Welcome to the Bank Street Children's Book Committee's (CBC) Searchable Best Books List, a tool designed to help educators, families, librarians, and others access developmentally appropriate and engaging books for young readers (ages birth - 18).

Our online Searchable Best Books List draws from the committee's annual Best Children's Books of the Year-beginning with the list of books published in 2000-with each featuring more than 600 high-quality titles for young readers.

To share feedback about the tool, please feel free to email bookcom@bankstreet.edu. To learn more about the CBC, visit https://www.bankstreet.edu/cbc/.

How to Perform a Search and Save a List

Hold Them Close: A Love Letter to Black Children

Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow

Illustrator: Patrick Dougher, with photography by Jamel Shabazz

Ages: 6+

Published: 2022

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

ISBN: 978-0-06-303617-8

Keywords: family, changemakers, Black Children, affirmations

Verse, photographs, collage, and gold-leaf illustrations celebrate Blackness, inspiring pride and joy.