Mock Caldecott 2020

This year for the Mock Caldecott project, educator Katherine Sokolowski who blogs at Read. Write. Reflect and maintains an account on Twitter, started a conversation about our collaboration.  This is the eighth year we've worked together and we've refined our efforts.  It's always been fun for our students and us.

Katherine: Margie, according to my blog we began to host a Mock Caldecott together in 2013. Does it seem that long ago to you? It feels like we just begun, but when I see that my class’s 2014 winner was Journey by Aaron Becker, I realize that it has been awhile.


Margie:  I agree, Katherine. Hosting the Mock Caldecott with you seems like we just started it but also like we’ve been doing it longer.  All during the year, I keep titles in mind to use in this activity. It’s a time to share what we’ve enjoyed with each other and now, your students.  I love looking closely at books and their illustrators.

Guess what?  I just did an email search and our first Google document for the Mock Caldecott was on December 5, 2012!  It was an initial list with 40 titles. I have been reading through our email exchanges and laughing out loud.  We had a really hard time scheduling Skypes with the fifth grade classes here that year because we kept having snow days and the time difference was a factor, too.  And we had not even met in real life yet.


Katherine: Holy moly, I remember the snow days! You guys had so many that year. I also looked through my posts and notes on the Mock Caldecott over the years. A lot has changed. We began when I was in my third year of teaching fifth grade, my seventeenth in teaching. It’s interesting to me that this year is the fourth year of doing this activity with my seventh graders, which equals the amount of years we held the Mock Caldecott with my fifth graders. You’ve switched jobs and locations throughout this journey as well.

Margie:  Yes, we did have a bunch of snow days that year and the next year, too.  (I believe the district had thirteen last year which, since I’ve been in northern Michigan, is a record.) I don’t know why, but I feel as though we started this collaboration before I took early retirement but, probably not.  I do know we collaborated on this when my two principals (elementary and middle) and I wrote a grant to have me continue teaming with teachers on reading and literacy in my last district for two years after my retirement.  I was the last certified librarian in the district.

Switching jobs and locations is an understatement.  In the search for a job, a promised job and an actual job, I moved 4 times in three years.  Between houses three and four, I moved three times. Mulan and I even lived in a hotel for nine days.  I’ve volunteered in two different elementary schools and worked in two different public libraries. BUT, and this is an important but . . .we’ve always done the Mock Caldecott, either with other students or with me alone.  And that’s saying something about our dedication to students and picture books.

Katherine: Yep. Our jobs and lives are so different than when we started this, but you are correct, we’ve always come together to celebrate books and kids. So cool!! I know there have been many years where we’ve struggled to narrow it to a list of twenty, and sometimes we just gave up and had more than twenty. What are you looking for when you pick a book to add to our list? It’s hard, there are always so many good ones to choose from, we are blessed.

Margie: I know this isn’t the first thing upon which I should base my selections but after an initial reading, I must have some kind of emotional attachment to the book.  I need a connection. I also think a lot about how children will feel when they read a particular book. And any book for me, no matter the type, has to have a sliver of hope.  I then go to the American Library Association  Caldecott Medal Home Page.  I refresh my memory of the qualifications and narrow my choices.  I love to reread books, studying the artwork and looking at added details placed there by the illustrators.  This year someone on social media mentioned this website at the University of Minnesota which focuses on artwork in children’s literature.

Katherine: I’m the same way. While I know the ALA’s qualifications, I also have my students in mind when I look at what books I’m selecting for our Mock Caldecott. For example, this year I knew I thought Quintero’s  My Papi Rides a Motorcycle would be a book that would fit the Caldecott criteria, but the reason I wanted it on the list originally was I knew my students would love it. I shared that one with them earlier in the year, but we revisited it this past Friday to look at it for this project and were all mesmerized by the page where she’s on the motorcycle with her dad and you’re looking at them from above. It’s breathtaking.

Margie:  I love that bird’s eye view, too.  The colors are explosive. I actually bought this book in English and Spanish.  One of several books which had me gasping aloud is Bear Came Along.  Several double-page wordless images and a vertical illustration are stunning.  The other detail I enjoy in this book, in addition to the layout, perspective and color palette in those pictures, is the humor visible in the facial expressions.  I love to laugh with children.

Katherine: Me too. One of the things I love about teaching middle school kids is sharing picture books with them and laughing together. At the beginning of the year they’re surprised that we will read picture books everyday. Then they begin expecting it and they find a joy in us reading the books together


Which brings me to our list. I’m so excited about these books we’ve chosen for this year’s Mock Caldecott! (Our list can be found below.) I’ve already started sharing these titles with my students. We’re ready to read them over the next few weeks and then Skype with you right before the ALA Youth Media Awards on January 27th. Thanks for joining me for another year!

