If you’re like me, you probably adore using children’s literature to introduce art projects and more. I love teaching students that the illustrations are actual works of art. You can find many, many art lessons on this blog that have been inspired by children’s books.

In no particular ranking order, here are the most artful (as in art-filled, “likely to be a wonderful book for art lessons”) children’s books of 2021.

Uma Wimple Charts Her House is about a little girl who loves to make charts and graphs. She feels pressure, though, when she is assigned the task of charting her house. This book teaches lessons about handling anxiety and pressure. The illustrations of real charts, graphs, and diagrams are great for discussing how those things apply to visual art (and math and science). Students could make a no-pressure chart of their home or the school as an extension activity.

Habitats is a board book with wheels to turn that tell you what items to look for in the illustrations. For the youngest kiddos, this is a great introduction to habitats. It would be very easy to incorporate a directed or guided drawing lesson of the animals in this book. Take the art up a notch by having the students use observational skills to try to draw one of the animals. In some cases, they could even use pattern blocks to build the animals in the illustrations. The turtle is my favorite for all three of these ideas.

Pawcasso is a graphic novel about the friendship between the loneliest girl in the class and her dog. The play on words could lead to a study of Pablo Picasso’s work, but the images in the book lend themselves to teaching illustration for graphic novels. Easily incorporate writing and character development as students create comic strip-like works of art.

Our Skin was developed by a diversity expert and an early-literacy advocate. I love this work for introducing self-portraits. You can use it to help your students draw themselves more authentically.

Milo Imagines the World is about a little boy going to visit his incarcerated mother. It is tender and empathy-evoking. The child’s imagination is a wonderful tool and can be used to spark conversations about the benefits of creative thinking and endeavors. The illustrations have wonderful textures and serve as a good model for a painted paper collage project.

Stella’s Stellar Hair should suck you in just by the cover image. Just look at this amazing hair! The plot holds a blend of STEM and self-esteem. Why not make it STEAM by having students build sculptures that accompany the illustrations and use those to do a stop motion retelling of the book?

Change Sings. Two words : Amanda Gorman. Beauty, activism, caring, kindness, heroes, and all the things.

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