With 2022 coming to a close, many publications have been gathering their “Best of 2022” lists for Children’s Books, and we are delighted to see so many clients’ work featured amongst them! Though of course, in our eyes, our clients’ books all make the ‘best of 2022’ list!
Waterstones’ Best Books of 2022 blog features their best of picks across all major genres. Malorie Blackman‘s autobiography Just Sayin’: My Life in Words (Merky Books) was featured in the Biography category, whilst Nadia Mikail‘s The Cats We Meet Along the Way (Guppy) is listed for Teen & Young Adult. Adoette (Andersen) by Lydia Monks and One Camel Called Doug (Simon & Schuster) by Lu Fraser, illustrated by Sarah Warburton, are both listed in the Baby & Toddler category, with One Camel Called Doug also featured in Waterstones’ The Children’s Books You Need to Read in 2022 article.
The Big Issue’s Best Children’s Books of 2022 included Saving the Butterfly (Walker) by Helen Cooper (illustrated by Gill Smith) and Children of the Stone City (HarperCollins) by Beverley Naidoo. Saving the Butterfly was reviewed as “an essential kids’ narrative for the fractured times we’re in”, whilst Children of the Stone City was praised for being “as powerful and significant as [Naidoo’s] first novel, Journey to Jo’berg” and a “testament…to the communal power of friendship, family and music”.
The Times has complied their 33 Best Books for Children 2022, featuring Rosie and the Friendship Angel (Macmillan Children’s) by Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker, illustrated by Jane Ray, with Nicolette Jones saying “All of Jane Ray’s exquisitely decorative work looks Christmassy, with jewel-bright colours and starry highlights…Reassuring and lovely”.
Louisa Reid‘s passionate and propulsive verse novel, The Poet (Doubleday), was chosen by novelist Joanna Kavenna as one of her Books of the Year, for The White Review’s “Books of the Year” article.
The Independent’s Best Christmas Books for Kids for 2022 chose Raymond Briggs‘ The Snowman & The Snowman and the Snowdog audiobook (produced by Tonies, read by Matthew Macfadyen and Benedict Cumberbatch) as the best Christmas Audiobook, whilst The Scotsman included Anna Wilson‘s 2023 Nature Month-By-Month: A Children’s Almanac (Nosy Crow) in their Best Children’s Books for Christmas list. Malorie Blackman’s Just Sayin’ was also featured in The Tablet’s Books of the Year summary, saying “Blackman is a beautiful writer, with a cracking sense of humour”.
On a final and poignant note, in their Best Picture Books of 2022 roundup The Guardian beautifully paid tribute to the late and dearly missed Raymond Briggs, saying: “Our first Christmas without the author of The Snowman, Raymond Briggs, feels bittersweet indeed. So as we celebrate another brilliant year of new books, let us never forget the joy of curling up with a classic.”
For Waterstones’ Best Books of 2022 blog click here.
For Waterstones’ Children’s Books You Need to Read in 2022 article click here.
For The Big Issue’s Best Children’s Books of 2022 article click here.
For The Times’ 33 Best Books for Children 2022 article click here.
For The White Review’s Books of the Year article click here.
For The Independent’s Best Christmas Books for Kids for 2022 article click here.
For The Scotsman’s Best Children’s Books for Christmas article click here.
For The Tablet’s Books of the Year article click here.
For The Guardian’s Best Picture Books of 2022 article click here.