Brian Gehrlein
Jan 24, 20232 min
Happy Tuesday and welcome to Picture Book Spotlight!
In this episode of PB Spotlight, we share the results of the top ten most frequently nominated picture books published in 2022--voted by YOU! There were hundreds of votes and some AMAZING books being thrown around. Thank you so much to all who played along and actually narrowed all the great books of 2022 to a top five--what a headache that was!
To celebrate those who participated in the Picture Book Spotlight Awards this year, this post will also contain the winners of the giveaway raffle--a one-hour picture book Zoom critique with yours truly. Watch for your names at the bottom of this post. Looking forward to connecting and reading your work!
And now some congratulations are in order. To begin, congrats to all the picture books published in 2022. Congrats to all the books mentioned and nominated. And congrats to the most frequently nominated books! You really stood out to us and there's something magical about the story you told...
If any of the books below flew under your radar, grab a copy and read them to a kid! Head to the library, a bookstore, or your friendly neighborhood Amazon page--links provided!
Without further ado...here's the top ten picture books of 2022--the winners of the 2022 Picture Book Spotlight Awards!
TOP TEN WINNERS
Farmhouse
written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall
*nominated 12 times making this our first-place winner*
Old Friends
written by Margaret Aitken and illustrated by Lenny Wen
*nominated 10 times making this our second-place winner*
The Incredible Shrinking Lunchroom
written by Michal Babay and illustrated by Paula Cohen
*nominated 9 times making this our third-place winner*
Poo-Dunit? A Forest Floor Mystery
written by Katelyn Aronson and illustrated by Stephanie Laberis
Mushroom Rain
written by Laura K. Zimmermann and illustrated by Jamie Green
Listen How Evelyn Glennie, A Deaf Girl, Changed Percussion
written by Shannon Stocker and illustrated by Devon Holzwarth
Knight Owl
written and illustrated by Christopher Denise
Nigel and the Moon
written by Antwan Eady and illustrated by Gracey Zhang
The Cori and the Queen
written by Caroline L. Perry and illustrated by Lydia Corry
Counting to Bananas
written by Carrie Tillotson and illustrated by Estrela Lourenço
BRIAN'S 2022 PICKS
And now for the giveaway winners!
The winners of a one-hour Zoom picture book critique with me are...
Kimberly Horch
Nicole Garnett
Bri Lawyer
CONGRATS!
Whelp, that about wraps it up for me, kidlit fam. Stay tuned for more author, illustrator, and agent spotlights coming soon! Here's to a productive and meaningful 2023 for all of us!
Brian Gehrlein is currently too busy to write a bio. He simply can't do it. Nope. He won't. You can't make him. There will be no bio, pretend or otherwise, at the end of this post. So there. Okay, fine...you can have some information. Brian is one part human, two parts muppet, and three parts imagination (and also a heavy splash of coffee). Brian pretends to know stuff about English and teaches high school students all those pretend things. Sometimes he writes books. Sometimes they sell. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes Brian opens secret critique services and then basically tells nobody about it. You can find more information about the editorial critique service Brian doesn't offer by visiting this nonexistent page.