Every autumn since 1952, the New York Times Book Review has invited a panel of judges to survey the year’s output of children’s books and to select the top 10 best illustrated. This year’s trio of judges were: author and illustrator Christopher Myers, whose Jabberwocky (Hyperion) was a Best Illustrated Book of 2007; Caroline Ward, Head of Children’s Services at the Ferguson Library, Stamford, CT, who recently co-curated the exhibition “Children Should be Seen: The Changing Image of the Child in American Picture-Book Art”; and Luann Toth, Managing Editor of School Library Journal’s Book Review, who was a member of the 2002 Randolph Caldecott Award Committee.Top 10 best illustrated books of 2008:
A Is for Art: An Abstract Alphabet, written and illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson (S & S/A Paula Wiseman Bk.)
The Black Book of Colors, written and illustrated by Menena Cottin and Rosana Faría (Groundwood)
Ghosts in the House!, written and illustrated by Kazuno Kohara (Roaring Brook)
The Little Yellow Leaf, written and illustrated by Carin Berger (HarperCollins/Greenwillow)
Pale Male: Citizen Hawk of New York City, illustrated by Meilo So, with text by Janet Schulman (Knopf/Borzoi)
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams, illustrated by Melissa Sweet, with text by Jen Bryant (Eerdmans)
Skim, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki, with text by Mariko Tamaki (Groundwood)
Wabi Sabi, illustrated by Ed Young, with text by Mark Reibstein (Little, Brown)
Wave, illustrated by Suzy Lee (Chronicle)
We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, written and illustrated by Kadir Nelson (Hyperion/Jump and the Sun)
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