Picture Book Neighborhoods: Favorites

  This collection has moved around as we moved our shelves. At one point, it was directly facing our play area. In the last shifting of shelves, it was at the beginning of the shelf ranges for the neighborhoods, across from the play area, but facing our windows. This is also the narrowest of the aisles and most folks who stopped at the desk asking for Pete the Cat, Pigeon books, etc. then had to walk to the back of the area. While I was shifting the books, I kept most of this collection on a cart at the desk and people beelined to it right away. I then put it at the end of the picture book neighborhoods, so it's the first thing you see as you approach those shelves, and whole sections were immediately checked out. I also shifted a couple favorites that had grown in popularity into this area, like Pig the Pug and Grumpy Monkey. Disney books have moved in and out of this collection and the current area makes it easier to point folks to the tub books, with additional media tie-ins.

List of favorite characters and series

 - This changes over time - some become classics, sometimes new ones are added, sometimes I shift away older titles that have fallen out of favor (or out of print). Generally I look for things that have 5 or more individual titles and that kids ask for by name. The number of items currently on order is mostly new or prebound titles - I am still working through replacements! All of these have dividers unless otherwise noted.

• Stanley by William Bee
• This is one that doesn't get asked for as often, but does better when it's all together rather than being spread throughout the GO and COMMUNITY neighborhoods.
• Stanley the Builder
• Stanley's garage
• Stanley's Fire Engine
• Stanley the baker
• 22 titles, 11 checked out, 2 replacements on order.
• Pig the Pug by Aaron Blabey
• Pig the Pug
• 20 titles, 10 checked out.
• Bluey
• These are a mix of prebound and hardcover. 
• 25 titles, 24 checked out, 35 on order (includes preorders through fall 2025).
• Clifford by Norman Bridwell - no divider
• Most of these are paperbacks in the tub books - and many of the originals are out of print. However, I have the original, first title in hardcover and plan to add ~5 more as I update the collection. I may, at that time, add a divider for these.
• Drew Daywalt - The Crayons
• There's only two picture books in this "series" but there are a whole bunch of mini books centered around holidays. They quickly got lost on the shelf, so it made sense to move them here.
• 10 titles, 5 checked out, 7 on order.
• Llama Llama by Dewdney
• This is mostly the originals with only a couple prebound tie-ins.
• 26 titles, 6 checked out, 2 on order.
• Ryan T. Higgins
• The divider is for Mother Bruce, but I also include Penelope Rex and Norman. There are also a bunch of mini Mother Bruce books.
• Mother Bruce
• Hotel Bruce
• Spring stinks
• Santa Bruce
• We don't eat our classmates!
• 21 titles, 12 checked out, 4 on order.
• How to catch...
• Originally it made the most sense to put these with the holiday or season. Then they started getting more esoteric with things like "garden fairy" and "yeti." So far, they are all just sitting in a sullen lump on the shelf, so we'll see if putting them all together was a good idea or not.
• 36 titles, 14 checked out, 1 on order.
• The Food Groups by John Jory
• There are 7? of the basic picture books, but I have multiple copies as they get used for various school projects and are popular. There are also a couple tie-ins.
• The Bad Seed
• The Good Egg
• 18 titles, 10 checked out, 1 on order
• Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann
• I've always disliked these, but the patrons and kids want them. A lot of my copies have worn out, including the couple tie-ins I had. I keep more in the tubs (paperbacks of the easy reader spin-offs).
• 16 titles, 8 checked out
• Grumpy Monkey by Suzanne Lang
• This recently became popular and I purchased multiples of the titles - I plan to get more.
• Grumpy Monkey
• Grumpy Monkey: Party Time
• 11 titles, 10 checked out, 5 on order.
• If you give... by Laura Numeroff
• This is another popular series that I don't particularly care for, but people love. I am trying to have 4 copies of each of the original titles. They're labeled on their divider with the Mouse from the first book.
• 16 titles, 5 checked out, 2 on order
• Fancy Nancy by Jane O'Connor
  
• I've always rather liked Fancy Nancy - I definitely prefer her to Pinkalicious. The original picture books expanded to include smaller format spin-off picture books, then easy readers, then some tie-ins. My collection is very, very worn and needs replacements, but I haven't yet started ordering them.
• Fancy Nancy and the wedding of the century
• 23 titles, 19 checked out
• Paw Patrol
• These have always been paperbacks in the tubs, but they've started publishing some hardcovers so I added those and then some prebinds.
• 16 titles, 11 checked out, 5 on order.
• Peppa Pig - no divider
• Like Paw Patrol these have always been paperbacks, but they've started publishing some hardcover books.
• 1 title, 4 titles on order.
• Pete the Cat
• I liked the first couple books, although endless repetitions quickly took the shine out of them. I don't particularly care for the later ones, or the gazillion spin-offs and tie-ins, but people love them.
• Pete the Cat and the New Guy
• 40 titles, 15 checked out, 7 titles on order
• Jasper Rabbit - Aaron Reynolds
• This is Creepy carrots etc. It doesn't really fit, since there's only 3 titles, but it gets asked for so much that I decided to put it in the favorites. I thought there was going to be a new book next fall, but it turned out to be a chapter book! Which is cool too.
• Creepy pair of underwear
• 7 copies, 6 checked out.
• Mo Willems - Knuffle Bunny and Pigeon
• I previously had all of Mo Willems' books together in the favorites area. However, I've found that his non-series books are much less-known and since he's moved away from his signature style, and started writing some titles with other illustrators, I decided to spread his books out throughout the collection and just keep these two popular series here.
• The duckling gets a cookie
• The pigeon needs a bath
• Knuffle Bunny - 3 titles, 3 checked out. I have three additional copies on order.
• Pigeon - 33 titles, 9 checked out, 5 titles on order.
• Bear by Karma Wilson
• I admit these mostly leave me cold, but the pictures are cute and the kids do like the rhymes.
• 17 titles, 5 checked out, 6 titles on order.
• Dinosaurs by Jane Yolen
• How do dinosaurs say I love you
• 10 titles, 2 checked out.