Amazon offers several annual best books lists.  These are their 20 Best Picture Books of 2012:

  

The Adventures of Little Nutbrown Hare by Sam McBratney

Bear Has a Story to Tell by Philip C. Stead, illustrated by Erin Stead

Big Mean Mike by Michelle Knudsen, illustrated by Scott Magoon

  

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer and Elizabeth Zunon

The Cloud Spinner by Michael Catchpool, illustrated by Alison Jay

Crafty Chloe by Kelly DiPucchio, illustrated by Heather Ross

  

The Duckling Gets a Cookie!? by Mo Willems

Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore by William Joyce and Joe Bluhm

  

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr., illustrated by Kadir Nelson

Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney

Nightsong by Ari Berk, illustrated by Loren Long

  

Oh No, George! by Chris Haughton

Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer

Pete the Cat and His Four Groovy Buttons by James Dean and Eric Litwin

 

Rocket Writes a Story by Tad Hills

This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

 

This Moose Belongs to Me by Oliver Jeffers

Those Darn Squirrels Fly South by Adam Rubin, illustrated by Daniel Salmieri

Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham and Paul O. Zelinsky