Imogen Carter’s picture books of the year
No matter the state of the real world, there’s nothing quite like children’s books to remind you to marvel at the everyday and find hope in the darkness. Perhaps that’s one reason why the sector in Britain is set for its ninth consecutive year of growth in 2022, according to the Bookseller, with a wealth of sensational fiction and nonfiction published.
One such treasure is Alice Melvin’s Mouse’s Wood (Thames & Hudson), a lift-the-flap celebration of the seasons that’s guaranteed to get readers out into the forest exploring. Much like Brambly Hedge, Jill Barklem’s influential 1980s books, Melvin’s intricate illustrations depict a world in which woodland creatures snuggle under crocheted blankets, make jam or plunge into the river to cool off. Rhyming verse skips alongside opportunities to peek inside the animals’ homes, whether it’s Hedgehog’s cabin with its twinkly fairy lights or Squirrel’s cosy treehouse. Complete with end pages listing things to spot in the woods each month, it’s the perfect way to cultivate mini nature lovers.
It was certainly a knockout year for Katherine Rundell: previously best known for outstanding children’s chapter books such as Rooftoppers, she not only published two acclaimed nonfiction titles for adults – including a Baillie Gifford prize-winning biography of John Donne – and announced a new middle-grade fantasy trilogy for 2023, but her first foray into picture books was also the year’s most magnificent adventure. With illustrations by Sara Ogilvie, The Zebra’s Great Escape (Bloomsbury) stars a wild-spirited girl who unites with three furry friends to free a whole alphabet of animals from an evil villain.
Elsewhere, magic was woven by Caryl Lewis who, with illustrator Carmen Saldaña, gave us The Boy Who Dreamed Dragons (Puffin), featuring a child whose closest friends are forged by his imagination; and author/illustrator Jarvis, who created the wonderfully poignant The Boy With Flowers in His Hair (Walker). David, mysteriously, has a multicoloured mane of petals instead of hair – until one day they wither and his best friend comes to the rescue. Both singular tales, they also reflect a recent boom in books exploring emotions for under 10s – with reports last month that 76% more titles about mental health were published for that age group this year than by the same point in 2019.
Vibrant explorations of humans and how we live now came in the form of Marvellous Body by Jane Wilsher and Andrés Lozano (What on Earth), a lively look at human anatomy complete with a magic lens for nosying at our inner workings, and I Am the Subway by Kim Hyo-eun (Scribble; translated by Deborah Smith), a poetic journey through the Korean subway, narrated by the train itself. Meanwhile, Britannica’s Word of the Day, a lovely little chocolate box-size square book, gleefully winds its way through the English language dishing out daily definitions of words such as “razzmatazz” to nourish young minds.
While promising careers were launched with debuts such as Mariajo Ilustrajo’s Flooded (Quarto), sadly we also lost some master storytellers. Nobody captured the splendid chaos of family life, our infant devotion to teddies, pebbles or dens, quite like Shirley Hughes, beloved creator of Alfie and Dogger. And our first Christmas without the author of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs, feels bittersweet indeed. So as we celebrate another brilliant year of new books, let us never forget the joy of curling up with a classic.
Kitty Empire’s chapter books of the year
Where would kids’ books be without magic, myth and high jinks at school? Other themes ride a carousel. Outer space had a good showing in the 2022 bestseller lists, with David Walliams and Tom Fletcher offering up well-displayed titles (Spaceboy, Space Band).
There are vast frontiers beyond those charts, though. The past, famously, is another country and historical fiction adventures continued to provide both an escape hatch and a lens to examine the present. The Little Match Girl Strikes Back (Simon & Schuster) brought together Lauren Child and Emma Carroll for a fiery retelling of the famed Hans Christian Andersen tale, complete with industrial action.
JT Williams offered up the Lizzie and Belle Mysteries (Farshore), in which London’s historical Black communities formed the backdrop for an attempted murder investigation. Eve McDonnell’s The Chestnut Roaster (Everything With Words) served up sensory impressions of 19th-century Paris. All had page-turning plots and three-dimensional characters, plus clanging echoes of contemporary issues.
War settings, in particular, continued to inspire. The indefatigable Robin Stevens picked up where her Murder Most Unladylike series left off with a spin-off. Starring May Wong, the kid sister of MMU’s Hazel, The Ministry of Unladylike Activity (Puffin) combined home front espionage with the kind of “in the scullery, with the candlestick” murder 10-year-olds could cope with.
