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Children's Picture Books With Beautiful Illustrations

The best picture books that have beautiful, detailed, color illustrations. Obviously a good storyline as well! NOT CARTOONISH or "CUTE"

FELLOW LIBRARIANS PLEASE HELP US RID THIS LIST OF SELF PROMOTING SPAM.

Caldecott Contenders aka Mock Caldecotts by year:
2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017

Picture Books by Decade:
2020s, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, 1940s and before

Picture Books by Year:
2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019
2020, 2021, 2022

See also:
Best Popular Picture Books on Goodreads
Best Picture Books
Charlotte Zolotow Award Winners and Honors
Children's Picture Books With Beautiful Illustrations
Caldecott Medal Winners
Caldecott Honor Books
Wordless Picture Books
1

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4.27 avg rating — 22,994 ratings
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4.27 avg rating — 119,048 ratings
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4.24 avg rating — 89,794 ratings
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11

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4.18 avg rating — 17,117 ratings
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4.20 avg rating — 117,108 ratings
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13

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4.22 avg rating — 73,241 ratings
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14

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4.37 avg rating — 93,036 ratings
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15

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4.22 avg rating — 24,281 ratings
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16

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4.16 avg rating — 27,223 ratings
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17

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4.21 avg rating — 17,286 ratings
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18

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4.29 avg rating — 6,479 ratings
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19

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4.22 avg rating — 12,304 ratings
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20

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 18,550 ratings
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21

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4.39 avg rating — 124,065 ratings
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22

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4.28 avg rating — 12,674 ratings
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23

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4.29 avg rating — 46,850 ratings
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24

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4.21 avg rating — 53,318 ratings
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25

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4.19 avg rating — 8,275 ratings
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26

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4.25 avg rating — 17,796 ratings
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27

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4.33 avg rating — 224,180 ratings
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28

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4.32 avg rating — 6,285 ratings
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29

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4.22 avg rating — 185,754 ratings
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30

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4.35 avg rating — 20,813 ratings
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31

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4.39 avg rating — 12,455 ratings
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32

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4.23 avg rating — 1,343 ratings
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33

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4.15 avg rating — 3,690 ratings
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34

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4.27 avg rating — 46,678 ratings
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35

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4.05 avg rating — 12,182 ratings
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36

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4.37 avg rating — 2,167 ratings
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37

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4.30 avg rating — 41,759 ratings
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38

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4.21 avg rating — 7,858 ratings
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39

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4.08 avg rating — 59,139 ratings
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40

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4.16 avg rating — 3,514 ratings
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41

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4.26 avg rating — 13,267 ratings
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42

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4.15 avg rating — 24,669 ratings
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43

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4.18 avg rating — 16,402 ratings
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44

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4.35 avg rating — 57,817 ratings
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45

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4.06 avg rating — 18,341 ratings
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46

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4.57 avg rating — 701 ratings
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47

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4.24 avg rating — 26,873 ratings
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48

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4.43 avg rating — 1,817 ratings
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49

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4.21 avg rating — 7,538 ratings
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50

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4.07 avg rating — 1,479 ratings
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51

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4.33 avg rating — 4,013 ratings
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52

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4.36 avg rating — 16,926 ratings
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53

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4.42 avg rating — 62 ratings
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54

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4.04 avg rating — 2,696 ratings
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55

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4.32 avg rating — 9,525 ratings
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56

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4.38 avg rating — 13,228 ratings
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57

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4.25 avg rating — 58,828 ratings
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58

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4.08 avg rating — 22,423 ratings
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59

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4.23 avg rating — 18,349 ratings
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60

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4.27 avg rating — 8,409 ratings
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61

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4.15 avg rating — 16,771 ratings
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62

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4.46 avg rating — 13,816 ratings
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63

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4.34 avg rating — 1,453 ratings
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64

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4.35 avg rating — 352,079 ratings
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65

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4.21 avg rating — 2,957 ratings
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66

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4.09 avg rating — 5,170 ratings
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67

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4.28 avg rating — 20,804 ratings
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68

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4.24 avg rating — 4,180 ratings
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69

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4.08 avg rating — 3,416 ratings
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70

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4.32 avg rating — 2,603 ratings
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71

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4.11 avg rating — 9,189 ratings
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72

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4.32 avg rating — 39,699 ratings
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73

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4.08 avg rating — 6,887 ratings
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74

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4.26 avg rating — 2,317 ratings
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75

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76

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77

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3.74 avg rating — 18,013 ratings
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78

