#20-16 | #15-11 | #10-6 | #5-1

After a year on the shelf, the Top 20 Books list is back with a vengeance. John Schumacher and I Google Doc’ed like madmen to bring you our favorite books of 2016 for grades K-6. We’ll blab (briefly) about the books here, but be sure to visit Watch. Connect. Read. for additional resources for each book.

(By the way – the logo this year is a bit of an I Spy of the Top 20 Books – see if you can spot them all.)

20. Gertie’s Leap to Greatness by Kate Beasley, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki [FSG | Grades 3-5]

Click here for additional resources from Watch. Connect. Read.

Because Gertie Foy and Ramona Quimby would be good pals.

19. Ideas Are All Around by Philip C. Stead [Roaring Brook Press | Grades K-3]

Because it finds universality in specificity. Because it finds beauty in mundanity.

18. Dance! Dance! Underpants! by Bob Shea [Disney-Hyperion | Grades K-2]

Because it’s the funniest early reader of 2016.

17. School’s First Day of School by Adam Rex, illustrated by Christian Robinson [Roaring Brook Press | Grades PreK-1]

Because a lesser book would have made School an all-knowing adult, instead of the nervous kindergartener we find here.

16. A Poem for Peter by Andrea Davis Pinkney, illustrated by Lou Fancher & Steve Johnson [Viking | Grades 2-5]

Because a book like that deserves a book like this.

#20-16 | #15-11 | #10-6 | #5-1