Calling Caldecott
Kitty and I are stunned to find ourselves here in November already! It’s time for our first-round nominations. The real Caldecott committee is beginning their nomination process, which you can learn more about in this excellent post that Julie Hakim Azzam wrote a couple years back. Here on Calling Caldecott, we’ll be doing nominations in two rounds, asking you...
Next up on my list of heavy hitters for potential Caldecott recipients is Artivist and film concept artist Nikkolas Smith. If you’re familiar with Nikkolas’s previous books and social media posts, you know that his art advocates for global change and justice for all. Typically, Smith approaches his illustrations digitally. However in his most recent title, The History of We, Smith took...
Today on Calling Caldecott, a conversation between Elisa Gall and Jonathan Hunt about informational picture books and the Caldecott Award. (This is an entry in their "why-the-hell" Calling Caldecott series. Previous posts include discussions about the Caldecott and holiday books; photography; board books; the Newbery Award; "didactic intent"; folklore; and...
I had the pleasure of reviewing Fireworks for the Horn Book this year. Soon after I submitted the review, I reached out to the Calling Caldecott team and asked, “please, oh, please can I write about Fireworks for the blog?” This was even before talks about this year’s Calling Caldecott...
If you’re looking for a colorful, whimsical picture book that celebrates community and features a confident little lead, look no further. In Every Monday Mabel, written and illustrated by Jashar Awan, Mabel can’t wait to look out her window each week to see her favorite thing: the garbage truck. Immediately, readers...
Linke’s story based on Chinese philosophy and set in rural China, celebrates a Ah-Fu, a young boy who successfully retrieves the family’s ox, despite warnings from his grandfather, a flock of swallows, and a frog, that he is not big enough, respectively, to ride the ox, lead him by the...
For years I’ve harbored a not-so-secret wish that Marla Frazee would illustrate a Mother Goose collection. With her Caldecott-worthy interpretation of Mary Ann Hoberman’s How Elegant the Elephant: Poems about Animals and Insects, she has delivered the next best thing. Through vivid visual characterization of a range of anthropomorphic creatures,...
In To See an Owl, Matthew Cordell takes readers on a quiet journey into darkness, inviting them to seek magic alongside a child. The minimal text features phrases like “If you are very quiet...” and “Wait,” which emphasize emotional depth through anticipation rather than action. Cordell's illustrations, with their deep...
Some illustrators bounce around Caldecott discussions for years without winning or honoring. Evan Turk is one. His illustrations for Grandfather Gandhi, written by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, were part of the Caldecott conversation when the book came out in 2014, and in 2022, The People’s Painter: How Ben Shahn...
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