My Fifty Favorite Children's Picture Books and Board Books From 2018

I read over 308 picture books and board books this year for the Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Award, the Cybils. My full reviews for 189 of these are posted here. My top fifty favorites are (in no particular order):

title	author	review
The Day War Came	Davies, Nicola	Bravo, Nicola Davies, for taking on a difficult subject and...more
Imagine	Herrera, Juan Felipe	Imagine is the evocative and inspirational autobiography-told-...more
Holes in the Sky	Polacco, Patricia	Before Trisha’s beloved babushka dies, she tells her grand...more
Birds of a Color	Elo	Lift the flap of the bird and learn about colors in this delightful...more
Contrary Dogs	Elo	Contrary Dogs is an interactive board book in which young...more
Edison: The Mystery of the Missing Mouse Treasure	Kuhlmann, Torben	A tiny mouse strikes out to find answers to an old...more
The Rabbit Listened	Doerrfeld, Cori	A child builds an amazing structure out of blocks only to...more
Bedtime, Ted!	Henn, Sophy	Ted has lots of good reasons to avoid going to bed. Told with...more
Dear Girl,	Rosenthal, Amy Krouse	Dear Girl is a letter from a mom to her daughter...more
The Day You Begin	Woodson, Jacqueline	It's not easy to impress me. I was an elementary school...more
The Rough Patch	Lies, Brian	Evan and his dog do everything together. They especially...more
Ocean Meets Sky	Fan, Terry	Finn sets sail for the place where ocean meets sky, in...more
Imagine!	Colón, Raúl	A boy ventures into New York City's Museum of Modern Art,...more
Hello Hello	Wenzel, Brendan	A colorful introduction to the wide variety of animals in the...more
Black Bird Yellow Sun	Light, Steve	Dr. Seuss took on the challenge to write a story in fifty words...more
When Your Llama Needs a Haircut	Hill, Susanna Leonard	A llama needs a haircut, but he doesn't want one. (Are you...more
But Not the Armadillo	Boynton, Sandra	I'm a huge Sandra Boynton fan so bear in mind that I gave this ...more
Hello Lighthouse	Blackall, Sophie	This is the beautiful story of a family's life in a lighthouse...more
Peek-a-Who?	Mroziewicz, Elsa	Peek-a-who? What animal makes what sound? Turn the...more
The Remember Balloons	Oliveros, Jessie	James has a lot of balloons filled with memories but his...more
Atlas of Imaginary Places	Cassany, Mia	Take a trip to places you never knew existed and didn’t...more
All Are Welcome	Penfold, Alexandra	With a huge cast of amazingly diverse children, Alexandra...more
Alma and How She Got Her Name	Martinez-Neal, Juana	Alma Sofia Esperanza Jose Pura Candela is frustrated with...more
We Don't Eat Our Classmates	Higgins, Ryan T.	Penelope the T-Rex can't wait to meet her new classmates...more
If the S in Moose Comes Loose	Hermann, Peter	Oh no! The S and E in MOOSE have come loose. Cow must...more
These Colors Are Bananas: Published in Association with the Whitney Museum of American Art	Shopsin, Tamara	We know bananas are yellow, but can they be other colors...more
Julián Is a Mermaid	Love, Jessica	Julian loves mermaids, and his grandmother finds a way to help...more
Why The Face?	Jullien, Jean	Why the face? Look at the picture. Why is she making that...more
But First, We Nap: A Little Book about Nap Time	Miles, David W	How many words does it take to tell a story? This little board...more
Khalida and the Most Beautiful Song	Moeckel, Amanda	A song keeps appearing to Khalida but no one gives her time...more
The Field	Paul, Baptiste	A girl and her friends play a game of pick-up soccer. It's a little...more
Misunderstood Shark	Dyckman, Ame	It's time for Underwater World with Bob, and right in the middle...more
Africville	Grant, Shauntay	Who knew there was an Africville in Canada, a thriving black...more
Mixed: A Colorful Story	Chung, Arree	In the beginning there were just three colors: Red, Yellow,...more
Mirror Play	Shin, Monte	This wildly novel board book challenges children to fold a mirror...more
Let the Children March	Clark-Robinson, Monica	In 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama, blacks were still not free...more
The Old Man	V, Sarah	The Old Man shares a day in the life of a homeless man...more
Madeline Finn and the Shelter Dog	Papp, Lisa	Madeline Finn learns about the sadnesses of shelter dogs, and...more
Whale in a Fishbowl	Howell, Troy	Wednesday the whale lived in a fishbowl. Secretly she longed...more
Islandborn	Díaz, Junot	Lola can't remember much about the island where she was...more
A Stone for Sascha	Becker, Aaron	A girl is sad after losing her beloved dog. At the beach she...more
The King of Bees	Laminack, Lester L.	Henry wants to help his Aunt Lilla with her bees. One day he...more
Drawn Together	Lê, Minh	A boy and his grandfather don't speak the same language, but...more
When the Cousins Came	Yamasaki, Katie	Cousins come from two different places, and they have...more
This Is My Eye: A New York Story	Vaswani, Neela	A girl roams around New York City and takes beautiful photos...more
The Pink Umbrella	Callot, Amélie	Adele and her cafe are the soul of her community. Everyone...more
Polar Bear Island	Bonilla, Lindsay	Only polar bears are allowed on Polar Bear Island. The mayor...more
The Patchwork Bike	Clarke, Maxine Beneba	A girl and her brothers in Africa create their own bike from...more
Lorraine: The Girl Who Sang the Storm Away	Secor, Ketch	Lorraine and her grandpa make music together. Slowly all their...more
Night Job	Hesse, Karen	A boy goes with his dad to his night job as a school custodi...more

The Cybils finalists for 2018 were announced on January 1, 2019.

The Cybils winners were announced on February 14, 2019.