What to Read to Your Kids

Houston, we have lift off! Welcome to the first installment of the 2023 Gift Guide. It may be a bit later in hitting your inboxes this year, but trust me when I tell you that the wait will have been worth it. I have never worked harder to find the giftiest books of the year—most of them published just in the past few weeks—and I can honestly say it’s the best Guide yet. In coming weeks, as fast as I can pen these posts, you’ll be getting SIX more installments: Picture Books, Illustrated Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Graphic Novels, Young Adult, and Board Books. Whew, that’s a lot of books!

Today is all about the Show Stoppers. These are the books with max gift appeal. The books that might feel, whether to an avid reader or one who’s more reluctant, a little different than the status quo. When I polled you on social media about what you wanted to see more of on this year’s Guide, the resounding answer was THESE KIND OF BOOKS. So yes, thanks to you, this section is now unwieldy and massive and totally awesome.

Some of these books are interactive. Some are browsable non-fiction that you can leave casually lying around the house for hours of turn-to-any-page, stumble-upon-new-knowledge entertainment. You’ll see new titles in favorite series from past Gift Guides, as well as a host of books that will feel completely new.

Let’s talk for a second about shopping. If you’re in the Northern Virginia area, I would love it if you’d consider buying your books from Old Town Books, where I work and where the entire Kids & Teen Guide is on display. If you live near another terrific indie, please support them! Indie bookstores are vital to book-loving communities and can only flourish with your support. (And hey, while I have you, snag tickets to my two upcoming in-person events here!)

Shall we begin? With the exception of the first two heavy hitters, titles are roughly arranged from youngest to oldest (suggested age ranges are listed in the headlines).