Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The Mockdecott is Coming!



I am the volunteer librarian at my daughters’ K-5 school. The library does NOT get a lot of love and support from the administration, and even the teachers who love it are pressed for time. However, I’m making our first attempt at a mock Caldecott this year. I picked our 10 nominees based mostly on online "buzz," . I also wanted some diversity of subjects, genre, illustrators, artistic styles and media, and wordless books as well as those with text.  In a school that is nearly half Latino and a quarter black, I wanted the students to see themselves reflected either in the subject matter and/or the authors and illustrators themselves in at least some of the books.  Of course, those are all factors that the committee is not supposed to consider. But my goals are a bit different. Here is my list, in no particular order:
The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, illustrated by Melissa Sweet
      
Draw! by Raul Colon

The Iridescence of Birds: A Book About Henri Matisse by Patricia Maclachlan, illustrated by Hadley Hooper

Nana in the City by Lauren Castillo
 

Flashlight by Lizi Boyd

Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell, illustrated by Christian Robinson


Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales and Tim O'Meara (photographer)

A Dance Like Starlight: One Ballerina's Dream by Kristy Dempsey, illustrated by Floyd Cooper

Brother Hugo and the Bear by Katy Beebe, illustrated by S.D. Schindler

I'm asking the students - and teachers - to rank their top three.  I'll rank mine in an upcoming post.  What are yours?  Or do you have other favorites this year?

Do you do a mock Caldecott at your school?  Are your criteria for choosing nominees different from those considered by the real Caldecott committee?

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

I'm running a mock Caldecott this year!!

I haven't been posting much because I'm now basically running my daughters' school library.  As a volunteer.  And I have wanted  to tell you about all the interesting things I've been doing there, such as our "guess the theme" competition and the 4th Grade Library Club, but I've been too busy actually doing them to write about them.

But I couldn't resist posting this.  In preparation for our mock Caldecott (or our Mockdecott, as my husband christened it), I did some research about the award.

And then, when wrapping various Chanukah and birthday gifts, I came across this:


Let's go in for a close-up, shall we?



Do you see what I see?  Tell me in the comments!

I let Amazon, where I purchased the book, know, and I emailed Grace Lin as well.  Let's see if I hear back.