The Daddying Blog's 3rd Annual Books To Read With Your Kids
Holiday Gift Guide & FREE Book Giveaway
By Scott Beller
Editor, Daddying blog

During this year of resurgent book bans and censorship overreach across America, reading, especially with your children, has never been more important.
2022 has, unfortunately, been a year where some groups are once again making an effort to get kids to stop reading, stop questioning their world and searching for truth, and, worse, to stop being themselves. While these attacks on local school districts, teachers, librarians, and the very identities of LGBTQ+ and minority students have been met with resistance in the courts, a shocking number of bans have still been enacted in a growing number of school districts in restrictive states like Texas and Florida.
For now at least, common sense and kids' rights to free thought and expression have mostly prevailed. The best way we know to combat this disturbing trend fueled by extremist rhetoric and disinformation is to encourage parents and kids to just keep reading and learning together.

The older my girls get, the bigger challenge I have not necessarily getting them to read but finding something we can all read together. I already got some eye rolls when I asked if they've got any good titles on their holiday wish lists that I could join them in reading. Earlier this year, the task was a bit easier when both my girls took a big interest in rowing. My then-7th-grader was assigned The Boys in the Boat to read for her history class. Following positive reviews by both critics and our daughter, my wife read it next. With my interest in non-fiction about the World War II era and seeing my then-Freshman find her passion rowing with the high school crew team, how could I resist? I devoured that amazing book, which is why it's included in this year's Gift Guide! It even inspired me to participate in her team's spring Erg-A-Thon fundraiser.
Go figure, the only one who hasn't yet read it...is our soon-to-be varsity crew star.
I guess the key for our family will be for me to track the shifting intersection on our family's entertainment Venn diagram, whatever that may be, and keep suggesting book options. It's one of the many things I love about creating the Daddying blog's annual Gift Guide. Doing so allows me to stay somewhat informed about the ever-changing landscape – not necessarily what's trendy, but what we all might consider good and worth our time.
Of course, it's much easier for us to find TV shows and movies we all can enjoy – Gilmore Girls, Stranger Things, Enola Holmes, Wednesday, Cobra Kai, and One of Us is Lying are some recent favorites (at least that last one is based on a popular book series my youngest has already been reading!). Given increasingly strained schedules, the main challenge has become getting us all together. Even family dinners are rare these days.
That said, our small successes, like the one we enjoyed with The Boys in the Boat, bring me great joy and inspire me to keep trying. So, I hope you are able to find something in this year's Books to Read with Your Kids Holiday Gift Guide, old or new, that will take you and your kids on an amazing journey together to learn, laugh, relax, and connect.
2022 has, unfortunately, been a year where some groups are once again making an effort to get kids to stop reading, stop questioning their world and searching for truth, and, worse, to stop being themselves.
As was the case with our 2021 Gift Guide including some items from 2020's, you’ll find repeat titles on this year’s list, particularly those that have somehow found themselves in the crosshairs of book banning zealots around the country. But like you may have done yesterday at the Thanksgiving dinner table, we've overstuffed this year’s shopping list with plenty more dad- and BookTok-approved book recommendations for pre-K through high school kids and beyond. Many titles are so compelling and enlightening, you might have to hurry and check them out before some rogue school board, fringe group, or politician, who hasn't even read or tried to understand the book or books they're targeting, tries to take away your right to do so.
Happy holidays and happy shopping, everyone – keep reading together, keep stoking your kids' passions, keep discussing stuff, and Daddy on!
EDITOR'S NOTE: Many of the award-winning books on our list below have been or are currently being targeted by anti-civil rights, pro-censorship, and other repressive groups in an attempt to have them banned from school libraries, classrooms, and even bookstores in communities across the United States. The targeted books are denoted with asterisks*.
