31 Days of Children’s Books, Day 14

Sweet friends,

Talking about Caldecott Medal and Honor books today, girls.  Hope these next few posts will be as much a treat for you to read as it is for me to write.  You might remember that I was an art ed major in college (once I finally tried out everything else).  I never taught art because I was hired as a librarian instead.  But I built art activities into most of my library lessons.  So it was like the best of both careers.

So, why am I telling you that?  And what is the Caldecott Award?  Here’s an explanation of the award from the American Library Association Caldecott webpage:

This medal is to be given to the artist who had created the most distinguished picture book of the year and named in honor of the nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph J. Caldecott. The Caldecott Medal shall be awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children published in the United States during the preceding year. The award shall go to the artist, who must be a citizen or resident of the United States, whether or not he be the author of the text. Members of the Newbery Medal Committee will serve as judges.

The medal is a replication of an illustration done by influential 19th century children’s illustrator Randolph Caldecott from his work “The Diverting Story of John Gilpin”.

I wanted to share a poster or image featuring all of the Caldecott winners.  This is the best I can do for now.  I know it is too tiny to tell anything about (ya think?).

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But over the next few days, I am going to be sharing some of my favorite Caldecott winners.  If you squint, you might be able to make out the most recent winner,  Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall on the poster above.

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And you might remember I reviewed that book earlier.  If not, you can read that review and check out the book’s beautiful illustrations, here, on Day 4 of this series. Or check out this YouTube video about the true story of the original Winnie the Pooh.

Children’s book illustration has come a long way since the inception of the Caldecott Award in 1937.   Over the next few days, I am going to share some of my favorite Caldecott Award winners with you and some of the oldies but goodies that are still popular today.

Hope you will come back tomorrow to check out some of the most beautiful books in children’s literature.  Right here with your friendly, neighborhood retired elementary school librarian…ME!

Hugs and kisses,

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