NonFiction (also called information books) are not what a lot of people think of when they think of picturebooks. My favourites have artistic illustrations, imaginative design, warmth, and humour.
Board and concept books
Colours
Counting and Alphabet
A counting book that also makes a commentary on the evil of keeping monkeys
and apes in zoos–a recurring them for Browne.
The pages in this ingenious counting book are shaped as an open mouth
Denise Fleming's In the Small, Small Pond has counting
and a journey through the seasons of the pond told in rhyming couplets.
Seasons
A deceptively simple meditation on a year in the life of a calf.
A video page-through of the brilliant pop-up book by Yoojin Kim
on the ways that leaves provide for animals.
Science and Nature
from Jessie Hartland's true account, How the Meteorite Got to the Museum.
from Elise Gravel's Disgusting Critters book series,
introducing animals like the rat, the slug, the spider
and other unfairly maligned creatures.
An excellent handbook to take on a nature walk.
How water gets into our taps.
This series also includes Over and Under the Canyon, Over and Under the Rainforest,
Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, Over and Under the Pond.
Biography
The best bio of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein
Gorgeous telling of Matisse's childhood.
A whimsical bio of Jane Goodall, focusing on her childhood.
Josephine Baker, singer, dancer and WWII hero.
Lovely bio of the New York artist who died tragically young.
I was fortunate to be commissioned to make an animated trailer
for the wonderful bio Frida Kahlo and Her Animalitos.