready Universe! And to all, thanks for reading this incredibly tiny, yet huge shooting-for-the-stars wish until THE END! YOU ARE TRULY A GIFT!
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