Daddying Books to Read With Your Kids
2022 Holiday Gift Guide
Rafflecopter FREE Book Giveaway Details Below Guide
Books for Younger Kids (Pre-K and Under 8):
GIVEAWAY BOOKS & CD: I’ll Be Your Polar Bear, The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade, and Space Cadet (GRAMMY-nominated audio CD) by Justin Roberts
GIVEAWAY BOOKS: I Am Superman, I Am Malala Yousafzai, and I Am Muhammad Ali by Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos
GIVEAWAY BOOK: Daffodil Grey and the Colorful Parade by Anna Gilchrist
GIVEAWAY BOOK: Samuel's Story by DADvisor Hakim Bellamy and Melvin Mayes (with DJ Flo Fader)
GIVEAWAY BOOKS: Jonathan James & the Whatif Monster and A New Friend for Jonathan James by Michelle Nelson-Schmidt
GIVEAWAY BOOKS: The Magic School Bus On the Ocean Floor and The Magic School Bus In the Time of the Dinosaurs by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
I Am Dolly Parton, I Am John Lewis (pre-order), I Am Temple Grandin (pre-order), I Am Batman, and many more from Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos's “Ordinary People Change the World” series
More Bears! by Kenn Nesbitt and Troy Cummings
This Is My Daddy! by Mies van Hout
Perfectly Pegasus by Jessie Sima
Dadaji's Paintbrush by Rashmi Sirdeshpande, illustrated by Ruchi Mhasane
Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale, The Pigeon Will Ride the Roller Coaster! and the Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus series, and Because by Mo Willems
The Monster at the End of This Book by Jon Stone, illustrated by Michael Smollin
Patrick Picklebottom and the Longest Wait by Mr. Jay and Gary Wilkinson
Eyes That Speak to the Stars and Eyes That Kiss in the Corners by Joanna Ho and Dung Ho
The Catalogue of Hugs by Joshua David Stein and Augustus Heeren Stein, illustrated by Elizabeth Lilly
Listen to the Language of the Trees by Tara Kelley, illustrated by Marie Hermansson
The Dirt Book: Poems About Animals That Live Beneath Our Feet by David L. Harrison, illustrated by Kate Cosgrove
Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress* by Christine Baldacchino and Isabelle Malenfant
The Sour Grape (The Food Group series) by Jory John and Pete Oswald
Something's Wrong! A Bear, a Hare, and Some Underwear by Jory John and Erin Kraan
Creepy Crayon! and others in the Creepy Tales! series by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Peter Brown
And Tango Makes Three* by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? and The Lorax* by Dr. Seuss
If You Give A Moose A Muffin (and others in the series) by Laura Numeroff and Felica Bond
The Proudest Blue: A Story of Hijab and Family by Ibtihaj Muhammad and illustrated by Hatem Aly
Atoms (Big science for little minds) by John Devolle
Lulu and the Hunger Monster by Erik Talkin
The Rabbit Listened by Cori Doerrfeld
Nour's Secret Library by Wafa' Tarnowska, illustrated by Vali Mintzi
We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorelland Frane Lessac
Dragons Love Tacos, Dragons Love Tacos 2: The Sequel, and Those Darn Squirrels by Adam Rubin and Daniel Salmieri
If You Come to Earth and Negative Cat by Sophie Blackall
We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goade
The Last Straw: Kids vs. Plastics by Susan Hood and illustrated by Christiane Engel
The Questioneers picture book series by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts
Shy Spaghetti & Excited Eggs by Marc Nemiroff and Jane Annunziata
Frederick (and others) by Leo Lionni
The Flamingo: A Graphic Novel Chapter Book by Guojing
Steve the Dung Beetle on a Roll by Susan R. Stoltz and illustrated by Melissa Bailey
The Story of Ferdinand* by Munro Leaf
Change Sings: A Children's Anthem by Amanda Gorman and Loren Long
The North Star by Peter H. Reynolds
Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham
Once I Was Very, Very Scared and Holdin Pott by Chandra Ghosh Ippen and Erich Peter Ippen Jr.
