What’s inside: A look at our favorite Caldecott Picture Book Honors from all time. They are only “losers” because of the company they keep! Go Number 2!
What is the Caldecott?
As you remember from my earlier post, the Caldecott Medal is awarded to the best children’s illustrated book each year. It began because of all the wonderful illustrators that weren’t really eligible for the Newberry Award, which is given to the best children’s book writer each year.
Now, there are some authors who are also illustrators, but the folks wanted to include illustrators in this award because sometime, it is the pictures that make the book magical.
Interestingly, the Awards are linked. The members of the Newberry Medal Committee serve as judges for the Caldecott. They also don’t let a book be nominated for both awards. And they only include books that were published in the prior year.
So if it has a Newberry, it can’t have a Caldecott.
Honors Award
The Caldecott also awards a “runners up” citation. That term was changed to Honors awards in 1971 and is given to other books “worthy of notice” for that year.
Lots of Good Books
I have to admit, there are lots of really good “runners up”!
Top 4 Favorite Caldecott Honors Books
Here are our top 4 favorite Caldecott Losers and the books they lost to:
- 1949 Honor Book: Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
- Lost to 1949 Medal Winner: The Big Snow by Berta & Elmer Hader
- 1948 Honor Book: Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
- Lost to 1948 Medal Winner: White Snow, Bright Snow, illustrated by Roger Duvoisin; text: Alvin Tresselt
- 1942 Honor Book: Paddle-To-The-Sea by Holling C. Holling
- Lost to 1942 Medal Winner: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
- 2006 Honor Book: Zen Shorts illustrated and written by Jon J. Muth
- Lost to 2006 Medal Winner: The Hello, Goodbye Window illustrated by Chris Raschka and written by Norton Juster
Make Way for Ducklings is the only award I agree with – I must favor Robert McCloskey books! I do admit they are high on our overall list. But I enjoy Holling C. Holling books too, so I’m glad that came in as a runner up!
Another favorite was Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems. And Noah’s Ark by Jerry Pinkney. And Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type illustrated by Betsy Lewin, written by Doreen Cronin.
These favorites I actually like better than the winners also! And I love Norton Juster, the author of that last book on the Top 4 list (he wrote the Phantom Tollbooth, which I mention in my Favorite Math Living Books List) – but the illustrations didn’t particularly appeal to me. Which is odd, since it is an award for illustration.
Anyway, it is possible that I am favoring the overall story and book illustration combination, rather than the illustrations alone. Make up your own minds.
More Favorites
Dick Whittington and his Cat by Marcia Brown and If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss both lost in 1951. I don’t remember reading The Egg Tree that won that year.
In 1971, Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel lost to A Story, a Story retold and illustrated by Gail E. Haley.
There are so many illustrators that I love that have had Honor books or Medal winners: Jerry Pinkney, David Wiesner, Mo Willems, Peter Sís, William Steig, Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Sendak, and many others.
Are the Caldecott Awards still living books?
Remember, the Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Awards are for the illustrator. The illustrators have to be U.S. citizens and the book has to be published in English. That said, I seem to find more children’s books in general at the library to be twaddle now than 20 years ago.
But it isn’t a new phenomenon entirely – there was always twaddle.
After all, Charlotte Mason talked about twaddle over a hundred years ago.
When my guys were little, twenty years ago, I remember being disheartened by the twaddle at library story time.
In particular, one of the honor winners in 1999, I couldn’t stand. I consider it in the twaddle category. No, David! by David Shannon. And I didn’t like the illustration either, but I may have been put off by the alleged story, which consisted of the words “No, David” for most of the book.
It did not elevate me.
Charlotte Mason is right – life is too short to let your kids read drivel.
Find what works for your family
Remember, books are very subjective, but I find interesting what gets awarded and when. These books are a bit of a product of their culture at the time. And it is sometimes hard to see what is truly great when you are seeing it close up.
So I should probably rejoice that the committee was able to select as many fine books as they have, and give them a pass on the ones that don’t resonate with me – or rather the ones that resonate loudly as “TWADDLE!!”
The more you practice evaluating what you see, the better you get at it.
Ask yourself:
- Is this a good message the book is promoting? (Speaks to worldview.)
- Is this something so well done that your whole family thinks it as an example of what to do or what not to do? (Think of Don’t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus: it is so outrageous that anyone can see that the Pigeon shouldn’t drive the bus – it’s almost like a fable. You can have wrong behavior if there is a moral lesson.)
- Does this book align with our family values? (All families are different.)
- Is it uplifting?
Freebie
I’ve made another list for you that you can download if you subscribe to my newsletter. It’s a list you can bring with you to the library if you want to go on a binge for Caldecott Honor Winners.
Enjoy!
