Favorite children's books from 2012

Picture books harness a child’s imagination, sweep them up and carry them to a make-believe place where anything can happen. They teach our children values and principles, better than we can, sometimes. They tell histories, visit the past, and jettison us into the future, cultivating the kind of creativity and innovation our world needs.

Here Motherhood Matters contributor Catherine Arveseth shares eight of her favorite children's books released in 2012.