With all of the uncertainty facing educators about how we might be starting this school year, there is one thing I do know for certain: We can use picture books to start building relationships and connections with and among our students. Whether virtual behind a screen or in person behind a mask/shield, we can use picture books to create a more welcoming environment that honors all students and shows them they have a place in our virtual or physically distanced classroom communities.
For my back-to-school recommendations this year, I have chosen books with themes of friendship, focusing on the power of names, being welcoming to those from other cultures, doing our best in the circumstances we are given, thinking about worry and what to do with it, several around families near and far, some straight-forward ones around racism and viruses and consent, grieving those lost or moved away, dealing with worry around the first day, empowering stories, those that honor Black lives and raise up Asian American creators and characters, and a few that are just fun in thinking about our classroom and reading spaces. I believe this collection will have something for everyone to fit that first month back with students as teachers try to be responsive to the needs of their group and build community from the start.
Here are 37 picture books I recommend for back-to-school read alouds this year.
2020 Back-to-School Picture Book Recommendations
*You can shop this list at Bookshop to support independent bookstores + my work.
by Jenn Bailey, illustrated by Mika Song
by Flavia Z. Drago
by Monique Gray Smith, illustrated by Julie Flett
by Katrina Moore, illustrated by Julia Woolf
by Alexandra Pendolf, illustrated by Suzanne Kaufman
by Ashley Franklin, illustrated by Ebony Glenn
by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
by Angela Johnson, illustrated by Nina Crews
by Melissa Stewart, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis
by Meg Medina, illustrated by Sonia Sanchez
by Ryan T. Higgins
by Minh Lê, illustrated by Dan Santat
by Angela Joy, illustrated by Euka Holmes
by Annie Silvestro, illustrated by Dream Chen
by Tiffany Rose
by Minh Lê, illustrated by Gus Gordon
by Emily Neilson
by Aya Khalil, illustrated by Anait Semirdzhyan
by Cece Meng, illustrated by Jago
by Anna Kim
by Beth Ferry, illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal
by Michelle Cook, illustrated by 14 Black Illustrators
by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
by Malia Jones
by Julie Berry, illustrated by Holly Hatam
by Cori Doerrfeld
by Gaia Cornwall
by Jelani Memory
by Sarah Lynne Reul
by Juana Martinez-Neal
by Sheetal Sheth, illustrated by Jessica Blank
by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi
by Christian Robinson
by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, illustrated by Luisa Uribe
by Matthew A. Cherry, illustrated by Vashti Harrison
by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton
by Jean Reidy, illustrated by Lucy Ruth Cummins
Thank you for this list and I really enjoyed your 2 classes (#ClassroomBookAday 101 & #ClassroomBookAday Power of Critical Selection). I am ordering books from Follett and am trying to pull up your Lists. What is the best path to find them? Thanks in advance!
ReplyDeleteAll of my Follett lists can be found by searching "Jillian Heise Book Lists" in Titlewave.
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