Books make such great gifts, so we thought we’d share some of our favorite picture books of 2015.  Each of our 8 selections has an emphasis on the outdoors, travel or adventure.  Perfect to take along on a trip or vacation, or the perfect way to escape without leaving home!

1. The Rise and Fall of Oscar the Magician: A bit different from my other, more outdoor based selections, but an adventure nonetheless! The Monkey World stories from Matthew Porter are outrageous and wacky, but they take us on such interesting journeys.  This particular tale has jazz playing crocodiles, a mysterious monocle, and a monkey that lands in a live crab tank while tight rope walking!
2. West Coast Wild: Gorgeous alphabet book based on what you’d find on the Pacific Northwest coast.  I love that the Velella Velella represented “V”.  We saw hundreds of these on our last visit to Long Beach and were fascinated by them!
3. Arrow to Alaska: An adventure to Alaska that involves a fishing boat, floating homes, and seaplanes? Sign me up! I’ve yet to visit Alaska, and this book gets me even more excited to make a journey up there.
4. B is for Bear: I’m in love with Hannah Viano’s paper cut art work.  So clean and simple yet incredibly detailed and intricate! I love that this alphabet book is dedicated to our beautiful natural world.  She also has a Pacific Northwest Alphabet book that we reviewed here.
5. Larry Gets Lost Under the Sea: Pete and his pup Larry have all sorts of adventures. They’ve traveled to Seattle, Portland, and Alaska here in the Northwest, and also all the way to Boston, New York, and Philadelphia on the east coast, plus lots more in between. Their latest adventure actually takes them UNDER the sea and I particularly love the mix of fiction and non-fiction in this fun rhyming book! Also reviewed here.
6. Elliott the Otter: Otters seem to have so much fun zipping around swimming on their backs, and the authors John Skewes and Eric Ode really portray their spunk well in this story.  A more detailed review here.
7. If You Love Honey: Such an engaging story that makes connections to many common things in nature, plus gorgeous realistic illustrations.  Bergen loved seeing so many of his favorite outdoor elements up close!
8. P’ésk’a and the First Salmon Ceremony: P’ésk’a has the important job of making sure the special tray gets to the ceremony of the first salmon of the season.  I love that Bergen and I learned about the Sts’ailes people of British Columbia, who have been around for a thousand years, through such an engaging story.  Playful, yet realistic illustrations.

Do you have any 2015 picture book recommendations for us?

Special thanks to the folks at Sasquatch books for providing us with copies of several of these selections for review. As always, all opinions expressed here are our own! Also, affiliate links are used throughout the post directing to our amazon store.  If you purchase through our link, we receive a small commission to help run the blog.  Thanks for taking a look! 

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