Caldecott and Newbery Awards

Every January the Caldecott and Newbery awards are announced.  These are the library equivalent of the Oscars.  Caldecott award is given to best illustrated picture book.  Librarians across the country get together and hold Mock Awards to select their own winner and as practice, in case we are ever elected to be on the Real Committee.  Sometimes, there is a clear winner.  Sometimes there are just several books and it's hard to select one.  In the case of the Caldecott, where you are judging different types of art  - perhaps it's photographs, oil paintings, watercolors, collage, Chinese ink, or a combination or all of the above, it's almost impossible to compare. 

This year, for the Newbery, we selected to read:
Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass: The Story behind an American Friendship by Russell Freedman
Temple Grandin: How the Girl who loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World by Sy Montgomery.
Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

All wonderful books, but our winner The One and Only Ivan.

For the Caldecott, we reviewed way too many books to list here. If you really want to see the books that made it to the final round, let me know.  I have a list.  Our top four books were:

I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. - Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
This is Not My Hat - Written and Illustrated by  Jon Klassen
Minette's Feast: The Delicious Story of Julia Child and Her Cat by Susannah Reich - illustrated by Amy Bates.
Out on the Prairie by Donna Bateman and illustrated by Susan Swan


Our Winner was I Have a Dream. 


                         
I am delighted with our results because these were my favorites!


So now we wait. On January 28 11 AM, the awards will be announced at the ALA conference in Seattle.  In the meantime, I'll be on the look out for 2013 books that I can bring to our Mock committee for next year's winner.