It’s Children’s Book Week. Here’s some recommended reading from metro-east librarians

It’s Children’s Book Week, a twice-annual celebration of children’s books and the joy of reading, according to the website of Every Child a Reader, the charity arm of the Children’s Book Council.

To celebrate, the Belleville News-Democrat reached out to some metro-east libraries via email to get their recommendations for children’s books, including those that are the most frequently checked out. Here’s how they responded.

Board books

Board books are a type of picture book usually made with cardboard pages that have simple text and bright illustrations for babies and infants ages 0-3.

Becky Cline, youth services supervisor at Belleville Public Library, said all of the library’s board books are popular. “I have yet to see any of our board books last on the shelf more than a few days after reshelving,” she said.

The library always has books by authors Sandra Boynton, Eric Carle, Mo Willems and Anna Dewdney, Cline said, but the stand-out books are diverse and highlight “some of our most unique characteristics and histories.”

Her recommendations are “I Love My Beautiful Hair” by Elissa Wentt, “My First Book of Tattoos” by Robyn Wall and “Rock ‘n’ Roll” by Daniel Grogan.

Arianna Norris-Landry, programming director at Cahokia Public Library District, said “Wake Up, Sleep Tight” by Ken Wilson-Max is “always popular” and that “Good Dog, Carl” by Alexandra Day is “a perennial favorite that never gets old.”

O’Fallon Public Library Youth Services Manager Teri Rankin said “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” by Bill Martin Jr., “Bird Color” by Alison Hill Spencer, “My First I See You” by Eric Carle, “I Love You, Little Pookie” by Sandra Boynton and “How To…Tie Your Shoes” by Cottage Door Press are the most checked out.

For recent releases, Rankin recommended “Good Night, Baby” by Little Bee Books, “Jungle Night” by Sandra Boynton, “Our Favorite Apples” by Grace Lin and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Garden Friends” by Eric Carle.

Picture books

Picture books have paper pages and tend to be longer than board books while still intertwining text and illustrations.

Cline at Belleville Public Library said “I cannot keep Peppa Pig on my shelves and I am currently trying to reorder as many of the older titles just so we can keep a healthy collection of these books on hand.”

For comedy, she recommended author Jory John, who has written “The Smart Cookie,” “The Good Egg” and “The Sour Grape.”

“If you enjoy a good storyline, with even better illustrations, any book by The Fan Brothers will do the trick,” Cline said. Their recent titles include “It Fell From the Sky” and “Night Lunch.”

“Personally, even though I love a great laugh, my favorite picture books are the ones that bring a tear to my eye or highlight profound events,” she said.

Examples include Oliver Jeffers’ “Meanwhile Back on Earth,” which discusses the history of Earth’s conflicts, and Britta Teckentrup’s “The Swing,” which “brilliantly tells the story of memories, friendship and sorrow. It is truly a storybook that could be appreciated by anyone,” Cline said.

Norris-Landry at Cahokia Public Library District said “Everything a Drum” by Sarah Warren is a “great book about experimenting and imagination.” She also recommended “Maddy’s Mad Hair Day” by Sharon Callen. “Hair and what to do about/with it is always a good bet,” she said.

Rankin at O’Fallon Public Library recommended the following recently-published books: “Big” by Vashti Harrison, “The Duck Never Blinks” by Alex Latimer, “Oh No, the Aunts Are Here” by Adam Rex and “We Are Going to Be Pals” by Mark Teague. For a diverse book — meaning a story told by an author or illustrator on their own culture — she recommended “Bábo: A Tale of Armenian Rug-Washing Day” by Astrid Kamalyan.

Emergent reader

Also called easy, early or beginning reader books, emergent reader books are for children who are becoming independent in their reading skills.

“I rarely ever come across an emergent reader book that hasn’t been checked out multiple times in the last year,” Cline said.

She said Disney, “Pete the Cat,” “Pinkalicious” and “Fly Guy” “will forever be huge.”

She also said the library has been getting more requests for TV show-based books like Apple TV’s “Pretzel and the Puppies,” Netflix’s “The Cuphead Show” and “Bluey” on Disney+.

Norris-Landry said “So You Want to Be an Astronaut” by Clayton Anderson and “I Want to Be a Doctor” by Laura Driscoll “are aimed at younger/beginning readers but they are aspirational for our children’s population.”

Rankin said books by Stan and Jan Berenstain as well as books in Mo Willem’s “Elephant & Piggie” series, Mary Pope Osborne’s “Magic Treehouse” series and Barbara Park’s “Junie B. Jones” series are the most checked out.

Juvenile fiction and non-fiction

Juvenile literature is a broad category and the definition can vary, but it usually encompasses several reading levels between emergent readers and young adults.

For graphic novels, Cline said Ann M. Martin’s “The Baby-Sitters Club” and Dav Pilkey’s “Dog Man” series “are popular enough that I should probably have more than one set on my shelves. As soon as we get a book from those series, they are immediately picked up by another reader.”

Novels based on video games — like “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Plant vs. Zombies,” “Animal Crossing,” and “Splatoon” — are also popular, she said.

Chapter books’ popularity relies on the series, according to Cline. “Spy School” by Stuart Gibbs and “Keeper of the Lost Cities” by Shannon Messenger “are constantly being reordered for my shelves, she said.

For biographies, she said “Who HQ” books “will always be popular and the series does not seem to be slowing down.” The library gets over a dozen new books annually and the series has recently expanded into graphic novels as well, with new additions like Cesar Chavez and Michael Jordan.

“Little People, Big Dreams” by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vergara is the library’s other popular biographical series, Cline said. They are “wonderfully illustrated” and cover “everyone from Harriet Tubman to Megan Rapinoe.”

Norris-Landry also said “The Baby-Sitters Club” and “Dog Man” series are popular at Cahokia Public Library District.

Rankin said the most checked out books are those in the “Dog Man” series, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series by Jeff Kinney, “I Survived” series by Lauren Tarshis, “Geronimo Stilton” series by Geronimo Stilton and “Wings of Fire” series by Tui Sutherland.

For recent titles, she recommended “The Labors of Hercules Beal,” by Gary Schmidt, “Sisters of the Neversea,” by Cynthia Leitich Smith, “What’s Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon?” by Rachel Ignotofsky and “Who Would Win? Coyote vs. Dingo” by Jerry Pallota. For diverse books, she recommended “The Last Mapmaker” by Christina Soontornvat, “School Trip” by Jerry Craft and “Two Tribes” by Emily Cohen Bowen.