In second and third grade, we read Beekle by Dan Santat (2015) and Watercress by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin (2022). In kindergarten and first grade, we read Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (2005) and This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (2013). Make the tally visible on the whiteboard.

Read two past Caldecott books, and have a vote (by show of hands).What is it for? Who decides? Which books (illustrators) are eligible? Even the youngest students grasp the difference between an author’s job and an illustrator’s job, and learn that if there’s one name on the cover, it means that person did both jobs. Intro/practice week (first week of January): Here’s how I ran our program, loosely based on Travis Jonker’s: I always look to see if there’s an art note on the copyright page about what materials the illustrator used, and kids are sometimes surprised (especially the born-digital art). Plus, it’s a good chance to focus on the (incredible) art, and consider things like trim size and shape, endpapers, use of the gutter, use of color, light and dark, and media. It was one of the programs I’d heard other elementary librarians (and some children’s librarians at public libraries) talk about for years and it always sounded like a fun way to get kids engaged and excited. In my first year as an elementary school librarian, I had to do a Mock Caldecott. Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternak.

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander.

Where the Sky Lives by Margaret Dilloway.

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff.

The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill.

Violet and Jobie in the Wild by Lynne Rae Perkins.

So rather than recap today’s winners, I’m going to list a few middle grade and picture books I think could have gotten awards, and just happened not to, but are still wonderful and you should read them: books in any given year! And because I was on this year’s Heavy Medal committee (Mock Newbery) and ran a Mock Caldecott program at my school, I was more attuned than usual to award predictions.

Not that I disagree with the committees’ choices – plenty of books I cheered for, others I hadn’t read – but there are just so. This year, I missed the beginning of the livestream, but the timing worked out so that a third grade class was in the library when the Caldecott awards were announced, and they were so excited!Īs I watched not just the Caldecotts but all the other awards roll in, it struck me more than any previous year how many deserving books there are. Last year, I followed the ALA YMA on Twitter while preparing to teach seventh graders online research skills the year before, I watched in my pajamas with my five-year-old on my lap.

Above the sky jenny lynne