The October 2023 Picture Books New Release Spotlight is officially complete! You can download the presentation and picture book list without worrying about new titles being added after you download.
October is typically a GREAT month for new book releases, and this October didn’t disappoint!
The October Picture Books Spotlight features 24 new picture books, 1 chapter book, and 7 “favorite characters” sequels. This list was narrowed down from a starting list of 102 October picture books, so it’s definitely the cream of the crop!
You can find the October 2023 Middle Grade and YA Spotlight at the top and bottom of this post. If you want to see last month’s list, you can find the September 2023 Picture Books Spotlight here.
TIPS FOR USING THE OCTOBER 2023 PICTURE BOOKS SPOTLIGHT IN YOUR LIBRARY
This post has five parts. I’ve linked each below for easy reference, but they are also linked in the body of this post.
- Part I – Google Slides presentation – click “use template” to make an editable copy – share with students and teachers!
- Part II – printable list of October 2023 Spotlight titles – sorted by genre – click “use template” to make an editable copy
- Part III – The Ginormous Book List – This month’s list for YA, middle grades, and picture books is #3601 – #3682 on The Ginormous.
- Part IV – Amazon-linked book covers, sorted by genre
- Part V – Favorite characters and sequels (new in October 2023) – These book covers are also in the last few slides of the Google Slides presentation below.
PART I: GOOGLE SLIDES PRESENTATION
The first part of the New Release Spotlight is the Google Slides presentation. This is downloadable, editable, and FREE!
A few reminders and items I had questions about last month:
- The Google Slides presentation includes each book’s publisher’s summary, genre, setting, grade levels, themes, protagonist description, and any notes I might need to add. This is the same special book information that was previously included in the Spotlight; it’s just in a different place now.
- This presentation is now complete. I will not be adding any additional titles for October 2023.
- If you downloaded the presentation earlier than October 29, you will need to re-download to get the full presentation. It will not automatically add to your Google Drive.
This presentation is great to play on a loop in the library! Students and teachers will inevitably ask you to order some of the books – a fun way to develop a student-centered library collection.
The slides below are on a 3-second timer. Use the arrows at the bottom to scroll through manually or stop the slides.
Click here to download the presentation. Click “Use Template” in the
top-right corner to make an editable copy for your own Google Drive.
PART II – PRINTABLE LIST OF October 2023 PICTURE BOOKS
You can download a one-page printable list of these October 2023 picture books from this Google page.
All October Spotlight booklists are now complete. I will not add any more titles to the lists for October.
The list is sorted by genre and/or topic. Includes book title and author’s last name. The list is fully-editable, so you can add or remove whatever you need to suit the needs of your library.
Books that fall into more than one genre are listed under each genre/topic (so some titles are on the list more than once).
The October 2023 picture books are all on Slide 5. You will need to scroll past the YA and MG lists to see the picture book list.
PART III – THE GINORMOUS BOOK LIST
Since October 2019, I have added the New Release Spotlight books to The Ginormous Booklist. This is a huge Google spreadsheet that currently has 3600 titles for K-12! Use Google’s Find function (CTRL+F or CMD+F) to search for specific genres, authors, topics, etc.
All October Spotlight titles have been added to The Ginormous. Scroll to the bottom for the newest titles. The October 2023 Spotlight titles are #3601 – #3682 on The Ginormous Booklist.
PART IV – BOOK COVERS AND AMAZON LINKS – OCTOBER 2023 PICTURE BOOKS
The last part of the October 2023 Picture Books Spotlight is a sorting area by genre and topic.
The cover images below are clickable Amazon Affiliate links. If you use them to make a purchase, I will get a small commission from your purchase. If you just need the ISBN or basic information about the book, you can get it from the Amazon link.
The list below is now complete. No new titles will be added to this post for October 2023.
Because some books fall into multiple genre or topic categories, you will find some books listed more than once below.
INFORMATIONAL / NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS
SEASONAL / HOLIDAYS
MENTAL HEALTH / SOCIAL EMOTIONAL LEARNING
CULTURAL/ INTERNATIONAL
HUMOR
POETRY
PICTURE BOOK BIOGRPAHY
SCIENCE / STEM
RETELLING / FRACTURED TALES
CHAPTER BOOKS
OTHER PICTURE BOOKS
PART V – FAVORITE CHARACTERS, SERIES, AND SEQUELS
MORE NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHTS
ABOUT THE NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHT
The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week.
Each week, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers. See the full selection criteria here.
Each month, there are far more books that meet my criteria than can make it on the Spotlight. When I have to make the tough decisions on what to include, I just use my “librarian judgment.” Would I buy this book for my own library? Would my students want to read this book? Is the cover appealing? Does it fill a need? It’s not easy to pick sometimes!