The 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020

December 5, 2020

A roundup of new guidance and stories from NYT Parenting.

Golden Cosmos

My tiny victory this week was convincing my older daughter to read “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler” with me. She tends to balk at anything suggested by her mother even though she enjoys reading. But when I began to describe the story of Claudia, the girl who runs away from home and hides in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, bathing in fountains and sleeping in ancient, enormous, stately beds, my kid’s interest was piqued enough to suppress her instinctive eye rolls.

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I hope it’s the beginning of a little winter book club for the two of us, and I am so glad to see the excellent selections in the Times’s 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020. I think my third-grader would love “Ways to Make Sunshine” by Renée Watson. According to the review: “Like Beverly Cleary’s Ramona Quimby, who inspired this heart-wrenching yet delightful new series, the Black fourth grader Ryan Hart is a bright, imaginative girl who specializes in ‘making a way out of no way.’”

On the school front, Eliza Shapiro and Kate Taylor explore why some districts are bringing younger children back to in-person learning first. Gail Cornwall and Kelly Glass look into a painful phenomenon that has come to light during the pandemic: bias and discrimination becoming visible to parents due to remote learning. When children and families experience racism this way, the fallout impacts targets and bystanders alike.

Also this week, Kate Rope has tips for how to get your kids to play independently. Lisa Damour has advice for making sure your teens are using their downtime in ways that are psychologically healthy for them. And Meg St-Esprit has a lovely essay about her father helping her children through the pandemic by painting with them. Meg worries about her toddler’s anxiety and prays that “a memory of painting with her Pap is stronger than those of strangers looking down at her with masks covering their smiles.”

My last column of the year will be about your fantasy solo vacation. If money were no object, and the pandemic miraculously ended tomorrow, where would you go? What would you do without your kids bursting through the door every 15 minutes? Tell me all about it.

Thanks for reading!

— Jessica Grose, columnist, NYT Parenting

P.S. We also want to hear about the Tiny Victories you’ve had this year. This week, we’re looking for wins from working parents. You can email them to us here.

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THIS WEEK IN NYT PARENTING

Roberts Rurans

The 25 Best Children’s Books of 2020

The most notable picture, middle grade and young adult books of the year, selected by The Times’s children’s books editor.

Mikyung Lee

Remote Learning Can Bring Bias Into the Home

Experts say unfair treatment and discrimination shouldn’t go unaddressed.

By Gail Cornwall and Kelly Glass

Antonio Giovanni Pinna

Adolescence

How Teens Use Downtime to Connect, Distract or Reflect

Different choices for how young people use free time lead to different kinds of relief.

By Lisa Damour

Sarah Blesener for The New York Times

Why School Districts Are Bringing Back Younger Children First

New York City became the highest-profile example when Mayor de Blasio said elementary schools would reopen starting Dec. 7.

By Eliza Shapiro and Kate Taylor

Ross Mantle for The New York Times

My Dad Is Going to Paint His Way Through the Pandemic

It’s how he loves.

By Meg St-Esprit

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Tiny Victories

Parenting can be a grind. Let’s celebrate the tiny victories.

After what has felt like months of cajoling, pleading, bargaining, bribing, threatening and of course yelling and crying about getting my 3-year-old to wear his coat, he put it on by himself without any prompting. — Katherine Smith, Tacoma, Wash.

If you want a chance to get your Tiny Victory published, find us on Instagram @NYTparenting and use the hashtag #tinyvictories; email us; or enter your Tiny Victory at the bottom of this page. Include your full name and location. Tiny Victories may be edited for clarity and style. Your name, location and comments may be published, but your contact information will not. By submitting to us, you agree that you have read, understand and accept the Reader Submission Terms in relation to all of the content and other information you send to us.

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