Zonia's Rain Forest by Juana Martinez-Neal
Julián Is a Mermaid* by Jessica Love
Knight Owl by Christopher Denise
The Velveteen Rabbit: 100th Anniversary Edition by Margery Williams and illustrated by Erin Stead
Nicky & Vera by Peter Sís
The Year We Learned to Fly by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López
Home Again by Dorinda Silver Williams and Brenda Grilliam
The Night Walk by Marie Dorleans
Neither* by Airlie Anderson
The Magic School Bus series by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
How Was That Built?: The Stories Behind Awesome Structures by Roma Agrawal
Arno and His Horse by Jane Godwin and Felicita Sala
This Story is Not About a Kitten by Randall de Sève, illustrated by Carson Ellis
The Night Before Christmas, Will Santa Know That We've Moved? by S. Alston
For Older Elementary Kids (Ages 8-11):
GIVEAWAY BOOK: Zeus the Mighty – The Epic Escape from the Underworld by Crispin Boyer (National Geographic KIDS)
GIVEAWAY BOOK: Speak Up, Speak Out – The Extraordinary Life of “Fighting Shirley Chisholm” by Tonya Bolden (National Geographic)
GIVEAWAY BOOK: National Geographic KIDS Ultimate Food Atlas
GIVEAWAY BOOK: National Geographic KIDS Almanac 2023
GIVEAWAY BOOK: National Geographic KIDS 5,000 Awesome Facts About Everything
GIVEAWAY BOOK: National Geographic KIDS Animal Encyclopedia 2nd Edition
GIVEAWAY BOOK: National Geographic KIDS Treasury of Greek Mythology by Donna Jo Napoli
GIVEAWAY BOOK: Growing Sustainable Together: Practical Resources for Raising Kind, Engaged, Resilient Children by Shannon Brescher Shea
Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
Odder, Crenshaw, The One and Only Bob, and The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
A Duet For Home and The Vanderbeekers series by Karina Yan Glaser
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Nasreen's Secret School: A True Story From Afghanistan* by Jeanette Winter
October, October by Katya Balen
When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller
Nano by Jess Wade and Melissa Castrillon
The Secret Sunshine Project* by Benjamin Dean
Song for a Whale by Lynne Kelly
The Girl Who Rowed the Ocean and The Boy Who Biked the World by Alastair Humphreys
The Whoosh of Gadoosh by Pat Skene
The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain by Peter Sís
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
Stories For Boys Who Dare To Be Different by Ben Brooks
The 1619 Project: Born on the Water* by Nikole Hannah-Jones
All the Wrong Questions mystery series by Lemony Snicket
My Thoughts Are Clouds: Poems for Mindfulness by Georgia Heard, illustrated by Isabel Roxas
Zin Mignon series by Michael Daswick
New Kid: A Graphic Novel by Jerry Craft
Out of My Mind and Out of My Heart by Sharon M. Draper
The Aquanaut: A Graphic Novel by Dan Santat
Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise and The Midnight Children by Dan Gemeinhart
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly
Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
For Middle School+:
GIVEAWAY BOOKS: If God Invented Baseball, When Your Wife has Tommy John Surgery and Other Baseball Stories, and How I Found Love Behind the Catcher’s Mask by E. Ethelbert Miller
Gleanings: Stories from the Arc of a Scythe and The Arc of a Scythe trilogy by Neal Schusterman
We Were Liars and Family of Liars by E. Lockhart
What If? and What If? 2 by Randall Munroe
The Merciless Ones and The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna
The Magic Fish* (Graphic Novel) by Trung Le Nguyen
The Deepest Breath by Meg Grehan
Attack of the Black Rectangles by Amy Sarig King
The Shadow and Bone Trilogy and Demon in the Wood by Leigh Bardugo
Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation by John Lewis
Red, White, and Whole by Rajani LaRocca
Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation* by Ari Folman and David Polonsky
The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
Melissa (previously published as George)* by Alex Gino
Everything Sad Is Untrue: (a true story) by Daniel Nayeri
I Must Betray You and Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
American Murderer: The Parasite that Haunted the South and the Medical Fiascoes series by Gail Jarrow
The Final Gambit and The Inheritance Games Collection by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Drained by Marc Daniel Acriche
