Children's books about imagination 💭

I own a shirt that says, on the back, “Everything you can imagine is real.” It’s from Spiritual Gangster, and the quote — from Albert Einstein — is unattributed, which I knew when I bought it. I wear this shirt all the time on the weekends, usually both days because it’s comfortable, but more than that, I like having this idea on my body.

One day my husband said to me, “Well, that’s not true — that everything you can imagine is real.” I paused for a second and then said, “I think you’re wrong, but okay.” (This is how 68% of our conversations begin — or end.)

Einstein was probably talking about the mirror universe, and Spiritual Gangster probably just wanted to print something on a shirt that sounds like a line an instructor in a Peloton class might say, but: I don’t actually care.

To me, the idea that everything we can imagine is real is about the limitless power of our minds to dream, to envision, to create. Sure, this sometimes backfires — the atomic bomb; social media; artificial intelligence; the time in elementary school my mom bribed me with an American Girl doll to get a perm and I fell for it, twice.

But so often — more often, I like to believe — “logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” (Also Einstein, btw.)

What better quality to cultivate in our children, who are, after all, the ones who will inherit and live in the world we imagine today.

So here are a few reviews — and more suggestions — for books about imagination.

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Micro review: The Dinosaur Seed by Lindsey Yankey (2025)

I received a copy of this book from Beaming Books — opinions are my own

I was immediately drawn to the gorgeous, soft, detailed mixed media images in this title, but it’s the story of three young children who find a “dinosaur seed” at the playground that really captured me.

You have to read this one, of course, to truly experience this beautiful adventure that blends science, imagination, curiosity, and play as the kids follow the dinosaur seed around the universe, through time and transformation. (If that sounds magical to you: it is.)

Preschoolers and early elementary kiddos will love the fun-loving and spirited nature on display here — anyone under the age of 10 will recognize where play can take you — but older ones might also find and appreciate the deeper themes about how the world changes and how we change, too.

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Micro review: Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena (2021)

This review first appeared in my Spotlight On: Makers & Making — I’ve edited and updated it here

As Milo slips aboard the subway with his sister for a monthly trek, he notices all the people around him and, in his sketchbook, imagines their lives once they step off the train, which Robinson cleverly shows, via his own acrylic, collage, and digital images, as Milo’s own illustrations — the wonderful, lively, blocky stick-figure drawings children make. When Milo reaches his final destination, the prison where his mother is incarcerated, he realizes he may have it all wrong and “tries to reimagine all the pictures he made on the train,” finally offering “the right one” — a picture of his mother, his sister, and him on a building stoop — to his mom.

The message that art can save us, that making can be both an escape and a means of connection, is, I think, crucial to helping kids learn ways to endure and thrive. de la Peña and Robinson are both spectacular at what they do, and together, they’re on another level. I highly recommend this necessary, important book.

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Micro review: If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrated by Olivia Sua (2025)

I received a copy of this book from Candlewick Press — opinions are my own

Irene Latham and Charles Waters are an incredible team — I’ve never met a book of theirs I didn’t adore, and this one is no exception.

With poems that cover four categories — Everyday Magic, The Power of You, Kinfolk and Companions, and Anything is Possible — they’ve crafted a lovely selection of poetry based on the idea of “if.” Because — as the jacket flap says — “if is where our imagination begins. Where the possible becomes possible — if only we imagine.”

Some poems are serious, some are funny, some ask you to examine what’s possible, but — coupled with Sua’s inviting and inclusive mixed media illustrations — all invite us to see ourselves in these wonderings, and ask: what can if hold?

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More than any other genre, children’s books are, by their very nature, all about imagination. There are titles that are specific to this topic, though, and that’s what you’ll find below.

Always, always, always, if you have your own suggestion to make, please leave a comment!

More children’s books about imagination:

(If I’ve reviewed any of these, I’ve linked to them below)

• The Think-Ups by Claire Alexander

• If You Had a Jetpack by Lisl H. Detlefsen

• Welcome to the Wonder House by Rebecca Kai Dotlich (poetry)

• Imagine by Juan Felipe Herrera (poetry)

• Imagine a City by Elise Hurst

• Imagine That! by Yasmeen Ismail

• Beyond the Pond by Joseph Kuefler

• Lily Brown’s Paintings by Angela Johnson

• Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

• Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones

• Lift by Minh Lê

• A Pocket Full of Rocks by Kristin Mahoney

• One Monster After Another by Mercer Mayer

• Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran

• The Fantastic Bureau of Imagination by Brad Montague

• Follow the Recipe: Poems about Imagination, Celebration, and Cake by Marilyn Singer (poetry)

• Elizabeti’s Doll by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen

• Fraidy Zoo by Thyra Heder

• Monsters Never Get Haircuts by Marie-Hélène Versini

• What to Do With a Box by Jane Yolen

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Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah