Welcome to another season of Calling Caldecott — the Horn Book blog that looks at the current year of picture books through the lens of Caldecott Award criteria. This year brings some changes: the coverage will be somewhat streamlined, with individual-book posts for the most part briefer, leaving (fingers crossed!) more air for readers to add their own comments. And I hope to have a few surprise contributors join us this season (more about this new feature later) in addition to regular contributions from guest posters.

The biggest change, however, is that treasured co-author Julie Danielson has decided to step away from Calling Caldecott and will be devoting her considerable talents and energies to other endeavors. Everyone at Calling Caldecott will miss her so much — and not just me, her co-author, but everyone who contributes to and follows this blog. Her passion for picture books came through in everything she did here, from writing her own insightful posts, to developing and organizing our diverse slate of guest posters, to brainstorming topics to discuss beyond our individual book coverage, and so much more. Luckily for all of us, she continues to write her own picture book blog, Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, and indeed she's already covered many of the titles we plan to discuss on Calling Caldecott. (Be sure to check it out, if you haven't already!)

Please join me in giving a HUGE thanks to Jules for her invaluable contributions over the years. She made everything better while she was here. We were so lucky to have her.

Well, I could go on and on, but I am likely preaching to the choir — will wrap it up. I'll be back early next week with a list (not definitive) of the 2022 books we plan to cover this season, with hopes that you, our readers, will weigh in with your own suggestions. (Remember that for a book to be eligible for Caldecott consideration, the illustrator must either be a citizen of the U.S. or a resident — not always easy information to track down, granted.) We will also, as has been the Calling Caldecott custom, offer a brief conversation with the previous year's winner of the Caldecott Medal, in this instance Jason Chin, illustrator of the memorable, deeply affecting, and gorgeous Watercress (written by Andrea Wang).