Straight On Till Morning (A Twisted Tale): A Twisted Tale and the A Twisted Tale series by Liz Braswell
Bluebird and The Light in Hidden Places by Sharon Cameron
Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre* by Carole Boston Weatherford
Beasts of Prey by Ayana Gray
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan
The Monsters of Rookhaven by Pádraig Kenny
The Pants Project* by Cat Clarke
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
My Fine Fellow by Jennieke Cohen
When Women Were Dragons: A Novel by Kelly Barnhill
Worst-Case Collin by Rebecca Caprara
Night* by Elie Wiesel
For High Schoolers+
GIVEAWAY BOOK: Writing to Heal by DADvisor Anthony Fleg
The Boys in The Boat and Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
All of Us Villains and All of Our Demise by Amanda Foody and Christine Lynn Herman
Fairy Tale and Skeleton Crew: Stories by Stephen King
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
The Dictionary of Lost Words: A Novel by Pip Williams
The Agathas by Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson
They Both Die At the End and The First to Die At the End by Adam Silvera
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth by Ben Rawlence
Mickey7: A Novel by Edward Ashton
The Hate U Give* by Angie Thomas
Gender Queer: A Memoir* by Maia Kobabe
1984* by George Orwell
The Handmaid's Tale* by Margaret Atwood
Once Upon a Broken Heart and The Ballad of Never After by Stephanie Garber
The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed
The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates by Wes Moore
Fahrenheit 451* and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
The Lincoln Highway: A Novel by Amor Towles
A House Between Earth and the Moon: A Novel by Rebecca Scherm
Beloved* by Toni Morrison
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian* by Sherman Alexie
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out* by Susan Kuklin
To Kill A Mockingbird* by Harper Lee
Black Birds in the Sky: The Story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre* by Brandy Colbert
Beasts and Beauty: Dangerous Tales by Soman Chainani
Stranger Things: Rebel Robin by A.R. Capetta and the Stranger Things book series
Great Circle: A novel by Maggie Shipstead
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings* by Maya Angelou
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
Thirteen Reasons Why* by Jay Asher
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
The Confessions of Nat Turner* by William Styron
Klara and the Sun: A novel by Kazuo Ishiguro
Out of Darkness* by Ashley Hope Pérez
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Nothing More To Tell and One of Us Is Lying series by Karen McManus
Fences* by August Wilson
Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel by Anthony Doerr
Hey, Brown Girl by Janay Harden
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
WE'RE GIVING AWAY A TON OF GREAT BOOKS
from OUR 2022 Holiday Gift Guide!
ENTER BELOW for FREE and SHARE our Rafflecopter Giveaway!
Giveaway runs through Saturday, December 31, 2022 @ 11:59 pm ET

Scott Beller is the proud, imperfect dad of two mighty girls, Morgan and Lauren, imperfect husband of rock-star mom, Elisabeth, Bourbon & Books book club member, classroom "mystery reader" from WAY back, Editor of the Daddying blog, and DCG's Director of Communications. He's a seasoned writer and PR agency veteran with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations of all sizes reach audiences and tell their stories. Prior to launching his own creative communications consultancy in 2003, he led PR teams with some of the world’s most respected agencies, including Fleishman-Hillard and The Weber Group. As a consultant, he’s helped launch two other parenting advocacy nonprofits with DCG founder Allan Shedlin. His first book, Beggars or Angels, was a ghostwritten memoir for the nonprofit Devotion to Children's founder Rosemary Tran Lauer. He was formerly known as "Imperfect Dad" and Head Writer for the Raising Nerd blog, which supported parents in inspiring the next generation of scientists, engineers, and creative problem solvers. He earned his BA in Communications from VA Tech.
Thank you for the chance to enter. We love reading in our home.