Jennifer LaGarde’s Favorite Books of the Year for 2022 and 2023!

Please enjoy a special discount of 20% off the titles of your choice using the code JENNIFERLAGARDE.

Here are Jennifer’s top picks!

Picture Books 2023

Remember by Joy Harjo

Big by Vashti Harrison

Nell Plants a Tree by Anne Wynter

Evergreen by Matthew Cordell

Friends Beyond Measure by Lalena Fisher

My Powerful Hair by Carole Lindstrom

Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri

American Story by Kwame Alexander

My Baba's Garden by Jordan Scott

Greenlight by Breanna Carzoo

All the Beating Hearts by Julie Fogliano

Awake, Asleep by Kyle Lukoff

When You Can Swim by Jack Wong

In the Night Garden by Carin Berger

Stickler Loves the World by Lane Smith

Dim Sum, Here We Come! by Maple Lam

Picture Day (The Brinkley Yearbooks) by Sarah Sax

Make Way: The Story of Robert McCloskey, Nancy Schön, and Some Very Famous Ducklings by Angela Burke Kunkel

This Is a Story by John Schu

My Dog Just Speaks Spanish by Andrea Cáceres

Beneath by Cori Doerrfeld

Never Forget Eleanor by Jason June

Very Good Hats by Emma Straub

ABC and You and Me by Corinna Luyken

Picture Books 2022

If You Find a Leaf by Aimee Sicuro

John's Turn by Mac Barnett

Gibberish by Young Vo

This Is a School by John Schu

Lizzy and the Cloud by Terry Fan

World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson

Witch Hazel by Molly Idle

Boy Who Loved Maps by Kari Allen

Farmhouse by Sophie Blackall

Berry Song by Michaela Goade

Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky by Jihyun Kim

Hundred Years of Happiness by Thanhhà Lai

Endlessly Ever After: Pick Your Path to Countless Fairy Tale Endings! by Laurel Snyder

How to Eat a Book by Mrs & Mr MacLeod

Powwow Day by Traci Sorell

Out of a Jar by Deborah Marcero

Patchwork by Matt de la Peña

Somewhere in the Bayou by Jerome Pumphrey

One Boy Watching by Grant Snider

Night Lunch by Eric Fan

Still This Love Goes on by Buffy Sainte-Marie

Feathers Together: Inspired by a Pair of Real Birds with an Unbreakable Bond (The Feeling Friends) by Caron Levis

Line in the Sand by Thao Lam

Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle by Nina Lacour

Moonlight by Stephen Savage

Dadaji's Paintbrush by Rashmi Sirdeshpande

With Lots of Love by Jenny Torres Sanchez

Also by E B Goodale

Bathe the Cat by Alice B McGinty

My Pet Feet by Josh Funk

Christmas Book Flood by Emily Kilgore

Middle Grade Fiction 2023

You Are Here: Connecting Flights by Ellen Oh

Skull: A Tyrolean Folktale by Jon Klassen

Not an Easy Win by Chrystal D Giles

Aniana del Mar Jumps In by Jasminne Mendez

Eb & Flow by Kelly J Baptist

Ellie Engle Saves Herself (Ellie Engle #1) by Leah Johnson

Link + Hud: Heroes by a Hair by Jarrett Pumphrey

Hidden Truths by Elly Swartz

Work in Progress by Jarrett Lerner

Opinions and Opossums by Ann Braden

When Clouds Touch Us by Thanhhà Lai

Hands by Torrey Maldonado

Middle Grade Fiction 2022

Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone by Tae Keller

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan

Rover's Story by Jasmine Warga

Visitors by Greg Howard

Wayward Creatures by Dayna Lorentz

Lucky Ones by Linda Williams Jackson

Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee

Those Kids from Fawn Creek by Erin Entrada Kelly

Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill

Dear Student by Elly Swartz

Last Mapmaker by Christina Soontornvat

Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart

Hummingbird by Natalie Lloyd

Worser by Jennifer Ziegler

Attack of the Black Rectangles by A S King

Tumble by Celia C Pérez

Secret Battle of Evan Pao by Wendy Wan-Long Shang

Thirst by Varsha Bajaj

Seed in the Sun by Aida Salazar

Dear Student by Elly Swartz

Aviva vs. the Dybbuk by Mari Lowe

Lolo's Light by Liz Garton Scanlon

Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack

Nonfiction — Elementary, Middle Grade and Up 2023

How Do You Spell Unfair?: Macnolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee by Carole Boston Weatherford

