The best kids’ picture books of the 21st century: Two authors judge our list.

Read all of Slate’s stories about the 25 Greatest Picture Books of the Past 25 Years .

MAC BARNETT: Hi Jon.

JON KLASSEN: Hi Mac.

MAC: Slate has asked us—indeed hired us—to talk about their big picture-book package, “ The 25 Best Picture Books of the Past 25 Years .”

(Did you like how I called it a “package”? Did it make me sound like a Real Journalist?)

JON: (Not to me, but go off.)

MAC: As regular readers know, at Looking at Picture Books , we mostly talk about older works, a decision we made carefully, and for a lot of reasons.

And now we’re throwing that policy out the window.

JON: Just for a minute.

We will go back to it.

MAC: We will retrieve the policy from the lawn and gingerly pass it back through the window.

JON: Hopefully without learning any hor