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Welcome readers, to the second of our Best Books of 2023 lists: Science Fiction & Fantasy! Absolutely an excuse for me to run up to booksellers — street-interview style — and demand to know their favorite world-building, magic-systems, and political messes (in SPACE!).

And readers, they delivered.

We’ve got Romantasy (petitioning Merriam-Webster to make this the word of the year); we’ve got veteran romantasy authors returning to beloved series to say “we’ve been doing this!“; we’ve got dragons and more dragons; love letters to books in cozy fantasy settings; unionized dolphins; cyberpunk thrillers about orbital elevators; series conclusions that stick the landing...

Hats are pretty amazing. They can keep you warm, make a fashion statement, or even help transform you into someone else entirely! It follows that picture books are just FULL of these terrific toppers. So, when I realized that some of my all-time favorites were hat-centric, I knew I had to share this list with you. Without further ado, here are 5 picture books featuring particularly good hats...

A few months ago, I received a text from my dad out of the blue.

A request: “Hey, I need a good line from that dragon poetry book.”

A question: “Also, what was the name of that dragon poetry book?”

This was, as they say, my moment. Jack Prelutsky’s The Dragons Are Singing Tonight has lived in my head rent-free ever since it entered the storytime rotation for my brother and me sometime in the mid-90s. I’m honestly surprised my dad didn’t remember the title himself — it was certainly one of my young self’s top requests. I spent hours poring over Peter Sís’s detailed illustrations and can still recite many of those poems from memory 20-odd years later...