Mock Caldecott 2026 discussion

What did you think about these books?

The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt

Frog Song by Brenda Z. Guiberson

On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne

A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin by Jen Bryant

On a Beam of Light: http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/ON-A-...

A Splash of Red: http://richiespicks.pbworks.com/A-SPL...

Love The Day the Crayons Quit. Wonderful idea and letter writing!

I loved A Splash of Red. The illustrations are glorious.

I loved all of those! Could definitely see any one of those taking the Caldecott. My personal favorite of the bunch is The Day the Crayons Quit.

The Day the Crayons Quit has been popular. I'm still waiting for one to come in so that I can get a look at it. A Splash of Red: The Life and Art of Horace Pippin is lovely.

Frog Song...my kind of Caldecott illustrating.

The illustrations in Frong song are beautiful and well thought out. The text however is not really working for me.

Caldecott criteria is illustration; does not have to be complete marriage of art & text.

No, of course it doesn't, but I wanted to comment on the text.

my favorite by far is The Day The Crayons Quit! Has a wonderful blend of humor that appeals to adults and kids alike. The illustrations are very clever! A great concept so simple and yet so real.

"The Day The Crayons Quit" is wonderful!
Great share and a great teaching book. Fun illustrations.

Steffaney wrote: "Caldecott criteria is illustration; does not have to be complete marriage of art & text."

Actually, everything I've read on the list of books that is required reading for Caldecott Committee Members says it is absolutely essential that there be a marriage of the art to the text...

Kathy, thanks for sharing. I think the support of text is important as stated in the criteria. Each year our school mock Caldecott lessons focus on that important criteria, and students become quite effective making that connection.

The Caldecott is not just about pretty illustrations. They define a "picture book" as one that could not be understood if read aloud on the radio. In other words, the illustrations must be saying or expressing something that is not in the text, not just illustrating exactly what the words say. That would sumply be an "illustrated" book. Caldecott himself was one of the first to master this new technique. If people realise this they would likely get much better at guessing which books might win the award.

PS the list of recommended reading that is given to the Caldecott Committee members to teach them how to spot a winner is on the Internet. I went and pulled as many of those books as I could from the library and read them.

Kathy wrote: "PS the list of recommended reading that is given to the Caldecott Committee members to teach them how to spot a winner is on the Internet. I went and pulled as many of those books as I could from t..."

I love it. And thank you all for your comments about this.

Kathy wrote: "PS the list of recommended reading that is given to the Caldecott Committee members to teach them how to spot a winner is on the Internet. I went and pulled as many of those books as I could from t..."

I looked and could not find this list to hone my skills..... Could you post the link? Thanks

I will look for it later when I get home and post it but here is a good starting point:
www.hbook.com/2013/09/blogs/calling-c...

Okay I found it already. It's on page 24 of the Caldecott Committee Manual, posted on the ALSC website. Go to: www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmed...
And then download the .pdf or word version of the Caldecott Committee Manual listed below the names of all the Committee Members, and go to page 24.

http://www.ala.org/alsc/sites/ala.org...

Sorry if earlier link faulty