Monday, January 23, 2012

Caldecott Medal

Today The Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association awarded the Randolph Caldecott Medal

Caldecott medal

to

A Ball for Daisy

This book is going to be a birthday present for one or more of my four pre-school granddaughters. Why? Because it is about a dog, a big time subject with the aforementioned girls and it is about loss (Daisy’s red ball) and gain (a friend and a new blue ball). This book has no words but the story is clear. Preschoolers and kindergarteners can “read” this book themselves. The book can be found at the Sonoma County Library and Yulupa’s Library.

The  ALSC also honored three more books:

Me--Jane

I wrote about this book in the 100 Best Children’s Books for 2011 post on January 16th. The Sonoma County Library and Yulupa’s Library have this book..

Grandpa Green

Grandpa Green’s life story is told by his great-grandson through a walk in his topiary garden. As the boy is walking along he picks up tools his great-grandfather has left in the garden. At the end he uses them to make his own topiary of the great-grandfather. This book is touching to me because it reflects how I spent time with my grandparents in their gardens and the talents they passed on to me. This book can be found at the Sonoma County Library.

Blackout

It is summer in the city, it is hot, and the power goes out. The TV doesn’t work, the phone and computer are off and Dad can’t cook dinner. The family goes to the roof where now in the darkness they can actually see the stars. So many of their neighbors are on the roof it is like a block party. The lights come back on so everything can go back to normal…but it turns out not everyone likes normal. This book can be found at the Sonoma County Library.

Each year the Caldecott Award is given to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. It was first given in 1939 to Mei Li by Thomas Handforth. A few other winning books you may know are  Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak in 1964, The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg in 1986 and The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney in 2010.  Familiar Honors books include Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans in 1940, If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Seuss in 1951 and  Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin in 2001.

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