Up until a couple of years ago, I was squarely in the “classics and best sellers” camp when it came to how I bought children’s books. I bought a lot of Dr. Seuss and sometimes I’d pick up a book I’d seen at a friend’s house or on the shelf at KMart. Absolutely nothing against Dr. Seuss (so loved here!) or top selling children’s books, but I slowly started to understand how much I’d been missing by sticking to a narrow repertoire. There’s just this amazing larger world of children’s books out there with gorgeous illustrations and texts that delight with humour, metaphor, and wisdom. I’d been missing so many pieces of art!
Since falling in love with children’s books, my focus has been mostly been on Australian books. We live in Australia, and it’s important to me that we support a thriving arts and culture environment here. Plus, as one lady at a bookshop said to me, “picture books are something that Australians do particularly well.”
I thought I’d share a few places I find out about books I want to add to our collection or borrow from the library, in case you’d also like to start diving more deeply into the beautiful world of kid lit.
Bookshops
This probably goes without saying that if you want to see what books are out there, head to a bookshop. If you have an independent bookshop in your area, they’re particularly wonderful because the staff tend to be so informed and passionate, but I certainly don’t go past the larger chain book stores, either. I wanted to buy a book as a thank you gift to my daughter’s daycare. I went into my local shop and asked for suggestions on a picture book for pre-schoolers with a little girl main character (how few options there were meeting this criteria is a whole other post, but I digress…) – something the daycare might not have in their collection, already. The bookseller had a quick poke around, and then you could just see the love on her face when she handed me Anna Walker’s stunning Florette. It was perfect.
You can absolutely go into a bookshop and just peruse, even if you’re not going to buy. If I’m wandering past the shop, and the baby is asleep in the pram, I love to take a stroll/leaf through.
Kinderling Radio Stories
We are huge fans of Kinderling Radio. All of our favorite kid’s musicians are on there, plus The Beanies podcast, and their Story of the Week. Every week, they feature a reading of a new story book, nearly always Australian, read either by the author or a presenter. You can find the archives on the app. Of course, you can’t see the pictures, but we’ve fallen in love with so many stories that Miss 5 requests over and over. Here we discovered Aura Parker’s Twig, Why Can’t I Be a Dinosaur by Kylie Westaway, The Very Noisy Baby by Alison Lester, among so many others. Miss 5 gets so excited when she sees the books she’s heard on Kinderling “in the wild” – she feels like they are her stories.
“Your Kid’s Next Read” Facebook Group
Your Kid’s Next Read Facebook Group is an amazing resource, run by author Allison Tait and teacher-libararian Megan Daley. There are a lot of lists in the intro post, and members are always welcome to ask for suggestions for books for a particular type of reader (i.e. “My 9 year old son is obsessed with space. Can you recommend some fiction books he might enjoy?”). The members are a wealth of information.
One More Page Podcast
One More Page is a newish Australian podcast all about children’s books. They say, “One More Page is a podcast for lovers of kids’ books. Whether you’re a kid, a librarian or just one of those people who never grew up…this is the podcast for you.” They interview authors, illustrators, librarians, book sellers, and people in the children’s book industry, as well as talk about the books they’ve been reading, and have some fun segments with kids. At times, it can feel a little bit “inside baseball” if you’re not already quite immersed in the Australian kid lit scene, but it’s worth powering through those bits for some excellent suggestions from both the adults and kids, and to hear creatives talk about their processes.
I do love my Instagram, and finding out about new books is one of the best things it offers me. The kids “bookstagram” world is huge, so find a few accounts that you love and follow those.
Here are as sampling of a few kid’s books accounts that I follow (the first three are local, and the second two are international):
Instagram is also a great place to follow children’s lit authors and bookshops (try Sydney’s The Children’s Bookshop and Melbourne’s The Little Bookroom). And, if you like going down hashtag rabbit holes, some good ones for children’s books are:
#Kidlit
#Kidlitart
#Kidsbookstagram
#rasieareader
#bookishplay
Libraries
Of course libraries! Especially because my book budget is very far from unlimited. But, I’m putting libraries lower down on this particular list because I don’t always find them the best place to just drop in and find those hidden gems, especially new books, which shoot out the door quickly. Kids book areas in libraries are so well loved and worked over that it’s often tough to really see what’s there. If I go into the library with no list and a couple of squirmy kids, we’ll sometimes just grab some tried and true ones and a few unknowns that look interesting – some gems and some rather less so. I have the best luck at libraries when I go in with a list I’ve compiled from the sources above and grab some of those, along with some surprises. My library strategy is to take out big stacks, and we’re bound to find some awesome books.
How do you find interesting new children’s books? If you know of resources I’ve missed, please drop them in the comments!
Did you catch the rest of our children’s book posts from this month? If you missed them, have a read:
Sian from Teach Investigate Play on The Bad Guys series
Ania from The Sane Mum on Somewhere in Australia
Bron from Mumlyfe on 5 Must-Read Adventure Books for Tween Girls
Rebecca from Seeing the Lighter Side on Oi Frog!
Kell from All Mum Said on May Gibbs’ Gumnut Babies
Our review of Mopoke
Review of Emily Arrow’s albums based on children’s books
PIN IT
