Behind The Scenes

My First Mock Caldecott

Does this gold sticker look familiar? You may have seen it on certain picture books at the library. A book with this designation means that the illustrator has been awarded the Caldecott Medal for being the most distinguished American picture book for children.

Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books are determined each January by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association.

On the same day at the local level, the Children's Services Round Table gathers for a Mock Caldecott Day. Our Children's Librarian Brenda Anderson and Children's Department Assistant Cindy Hartman were lucky enough to attend this year's Mock Caldecott on Monday, Jan. 23.

The real Caldecott Medal Winners and Honor Books are selected from a pool of more than 700 children's books! Luckily, the local Mock Caldecott committee only had to review 175 books.

This was Cindy Hartman's first experience. She shared her thoughts here:

Local Winner

The criteria we used in determining our Mock Caldecott winner were similar to those used by the committee. We looked at the illustrations on the covers, end pages, title pages, and within the books. We looked at the form of art used to illustrate the books, and how well the story was told or enhanced with the pictures alone. Each participant had the difficult decision of narrowing their choices down to just four. So many awesome books! The votes were tallied and sadly books were eliminated. Small groups were formed and discussions occurred as to which book(s) on our table we would ultimately nominate. A brief presentation about the book was given and from there we voted on which we would ultimately choose as our winner. Our group chose They All Saw a Cat by Wenzel. While we didn’t pick the ALA’s award winner as our mock award winner, we did have most of the books on our honor list. 

ALA Winner

ALA 2017 Caldecott Medal Winner: 
Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe

ALA 2017 Caldecott Honor Books: 
Leave Me Alone Illustrated and Written by Vera Brosgol
Freedom in Congo Square, Illustrated by R. Gregory Christie, Written by Carole Boston
Du Iz Tak? Illustrated and Written by Carson Ellis
They All Saw a Cat Illustrated and Written by Brendan Wenzel

Click here to read more about this year's winners.