Several times over the Christmas period at social gatherings I was asked a question which I dread. It is expressed in different ways - "What is your favourite book?", "What was the best book you read this year?", "What are your top three books?", "Do you have a favourite classic picture book?" and so on.
IMPOSSIBLE! - Would it be easier if this question specified a genre or age range or format? Picture Book; Junior novel; Middle Grade novel; funny book; realistic fiction; historical fiction; fantasy; published in 2025; or Australian?
NO this is still an impossible question. In 2025 I blogged over 450 titles. For every book I blogged I probably read 3-5 others so that's over 1000 books read in just one year (and that is a conservative figure). In total I am getting close to 4100 blog posts between 2008 and the present and I began my serious reading of kids' books back in 1983 so there are tons more titles I could talk about. I do give star ratings sometimes, but I admit to being a big inconsistent with this and anyway that would still be quite a long list of just five-star titles, not just the one or two titles as demanded by the people asking these questions. (Who by the way probably don't know much about kids' books at all even the ones who are actual parents and do read to their own children). I wonder what their favourite books are - adult books or kids' books.
To add to this, at one function I was also asked what makes a good/great picture book. Of course, that is a PhD topic but I mumbled something about fabulous illustrations that extend beyond the text, rich vocabulary, satisfying stories that invite re-reading, and picture books (for older kids) that leave you thinking long after the last page is turned.
I imagine the people asking the questions above, think that reading kids books is a small field - little do they know that there are so many possibilities from board books, to non fiction, and books in interesting formats (read about 1 is for One), and award winners, and verse novels, and complex dystopian stories not to mention steam punk! I could go on and on.
In response and exasperation, I did share these book covers on Instagram as a sample of books I loved in 2025 (note not all were actually published in 2025 and only a few are Australian - I should have put a few more). You can pop any of these titles into my search bar for further details:
Do I have a favourite book? No - I have tons of favourites. Here are a some of books I always mention but really this is just a drop in an enormous ocean:
