The winner of the 2013 Calling Caldecott mock vote
is Extra Yarn by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen.

The two honor books are
Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
Z Is for Moose by Kelly Bingham, illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

Though the first place numbers were decisive on this ballot, there would still be another vote on the real committee. According to the rules, the winning book has to receive more than half the first place votes and with 267 voters, the winner would have to garner 134 first place votes. However, we make our own rules (and we don’t have the option of locking everyone in a room until they get to that magic halfway point plus one).

Later in the day, we will write about honor books and how they are chosen. (Hint: the rules get a little fuzzy here.)

In the interest of transparency, here are the totals:

Over the next few days we will be talking about mourning the loss of beloved titles, review how honor book selection works, and hear what Robin has been up to at ALA. After the actual awards are announced, we will weigh in on the committee’s choices, find out what it’s like watching the returns from the Horn Book office, and get a report from Robin about being there for the big announcement in Seattle.

For those of you who will not be at ALA Midwinter, you can watch the award press conference here, at least until it crashes due to traffic overload! It looks as if they have set up this webcast page to include the Twitter feed in a sidebar. Or you might prefer to follow the Facebook page updates. All this is supposed to begin Monday, January 28 at 8 a.m. PT, which would be 9 a.m. for MT, 10 a.m. for CT, and 11 a.m. for east coasters.

For now, we would love to know your reactions to the latest vote. What surprised you? How did you feel when you saw the results of each ballot?

P.S. We had a problem on the blog last night and most of the comments left on the Mock Caldecott process post seem to have disappeared for good. We think we have copied and pasted all of the lost comments from our e-mail notifications, but if you don’t see yours there now, we encourage you to go back and try to recreate what you said.

The post Extra Yarn wins 2013 Calling Caldecott vote appeared first on The Horn Book.

Last year we started with a list so we’ll do the same this year. What follows is a list of  picture books that have been starred in more than one journal or that one of us especially wants to talk about.

• And Then It’s Spring by Julie Fogliano and Erin E. Stead
• Bear has a Story to Tell by Phillip C. Stead, Erin E. Stead
• Chloe by Peter McCarty
• Extra Yarn  Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen
• Goldilocks and the three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems
• Green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger
• Hello, Hello by Matt Cordell (or Cordell’s Another Brother)
• Home for Bird by Phillip C. Stead
• Insomniacs by Karina Wolf, illus. by the Brothers Hilts
• Life in the Ocean by Claire A. Nivola
• Little Dog Lost: The True Story of a Brave Dog Named Baltic by Mônica Carnesi 
• Machines Go to Work in the City by William Low
• Mom, It’s My First Day of Kindergarten by Hyewon Yum
• Mousterpiece by Jane Breskin Zalben
• The Obstinate Pen, by Frank W. Dormer
• Ocean Sunlight by Penny Chisholm and Molly Bang, illustrated by Molly Bang
• Penny and her Song by Kevin Henkes
• Step Gently Out  by Helen Frost, photographs by Rick Lieder
• This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
• Z is for Moose by Kelly Bingham, illus. by Paul O. Zelinsky

Please use the comments to tell us which books you think are award-worthy — and what other books we should be talking about. And remember that there are still four more months of books we haven’t seen yet, so this is just a start.

If you are new to this blog, follow these links to learn more about Robin and Lolly.

Now… Let the discussion begin!

The post Here we go again! appeared first on The Horn Book.

The winner of the 2012 Calling Caldecott mock vote is Me…Jane by Patrick McDonnell!

The four honor books are
Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade by Melissa Sweet
Blackout by John Rocco
Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen

Though the first place numbers were decisive on this ballot, there would still be another vote on the real committee between Me…Jane and Grandpa Green. According to the rules, the winning book has to receive more than half the first place votes and with 297 or so voters, the winner would have to garner 149 first place votes. However, we make our own rules!

In the interest of transparency, here are the totals:

In the next day or two, we will be back to talk about how honor books are selected, interesting things about the math of the vote, watching the returns, and mourning the loss of beloved titles. And, of course, we will return next week to see if we had a lick of luck in our predictions. For those of you who will not be in Dallas on Monday, you can watch the award press conference here, at least until it crashes due to traffic overload! If and when that happens, you might find the Twitter feed more useful. All this is supposed to begin at 7:45 a.m. MT, which would be 8:45 for east coasters, 5:45 for west coasters, etc.

For now, we would love to know your reactions to the latest vote. What surprised you? How did you feel when you saw the results of each ballot?

The post Me…Jane wins Calling Caldecott vote appeared first on The Horn Book.

Hello to all from blog newbies Robin and Lolly! When Roger Sutton asked us to helm a Heavy Medal companion blog, was there any chance we would refuse? Absolutely not!

We both have inside knowledge about the workings of the Caldecott Committee, some of which we’ll share with you over the next four months as we host this conversation about the best picture books of 2011. Of course, the proceedings of each committee are largely hush-hush, but we will do our best to illuminate the process without getting in trouble with the ALSC police. And being a mock Caldecott blog, OUR committee will have complete transparency.

Here is a link to the official Terms and Criteria for judging the Caldecott Medal. As you will see, there are a lot of rules! The main ones to be aware of are that books under consideration must be

• published in 2011
• published in the USA
• illustrated by a person whose primary residence is the USA

On a real committee, deliberations can’t begin until the nominations are in. We both have our favorites so far this year, but we want to hear yours first. The way we see it, instead of being a traditional Caldecott Committee of fifteen, this is a committee of us two plus all of you.

The post It begins… appeared first on The Horn Book.