My Newbery/Caldecott Moments

Some of the best moments in my life have started with books. 

This great moment in particular began in December as my students and I had been reading and discussing the Newbery and Caldecott awards. We held an ad hoc Mock Caldecott (though I didn't know enough to call it that) and had some great discussions about the awards and their history. Some students felt very strongly about one title or the other. I brought in books I'd heard about on Twitter. I searched every library and bookstore in my area for the books we even THOUGHT might have a chance. There was a lot of speculation as the award announcement approached, and I used the suspense to build excitement in my classroom about reading and books as a whole. (Other teachers/librarians did this much better than I did, and they've been doing it for  a while. I know what to improve for next year.) We read these books and more:

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
Me. . Jane by Patrick McDonnell
Blackout by  John Rocco
Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

We enjoyed every book and though they couldn't all win, they each enriched our little reading community. We could use the books as benchmarks in our class history, and it was really wonderful to hear my students having discussions about the books at lunch or on the playground. (Through this, I secretly taught my curriculum standards such as summarization, characterization, cause and effect, evaluation, etc. But don't tell my students that.)

So when my school librarian said she was attending the announcement of the Youth Media Awards at ALA Midwinter and invited me to come along, it took me less than a second to say, "YES!"

I sat in the auditorium and could feel the sense of anticipation. After all, I had vivid memories of  my students' discussions swirling around in my very happy brain.
The announcements came one by one. Some titles were entirely new to me. Some were not. (I added several books to Goodreads that day.) My brief time in that auditorium was a year of education for me. I was in an unfamiliar world--I hadn't heard of some of the books. But I did know that good books "grow" readers--and I love putting good books in the hands of my students. I also LOVE books.

And so the winners were:

Caldecott Award 2012
A Ball for Daisy by Chris Raschka
Published by Random House Childen's Books

Newbery Award 2012
Dead End in Norvelt by Jack Gantos
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

(Of the books we'd read in class, three won Caldecott Honor Awards: Blackout by John Rocco, Me. . Jane by Patrick McDonnell, and Grandpa Green by Lane Smith. Wonderstruck was one of two books that won the Schneider Family Book Award for Middle School -Ages 8-13. I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen was named a Theodor Geisel Honor Book. )
 Here I am at the announcements:

I joined ALA shortly thereafter.

The entire experience came full circle for me as I attended the ALA Conference in Anaheim last week and happily went to the Newbery Caldecott Banquet. I'm a teacher--not a librarian--but this moment was still so special for me.  I took it all in with open eyes and heart, still incredulous that I was there. (I can't WAIT to share the experience with my students when we return to school.)

Here's the program.
It's my souvenir of the night!

I was in the back of the room, sitting at a table with people I didn't know. But we all had something in common: a love of books. We introduced ourselves and soon our conversation became effortless.

It was a privilege to listen to the speeches by Jack Gantos and Chris Raschka. I took pictures, ate, laughed, made new friends, and all the while thought of my students back home in Texas. The conversations we shared about Caldecott and Newbery books rang in my ears. It was almost like they were there with me. This was fitting: after all, these books were written for them.

As I joined my fellow banquet-goers in applause and cheers at the end of the night, I looked around the room filled with famous authors, publishers, and librarians and I asked myself: "How was it that I came to be here?" The answer came quickly.

It all started with books.

At the banquet before the awards.
P.S. I wore black pumps for the event. And they were new.