89 books like Rocket Says Look Up!

I have always been a lover of the arts and spent a lot of time coloring and drawing as a young person. I remember the feeling of being fully immersed in picture books and cartoons. My interests led to a career as a graphic designer which turned into a career as an illustrator and author. There are so many wonderful children’s books that can engage young (and not so young!) readers that it was hard to choose just 5. Here are a few from artists that will wow you with creativity, humor, and imagination.

I have always been a lover of the arts and spent a lot of time coloring and drawing as a young person. I remember the feeling of being fully immersed in picture books and cartoons. My interests led to a career as a graphic designer which turned into a career as an illustrator and author. There are so many wonderful children’s books that can engage young (and not so young!) readers that it was hard to choose just 5. Here are a few from artists that will wow you with creativity, humor, and imagination.

Ever since childhood, I’ve wondered about people who led inventive, innovative lives. How did they get their inspiration? Where did their ideas come from? How did they take that inspiration and change the world? I found information, but not the answers I was looking for, at the library. When I became an elementary library teacher, new forms of biographies – beautiful picture book biographies about people of all kinds – became available. My students loved them and so did I, and I became inspired to write for children. I’m excited that my first two picture book biographies, which received starred reviews, are out in the world – with more coming your way!

I have always been a lover of the arts and spent a lot of time coloring and drawing as a young person. I remember the feeling of being fully immersed in picture books and cartoons. My interests led to a career as a graphic designer which turned into a career as an illustrator and author. There are so many wonderful children’s books that can engage young (and not so young!) readers that it was hard to choose just 5. Here are a few from artists that will wow you with creativity, humor, and imagination.

Science Fiction was just something that we did as a family growing up. We’d always gather to watch various iterations of Star Trek as family. Family movie nights usually consisted of whatever science fiction titles the local movie rental place would have on hand, which usually meant watching a lot of B-movie junk, but it was fun. It might sound silly, but I think growing up with all those science fiction movies and books really informed my career choice, electrical engineer. You see, in these movies and books the women just got the job done. I thought, why can’t I do it too?? 

I’m a fantasy writer and Christian witch with over 10 years of research, practice, and passion under my hat. Discovering the fantastical concept of “real world” magic as a youth—and the ways in which the institutions in power have tried so hard to stamp it out, despite it being an undeniable part of our cultural and spiritual psyche—has inspired me to explain all I know in my fantasy and seek out all the magic and wonder in my reality. After all, our fantasy stories must get their inspiration from the real world—from all the magic, mysticism, and struggle hidden under the pretty face of mainstream religion.

I’m an award-winning speculative fiction author who loves logic and reason, so when philosophising over life’s greatest mysteries I often layer debate with scientific knowledge, and I found my way to the afterlife theories behind Towards White in my late teens. I was reading English at university at the time, but it wasn’t until I went to Iceland in 2001, and fell in love with the stark beauty of its lonely lava plains, steamy natural springs, glaciers, and auroras, that I was inspired to turn my ideas into a story. I then spent years thoroughly researching my theory, and wove it into a grippingly suspenseful arctic adventure. I hope you enjoy reading the result!

At about age fifteen, I fell in love with nineteenth-century Gothic horror. I read all the classics in just a few months: Frankenstein, Dracula, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Edgar Allen Poe… And then I ran out. Most twentieth-century horror lacked the understanding that evil’s true target is not the body but the soul. Horror fiction, more than any other genre, is the laboratory of the soul, the place where we can experiment with good and evil to follow the consequences of each to their fullest and therefore truest conclusions. And since I ran out of such books to read—I wrote one.

Over 5 million children in the United States have had at least one parent in a correctional facility at one time or another. These children, and their parents, are our neighbors, our family, our friends. We might see them at a soccer match, or sit beside them at public libraries, or gather together with them regularly in prayer. They need to see themselves portrayed in a meaningful manner in the books they read. This shortlist includes two picture books, a middle-grade novel, and two young adult titles. I'm passionate about books on this topic because equity and inclusiveness and vital to me; and because I think excellent books such as these may enable us to start nuanced discussions and enhance our compassion. 

I am a professor of creative writing who knows when readers stop feeling, they stop reading. We all want to feel, to live vicariously. To experience the unimaginable. I’ve lived large. I’ve raced on the back of an ostrich, rode an elephant through the jungles of Thailand, raced catamarans in the Caribbean, and danced with the Shaka Zulu in Africa. The best books are those that feel like memories…that touch us…that make us feel.