I guess I'm feeling like this a little bit, so I'm writing this blog post as a sort of birthday card. My birthday wishes go to the Caldecott Award. This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Randolph Caldecott Medal--one of the most prestigious in children's literature--awarded to the artist of the "most distinguished picture book for children". Find out more about this award here .
With the time I spent in libraries as a child, and, as a teacher, I have read many of the Caldecott books. In my classroom, my students and I held a Mock Caldecott--carefully looking at picture books and deciding if one of them would win.
In libraries across the country, school and public, these books are specially marked and the collection areas are often prominent. The storylines, the creativity, the design, and the art are all unique. Do each year's Caldecott winners reveal something about the time period? That's what makes these books so fascinating to me.
At ALA this past month, the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet was the epicenter of birthday festivities. There were many opportunities to honor these books.
This was the display board available for guests at the banquet. I don't really look like I'm on the horse, but it was fun anyway. Do you know what this illustration of a horse has to do with the Caldecott Medal? Click the link above!
Of course, at the banquet, we honored the Caldecott winners for 2013.
Winner of the 2013 Caldecott Medal: THIS IS NOT MY HAT by Jon Klassen.
I cannot tell you how much I adore this book. In other words, I love it A LOT. It's such an interesting story with so many points for discussion. Jon Klassen is brilliant. (Interestingly, my class voted this as our Mock Caldecott winner, too. They were very proud of that!)
Caldecott Honor Awards:
My students really enjoyed CREEPY CARROTS! This fun book was written by Aaron Reynolds and illustrated by Peter Brown. I loved this book, too! It, too, was in our Mock Caldecott.
EXTRA YARN is EXTRA awesome! I loved this book, and more importantly, so did my students! Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen created something so great here!
I read the book below to some kindergarten students in the library one morning. They hung on my every word. It was a hit! I highly recommend ONE COOL FRIEND.
And GREEN! So creative! Such a lovely idea for a book!
SLEEP LIKE A TIGER is amazing, too. The patterns and colors are so marvelous!
(Read more about this year's Caldecott winners here.)
In Chicago, the Art Institute is hosting a great Caldecott exhibit right now. I had the chance to visit while I was at ALA, and I wished I could have been there longer.
This was the name of the exhibit. I think it depicts everything these books are about! Perfect!
The highlights for me were the original illustrations from:
- MEI LEI by Thomas Handforth, winner of the 1939 Medal
- THE LION & THE MOUSE by Jerry Pinkney, winner of the 2010 Medal
- RED SINGS FROM TREETOPS: A YEAR IN COLORS: illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, written by Joyce Sidman, a 2010 Honor book
- A BALL FOR DAISY by Chris Raschka, winner of the 2012 Medal
There is so much to love about these books, and because of this, I'm just now beginning to learn about them. I am wanting to know all about them, and besides my Caldecott challenge (see sidebar), I am studying them on my own.
The illustrators and authors who create these works help teachers and librarians develop young readers, and we are so grateful for their contributions.
At the Newbery-Caldecott-Wilder Banquet, the dessert had a Caldecott theme. In itself, this was art, too. (It was white chocolate and delicious, and it deserved a picture.)
To learn more about the exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, visit this link.
Happy 75th Birthday to the Caldecott Medal! I look forward to many more years of books from you!
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