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4.13 avg rating — 523 ratings
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79

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4.39 avg rating — 143,847 ratings
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80

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4.07 avg rating — 4,026 ratings
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81

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4.29 avg rating — 23,299 ratings
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82

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3.97 avg rating — 8,607 ratings
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83

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4.24 avg rating — 3,372 ratings
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84

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4.32 avg rating — 193,068 ratings
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85

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4.16 avg rating — 1,783 ratings
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86

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4.36 avg rating — 36 ratings
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87

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4.58 avg rating — 524 ratings
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88

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4.35 avg rating — 140 ratings
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89

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3.88 avg rating — 8,660 ratings
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90

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4.19 avg rating — 114,172 ratings
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91

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4.20 avg rating — 6,248 ratings
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92

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4.28 avg rating — 1,671 ratings
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93

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4.10 avg rating — 8,560 ratings
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94

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4.25 avg rating — 11,414 ratings
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95

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4.29 avg rating — 1,075 ratings
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96

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4.27 avg rating — 3,026 ratings
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97

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4.26 avg rating — 89,284 ratings
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98

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4.41 avg rating — 2,242 ratings
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99

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4.51 avg rating — 70 ratings
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100

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4.43 avg rating — 6,314 ratings
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2,081 books · 1,624 voters · list created December 7th, 2008 by Emily (votes) .
7 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


Emily 1589 books
20 friends
Susanna - Censored by GoodReads 3378 books
861 friends
Heidi 950 books
25 friends
Dara S. 7309 books
388 friends
Caitlin 1881 books
80 friends
Sári 1394 books
23 friends
Katty 2225 books
144 friends
Liaken 1613 books
12 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-9 of 9 (9 new)

dateDown arrow    newest »

message 1: by Bernadette (new)

Bernadette An ABC Escapade through Egypt

has beautiful photos of modern Egypt


Debbie is on Storygraph I removed some graphic novels that appeared on the list - 300, Wolverine: Weapon X, and Batman: Year One. Definitely not children's books.


message 3: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman and as with many lists, what looks like author spam, rules. A minimum of 500 ratings or being a book at least 10 years old would seem to make a difference.


message 4: by Capn (last edited Jun 21, 2022 02:41AM) (new)

Capn I was just wondering if there has been a spin-off list for this made since? I know some "beautifully illustrated picture books" that ARE cartoony and cute, but still very worthy of being listed in view of their illustrations alone.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Here are some examples of the books I would like to include, but which aren't 'realistic', which I presume is a crucial aspect of the inclusion criteria for this list:

Phileas's Fortune: A Story about Self-Expression
Rosa
Strega Nona
Days of the Blackbird
I Ate Sunshine for Breakfast: A Celebration of Plants Around the World
and virtually all of Bettina Ehrlich's and Kaya Doi's books

Cartoonish does not necessarily equate with unskilled or hurried... it seems a shame to not be able to list these purely by dint of their artistic merit. :S


message 5: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Capn wrote: "I was just wondering if there has been a spin-off list for this made since? I know some "beautifully illustrated picture books" that ARE cartoony and cute, but still very worthy of being listed in ..."

feel free to create a new list


message 6: by Capn (new)

Capn What's one more when you have 172, right? ;)

I'm always interested in reducing redundancy on Listopia.

Does anyone have any suggetions of extant lists, or is making a new list really the only option at this point? ;)


message 7: by Mitchell (new)

Mitchell Friedman Capn wrote: "What's one more when you have 172, right? ;)

I'm always interested in reducing redundancy on Listopia.

Does anyone have any suggetions of extant lists, or is making a new list really the only opt..."


I looked up lists tagged as picture-book and picturebook and picturebooks and found nothing more relevant.

My issue with creating a new list is how to make it so specific that any librarian would be comfortable removing any intentional or unintentional spam. And I don't have a way of describing this concept in that manner. And I've created 236 lists.


message 8: by Mitchell (last edited Jun 22, 2022 04:36PM) (new)

Mitchell Friedman Using Flotsam as a starting point I was reminded of https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6... and https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

both would seem to fit your bill from a concept - but most likely the lists themselves will be disappointing


message 9: by Capn (new)

Capn Oh Mitchell - THANKS! :) Exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to find. There's just so much to sort through, and the search function is abyssmal. A clever way to find lists - I will use your trick in the future.

I think the "Picture Books with Amazing Art" will be the one I'll add these less-realistic-but-still-impressive-picture books to (your first link, or: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/6... for ref).


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