Many children need to process the times they are living in too, however, in age-appropriate ways. Older readers might relate to a first-hand account by Ukrainian Yeva Skalietska. You Don’t Know What War Is (Bloomsbury) traces the 12-year-old’s journey from happy normality through tumult, traversing western Ukraine and Hungary to find safety in Dublin.
There was also a spate of thefts this year, often of mythical beings. Alongside David Owen’s Alex Neptune: Dragon Thief and Sophie Anderson’s The Thief Who Sang Storms came AF Steadman’s hit Skandar and the Unicorn Thief (Simon & Schuster), which refreshingly recast those angelic horses as vicious, unpredictable beasts and introduced a school for unicorn riders.
The most original use of the educational setting, however, relocated one coming-of-age tale to a speculatively fictitious Nigeria. In Tolá Okogwu’s high-octane Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun (Simon & Schuster), young Londoner Onyeka discovers her superpowers, but is soon drawn into a web of deceit.
Illustrations are not just for little kids. Four very different ink-heavy books stood out. Louie Stowell’s Loki: A Bad God’s Guide to Being Good (Walker Books) was not just bestselling and funny; its pithy cartooning didn’t insult anyone’s intelligence. Richard Ayoade’s debut, The Book That No One Wanted to Read (Walker), packed in visual vim as well as ample wit. The partnership of Kiran Millwood Hargrave and her illustrator partner Tom de Freston remained strong and their tale of an arctic fox and the humans tracking her journey, Leila and the Blue Fox (Orion), tugged at the heart. Poet AF Harrold’s The Worlds We Leave Behind (Bloomsbury) – a contemporary fairytale about accidents, decisions and alternate realities – was dizzying in its scope. Levi Pinfold’s sensationally dark, atmospheric illustrations only amplified.
Fiona Noble’s YA books of the year
Media giants TikTok and Netflix proved formidable forces in reaching readers and driving a sales boom in young adult books in 2022. This year’s TikTok hits included crowd-pleasing prequels from Adam Silvera and E Lockhart with The First to Die at the End (Simon & Schuster) and Family of Liars (Hot Key Books), respectively. Over on Netflix the adaptation of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper graphic novels, chronicling the romance of a young gay couple, captured all the joy, heartache and tenderness of the originals. Although fans must wait until 2023 for the next instalment, the Heartstopper Yearbook (Hodder Children’s Books) makes a satisfying stocking filler, crammed with character profiles, background snippets and a mini comic.
The fantasy genre delivered three of the year’s most original and memorable YA novels. In Melinda Salisbury’s Her Dark Wings (David Fickling Books), a reimagining of the Persephone myth, Corey must pursue her dead best friend to the Underworld, a realm of arrogant gods and deadly Furies. It’s an intoxicating combination of the ancient and modern, full of passion and rage. There’s more feminist fury in When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (Hot Key Books), a searing coming-of -age novel like no other set in an alternative 1950s America where thousands of women and girls spontaneously transform into dragons. A new book from Frances Hardinge is always an event and Unraveller (Macmillan Children’s Books) is no exception. It’s a rich, immersive tale of curses, humanity and redemption told against the backdrop of a characteristically strange and beautiful world.
Next, two rising stars to look out for. In Danielle Jawando’s When Our Worlds Collided (Simon & Schuster) – which tackles racism with gripping storytelling and authentic characters – three teenagers are brought together following a stabbing in Manchester. Christine Pillainayagam brings humour and emotion to her debut, Ellie Pillai Is Brown (Faber). Set in a secondary school, it sees Ellie navigate the challenges of teenage life – friendships, boys, parental expectations and self-esteem – in a feelgood coming-of-age gem.
This month sees the return of Holly Jackson, author of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series. In Five Survive (Electric Monkey) a group of friends are trapped in a broken-down RV as a sniper targets them in a deadly game of cat and mouse set over a few terrible hours. It’s a blisteringly good standalone thriller.
Sadly, Marcus Sedgwick died in November, robbing the book world of one of its finest writers. Winner of the Branford Boase and Michael L Printz awards, and shortlisted five times for the Carnegie medal, he was innovative and ambitious, often venturing into the gothic. From his prescient debut, Floodland, to the vampiric My Swordhand Is Singing and century-spanning love story Midwinterblood, he leaves a legacy of outstanding novels to discover.
• To browse all children’s books included in the Guardian and Observer’s best books of 2022 visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
