08 March 2010

Top 100 Picture Books

In addition to the poll she did this year on the top 100 children's novels, Betsy (A Fuse #8 Production) did one last year on the top 100 picture books. The complete list of all 101 - yes, 101 - of them is here; each book on the list is linked to the post in which it originally appeared.

I was quite happy to see that Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson, was in the top ten (at #7), and that The Story of Ferdinand (written by Munro Leaf and illustrated by Robert Lawson) and Good Night Gorilla (by Peggy Rathmann) were in the top twelve (#11 and #12, respectively).

On the other hand, I was quite surprised by the lack of Jamberry, by Bruce Degen, and of anything at all by Mitsumasa Anno. But Betsy also did a follow-up post, entitled "What Do You Mean It Didn't Make the List?!? The Greatest Gaps of the Top 100 Picture Book Poll (for Good and for Ill)," and Jamberry was on that. Still nothing by Anno, though!

I didn't participate in that poll, but if I had my list probably would have looked something like this:
1. Jamberry, by Bruce Degen
2. Good Night Gorilla, by Peggy Rathmann (#12 on Betsy's list)
3. Harold and the Purple Crayon, by Crockett Johnson (#7 on Betsy's list)
4. But Not the Hippopotamus, by Sandra Boynton
5. Anno's Britain, by Mitsumasa Anno
6. Tuesday, by David Wiesner (#43 on Betsy's list, and the winner of the 1992 Caldecott Medal)
7. Anno's Journey, by Mitsumasa Anno
8. Anno's USA, by Mitsumasa Anno
9. Mouse Count, by Ellen Stohl Walsh
10. We're Going on a Bear Hunt, written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury (#69 on Betsy's list)

(Boynton's Hippos Go Berserk would have been another contender for my top ten, as would The Story of Ferdinand.)

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