Are you guilty of picture book nostalgia? I am. Who doesn’t love The Very Hungry Caterpillar? You can’t deny its genius: the repetition . . . the counting . . . those little holes!
According to Publishers Weekly, 13 of the top 20 picture books sold in 2025 were published before the year 2000. Does this mean millennials are reaching for the books their parents read to them? Yes—but also many of those book sales were gifts, and people are more likely to give a book they know and love.
I thought picture book nostalgia might be a more recent phenomenon, but research proved me wrong. In 2000, 12 of the top 20 best-selling picture books were published at least 25 years before, like Goodnight Moon and Green Eggs and Ham. So, classics are here to stay, and that’s okay—especially if they help us share the cozy pleasure of reading with future generations.
And even if we delight in the familiar—there’s always room for something new. If the caterpillar can expand his palate—we can too. Munch…munch…munch…