Indestructible Tom Crean: Heroic Explorer of the Antarctic by Jennifer Thermes

Love Is Loud: How Diane Nash Led the Civil Rights Movement by Sandra Neil Wallace

We Are Starlings: Inside the Mesmerizing Magic of a Murmuration by Robert Furrow

Secret Life of the Yeti by Benjamin Harper

Rock, Rosetta, Rock! Roll, Rosetta, Roll!: Presenting Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the Godmother of Rock & Roll by Tonya Bolden

Whale Fall: Exploring an Ocean-Floor Ecosystem by Melissa Stewart

Stars of the Night: The Courageous Children of the Czech Kindertransport by Caren Stelson

Woven of the World by Katey Howes

Total Garbage: A Messy Dive Into Trash, Waste, and Our World by Rebecca Donnelly

Nonfiction — Elementary, Middle Grade and Up 2022

One Million Trees: A True Story by Kristen Balouch

Universe in You: A Microscopic Journey by Jason Chin

Unequal: A Story of America by Michael Eric Dyson

Ablaze with Color: A Story of Painter Alma Thomas by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Dressing Up the Stars: The Story of Movie Costume Designer Edith Head by Jeanne Walker Harvey

Forest Fighter: The Story of Chico Mendes by Anita Ganeri

American Murderer: The Parasite That Haunted the South by Gail Jarrow

Killer Underwear Invasion!: How to Spot Fake News, Disinformation & Conspiracy Theories by Elise Gravel

H Is for Harlem by Dinah Johnson

Seen and Unseen: What Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams's Photographs Reveal about the Japanese American Incarceration by Elizabeth Partridge

Over and Under the Waves (Over and Under) by Kate Messner

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer

Blue: A History of the Color as Deep as the Sea and as Wide as the Sky by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond

If You're a Kid Like Gavin by Gavin Grimm

Anglerfish: The Seadevil of the Deep by Elaine M Alexander

Graphic Novels 2023

School Trip (RAD #3) by Jerry Craft

First Time for Everything by Dan Santat

Parachute Kids: A Graphic Novel by Betty C Tang

Four Eyes: A Graphic Novel (Four Eyes #1) by Rex Ogle

Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke

Paul Bunyan: The Invention of an American Legend by Noah Van Sciver

Graphic Novels 2022

Swim Team by Johnnie Christmas

The National Parks: Preserving America's Wild Places (History Comics) by Falynn Koch

Red Scare by Liam Francis Walsh

Muhammad Najem, War Reporter: How One Boy Put the Spotlight on Syria by Muhammad Najem

Frizzy by Claribel A Ortega

Invisible (English With Some Spanish) by Christina Diaz Gonzalez

New Masters by Shobo Coker

Isla to Island by Alexis Castellanos

First Cat in Space Ate Pizza (First Cat in Space #1) by Mac Barnett

Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case

Tryout by Christina Soontornvat

Growing Pangs by Kathryn Ormsbee

Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy by Jonathan Hill

Play Like a Girl by Misty Wilson

Ride on by Faith Erin Hicks

Freestyle: A Graphic Novel by Gale Galligan

Button Pusher by Tyler Page

Flamingo by Guojing

Jennifer LaGarde is a lifelong teacher and learner with over 20 years in public education. Her educational passions include leveraging technology to help students develop authentic reading lives, meeting the unique needs of students living in poverty and helping learners (of all ages) discern fact from fiction in the information they consume. A huge fan of YA Literature, Jennifer currently lives, works, reads and drinks lots of coffee in Olympia, Washington. Follow her adventures at www.librarygirl.net or on Twitter @jenniferlagarde.