Caldecott Guessing

Today I hazard a few guesses about the Caldecott awards. The Caldecotts, which honor illustration, will be announced on Monday, January 24th, and one hopes that one can see a webcast announcement of those and the Newberys live. The hyperlink does not work today, and in fact says the webcast is full (um, meaning please?), but try it Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. Eastern Standard time. That's the official announcement time.

The American Library Association is the force behind the Caldecotts and Newberys, as well as the Printz (young adult literature), Pura Belpré (for Latino writers and artists, next given in 2008), and the Coretta Scott King (African American writers and artists) prizes. (Incidentally, the author Mitali Perkins has a good post about ethnic book awards at her blog, Mitali's Fire Escape.)

I am linking web sites of the illustrators, so that you can see more of their work. Where I could not find personal sites, I linked the publisher. I chose my selections from the Cybils shortlists and did not even get to the 100-something picture book fiction nominations, though I'd have to squeeze in Arthur Yorinks', Matthew Reinhart's, and Maurice Sendak's Mommy? from that list.

These Caldecott contenders (in my mind, at least) came from the Cybils nonfiction picture book nominations:

1. Aliens Are Coming! written and illustrated by Meghan McCarthy
2. An Egg Is Quiet, illustrated by Sylvia Long and written by Dianna Aston
3. Mama, written and illustrated by Jeanette Winter
4. Marvelous Mattie, written and illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully

The next group of guessing-game possibilities came from the Cybils poetry award nominations:

5. Behold the Bold Umbrellaphant, illustrated by Carin Berger and written by Jack Prelutsky
6. Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, written and illustrated by Adam Rex
7. Jazz, illustrated by Christopher Myers and written by Walter Dean Myers (link: Reading Rockets)
8. Tour America, illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson and written by Diane Siebert

American Library Association, your web site drives me crazy. Put a link on the home page for these awards and label it clearly. I said this last year, and alas, you ignored me. [Edited to note: The ALA did put a link on its home page for the awards on 1/22. Thank you!]

Comments

[Kelly Fineman]

I'd add MOSES: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom to that list.

[Susan]

Kelly, I bet that MOSES is on the Coretta Scott King list somewhere.

Watch. I will be dead wrong about all of these. But it's fun to guess.

[Jennifer Schultz]

Well, I keep trying, and I'm never able to get in to the webcast!

[Susan]

oh, that's too bad, Jennifer. This morning it was looking as if it would work.

I was out when the webcast was going on, so I missed it entirely. I must admit that my reaction was "Hmmm" to the Caldecott list.