Welcome to the September 2023 Picture Books New Release Spotlight! I’ve tried a new format for the Spotlights this month. Everything for YA, middle grades, and picture books is together in one spot. I plan to do a similar format for the October 2023 Spotlight.
You can find the September 2023 Middle Grade and YA Spotlight at the top and bottom of this post.
WHAT’S ON THIS LIST OF SEPTEMBER 2023 PICTURE BOOKS
The September 2023 picture books look fantastic! We’ve got 29 total featured titles, including five picture book biographies, eight books about holidays and celebrations, plus multiple cultural, social-emotional, poetry, and humor books.
This list represents the cream of the crop! The September 2023 Picture Book Spotlight started as a list of 136 picture books. I narrowed it down to 29.
That list of 136 was already narrowed down from a much larger list since I do not include any commercial characters, sequels, (most) bedtime stories, board books, or books about still-living political figures in the original list of 136. Phew!
MY TOP PICKS OF THE 29 PICTURE BOOKS THAT MADE THE SPOTLIGHT:
- What’s Inside a Caterpillar Cocoon by Rachel Ignotofsky
- How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney by Mac Barnett
- Slowly, Slowly by Toni Yuly
- I’m From by Gary Gray
- Say My Name by Joanna Ho
TIPS FOR USING THE SEPTEMBER 2023 PICTURE BOOK SPOTLIGHT IN YOUR LIBRARY
This post has four parts. I’ve linked each below for easy reference, but they are also linked in the body of this post.
This September 2023 picture books post is now complete. I will not be adding any new titles to it, so you can download the presentation one last time knowing there will be no new additions.
- Google Slides presentation (click “use template” to make a copy)
- printable list of September 2023 Spotlight titles (click “use template” to make a copy)
- The Ginormous Book List
- Amazon-linked book covers – links are in Section IV 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!
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 presentation is great to play on a loop in the library! Trust me, students and teachers will ask for some of the books! In my opinion, this is the #1 best way to organically develop a student-centered collection.
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 SEPTEMBER 2023 PICTURE BOOKS
You can download a one-page printable list from this Google page. This list is also complete for September 2023 – no new books will be added.
The printable list also includes YA and middle grade titles, all sorted by genre. You will need to scroll to the third slide 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.
PART IV – BOOK COVERS AND AMAZON LINKS – SEPTEMBER 2023 PICTURE BOOKS
The last part of the September 2023 Chapter Books and Picture Book Spotlight is a sorting area by genre and topic. This part of the September 2023 Picture Book Spotlight is also complete. No new titles will be added.
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.
I don’t make much from Amazon each month. I don’t include the Amazon links to make money on this post.
I include the links below so you can see the book covers without scrolling through the whole presentation and to help you locate the right books. If you just need the ISBN or basic information about the book, you can get it from the Amazon link.
INFORMATIONAL / NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS
PICTURE BOOK BIOGRAPHY / AUTOBIOGRAPHY
HOLIDAYS, SEASONAL, AND CELEBRATIONS
CULTURAL/ INTERNATIONAL
MENTAL HEALTH / SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING
HUMOR
WORDLESS PICTURE BOOKS
BEDTIME STORIES
POETRY
OTHER PICTURE BOOKS
MORE SEPTEMBER 2023 BOOK RELEASES
ABOUT THE 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.