Rachel G. Payne
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Baby-Testing Board Books: A Report and a Roundup from a Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award Jury Member
In January, 2023, the first jury of the Margaret Wise Brown Board Book Award met online to select the recipients of this nascent award administered by the Children’s Book Committee at Bank Street College of Education. I was happy to be among this great group of professionals serving on the...
Board Book Roundup: Mirrors and Holes and Flaps, Oh My!
Board books often include features that entice little fingers to pull, twist, and lift, sometimes blurring the line between book and toy. This is fine by me; little ones should play with their books! Although such board books are often called “novelty books” and derided as gimmicky, they don’t have...
Board Book Roundup Plus Five Questions: Summer 2022
For over twenty years a team of librarians, educators, creators, and others who work with young children and families have been compiling a “Best Books for Babies” list in (where else?) the city that Fred Rogers called home: Pittsburgh, PA. In fact, Mr. Rogers was a consultant on the list...
Board Books Get an Award of Their Own
Board books don’t tend to win major awards. True, a handful have been named ALA Notable Children’s Books, including one of my all-time favorites, Global Babies by the Global Fund for Children. Many a Caldecott winner has later been republished in board book format, and some work well, notably Kevin...
Board Book Roundup: Young at Heart
The conventional wisdom is that board books are for birth to three years, and I’m a firm believer that board books need to be developmentally appropriate for their audience (see my November/December 2019 column “Board Books Build Brains”). Board books are, at their core, for babies and toddlers. But is...
Board Book Roundup: Board Books Build Brains
They rarely win awards. Few make it to the annual “best of” lists. They get stepped on, chewed, drooled on, and thrown. Their core audiences may not remember a word of them in a few scant years. Their pages are frequently viewed out of order. But board books are some...
Out of Wonder
Ekua Holmes burst on the children’s book scene in 2015 with her phenomenal debut, the multiple award–winning — including a Caldecott Honor — Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement (written by Carole Boston Weatherford). But she didn’t come out of nowhere. She was an established fine...
Banquets and bling
Continuing with this series of behind-the-scenes of the Caldecott committee, I thought it would be fun to give you peek at the Newbery/Caldecott/Wilder Banquet, which took place just last month at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. (If you haven’t yet, please read Javaka Steptoe’s Caldecott speech and Martha’s post...
The Good, the Bad, and the Self-Published: Could an Indie Picture Book Win the Caldecott?
Right about now, the 2018 Caldecott chair is likely receiving a steady trickle of self-published books in the mail. Yes, these books are completely eligible for the award! As long as their illustrators are American, that is. But is this an exercise in futility? Could a self-published picture book actually win?...
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