The best children's and young adult books of 2022

Almost 12 months mediate between the publication in Spain of the latest work by Jon Klassen,

, and the arrival in bookstores of

, an illustrated album that evokes in its approach the atmosphere of that isolated community that so well portrayed filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan in the film

In between, dozens and dozens of books published for children and adolescents in a publishing sector, that of children's and youth literature, in permanent effervescence.

In this selection are 10 of the most outstanding titles of the fruitful literary harvest of 2022.

up to eight years

Jon Klassen's understated and deceptively deadpan style has once again hit the mark with

an existential and almost metaphysical story full of that black and absurd humor that makes each new work by the Canadian author an event.

In an extraordinarily large format for what has been common in the world of the illustrated album (100 pages), but supported by five short stories with apparently simple dialogues, Klassen shapes a treatise on fatality and uncertainty.

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A puppet show jumps from the stage to the pages of a book to dazzle readers with an extraordinary and crazy story about identity.

With a frenetic pace and a very intelligent sense of humor, written in a state of grace by Ellen Duthie, with great characters wonderfully illustrated by Javier Sáez Castán and Manuel Marsol,

inevitably evokes Maurice's classic titles. Sendak covered by Gloria Fuertes.

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could be read

as a hymn to difference and a praise of everything that makes us unique.

The poetic texts by Claudia Novaro and the no less poetic illustrations by Armando Fonseca are, however, much more than that: a brilliant metaphor of life as a blank canvas that over the years is filled with texts and illustrations that They symbolize illusions, disappointments, joys and sorrows.

The end of the story is of a beauty that moves.

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In

, the unforgettable twins Céline and Colin will finally try to uncover a gang of criminals who have found a niche business in the cemetery run by their parents.

The agile and fresh dialogues (translation by Lucía Bermúdez), the fast-paced action and the powerful and symbolic illustrations by Léa Mazé make this title the finishing touch for a trilogy that has conquered thousands of readers around the world.

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Eduardo Berrio was on the verge of winning the BolognaRagazzi Award with this original large-format informative illustrated album that, resorting to the aesthetics of comics, transports us to a world of anagrams, palindromes, calambures, pangrams, word searches and optical effects. that highlight the potential of literature as a game.

Mariana Sández already wrote it in

: “Life is not a dream.

Life is game.

And literature is a magic cube, it is all the games in one game”.

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from nine years

A campsite in summer, families of multiple nationalities that mix together and, among all the people and all the bustle, two injured children who, despite not sharing a language, seemed called to meet to understand each other and lick their wounds.

Just a few texts —a script by Isabella Cieli— and the simple and evocative images by Noémie Marsily are enough to bring closer the magic of those childhood summer vacations capable of marking lives forever.

A story that contains a beauty so simple and devoid of decorations that it moves.

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The story written by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (translation by Patricia Mora) brings together all the ingredients of the great jewels of children's literature: impeccable writing that does not shy away from complex themes such as mental health, powerful and evocative illustrations by Tom de Freston, a marine species that, although real, seems almost mythological, the Greenland shark;

and a well-rounded family story starring a girl, Julia, who grows up hard during a summer vacation in the Shetland archipelago.

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Rafael Salmerón has won awards in 2022, including the National Award for Children's and Youth Literature, with

, a major work that unites the Hiroshima of the nuclear bomb with the current one —with the Fukushima nuclear accident as a backdrop background-.

A beautiful and emotional story of overcoming and redemption —of those that leave their mark— starring a teenager who will see her destiny change thanks to the accidental appearance of a child and a ragged old survivor of Hiroshima.

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There is something reminiscent

of Joseph Smith's The

(translation by Alejandro Schwart).

It is that wolf that speaks up, the wonderful portrait of the wildest side of nature, of the relentless fight for survival.

And it is, above all, the life lesson left by this wonderful fable starring an animal that represents a bit of all of us.

The beautiful black and white illustrations by Mónica Armiño put the icing on the cake of this novel for exquisite palates.

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An absolutely Dickensian setting and protagonists, a central character —the chimney sweep—, who hovers over the entire novel, even though his appearances are sporadic, inevitably reminiscent of Guido Orefice in

;

a charismatic and brave girl and her faithful friends, a mythological being made of ash, movie bad guys and endless adventures.

With these ingredients, Jonathan Auxier -translation by Gemma Rovira- shapes a great and enduring novel to give away a thousand and one times.

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