Margie:  I’m with you.  Whether we’ve included a winner or honor recipient always elevates the excitement.  And I completely enjoy chatting with your students about our choices. Thank YOU for continuing this project with me.

In The Dead of Night

Just a little over a month ago, the second year of Calling Caldecott, a blog devoted to discussion about possible Caldecott Medal and Honor worthy books, was reopened..  This blog is hosted by Robin Smith, a second grade teacher at Ensworth School in Nashville, Tennessee, who is also a reviewer for Kirkus and The Horn Book and has served on numerous award committees including the Caldecott.  Her partner in this endeavor is Lolly Robinson, designer and production manager for The Horn Book, who has served on the Caldecott and Boston Globe-Horn Book Award committees.

Of the twenty-one books on their initial discussion list (linked above) I had not read six.  Of these six is the book titled The Insomniacs (G. P. Putnam's Sons) written by debut author, Karina Wolf, with illustrations by The Brothers Hilts.  Every single one of us has had sleepless nights.  But how many of us are like these three?

The Insomniacs weren't always a night family.

Indeed, most people are not night families.  An ocean voyage across twelve time zones not only means a job change for Mrs. Insomniac but a whole new opportunity awaits.  It would seem their bodies are not adapting to the switch in location.

Mother, Father and Mika can hardly make it through the day without nodding off but come night--they are wide awake.  Each has their own remedies for inducing slumber; none of which seem to work.  A group huddle, a brainstorming session, has them looking to area animals for answers.

Into the darkness they go in search of the one creature who sleeps the longest, a bear.  Approaching the hibernator haven all they discover are...bats; lots and lots of bats.  When the swirling and swooping masses have passed, pausing to look around, the Insomniacs are amazed to see busy nocturnal beings; activity abounds.

This, they believe, will do nicely.  Dusk will be their dawn.  Dawn will be their dusk.

A stroll through the moonlight along the shadowy sea, fragrant flowers, fresh baked goods and silence are the well-earned rewards after each works the nights away.  Do they miss the sun?   When you have stars and fireflies and northern lights would you?


With the first sentence, first time picture book author, Karina Wolf, draws readers into the world of the Insomniacs.  Immediately your mind is filled with questions which she answers sentence by sentence, paying attention to atmosphere.  It is easy to get the sense that Wolf likes playing with words as some of her phrases roll with a slightly alliterative rhythm.

All her drowsy definitive words evoke a state of wakefulness and barely awake depending on the hour.  Her characters, Mother, Father and Mika respect one another, chatting, musing, thinking of possibilities.  It is in their openness one finds the delight in darkness.  Here are a couple of phrases.

Mother dragged herself to work and nodded at her desk.
Father took pictures at his studio and then took forty winks.

The cloud of animals roused and rushed into the night.


Ben Hilts and Sean Hilts, The Brothers Hilts, using pencil, charcoal and a computer, have illustrated their first children's book.  Steely, midnight blue endpapers with scattered stars set the stage.  The title page background is a dusty, tiny, floral print wallpaper with an oval framed family portrait of the Insomniacs hanging from the "M".

The first sentence sits exactly in the middle of a faded golden cityscape with a train of cars along the bottom heading into the gutter; a thin dotted line extending to the car of our characters. On the right side are six small studies of the family during their day.  This pattern is used throughout the book, double page spread, single pages and small groupings to enhance and emphasize the narrative.  The text placement is varied, becoming part of the design.

Golden yellow, spots of red, green and turquoise, rusts and browns, blues and blacks, all muted, lend to the quiet, the shift to a life in the night.  Their depiction of Father as a shorter (whose head is nearly egg-shaped) man, a photographer, next to Mother, tall, thin, a student of astronomy with short-haired, wide-eyed, Mika in her striped dress, is utterly wonderful.  Details on every turn of page invite repeated viewings.  One of my favorite pages is a tongue-in-groove wooden wall background, old fashioned single light bulb hanging down from the page top, illuminating two lines with five photographs clipped to them. These photographs illustrate the family's evening occupations as described on the opposite page, except for the last one...Mother and Mika dancing beneath a crescent moon...along with an aardvark and bear dancing too.


To be a member of The Insomniacs written by Karina Wolf with illustrations by The Brothers Hilts would indeed be a great adventure.  The attraction of living the opposite is stunning and strong.  I now know why this title is on the list; both words and pictures embrace individuality in simultaneous beauty.

For more on both the author and illustrators view their website links embedded in their names above. This is the official book trailer.

 I also thought it might be fun to read it another time playing this video in the background or on a whiteboard.

Science Awry, Who Knew!

It's that time of year when those involved in the world of children and young adult literature start to reflect on the possibilities for the Caldecott and Newbery awards, not that we've not been doing it all year long.  Trying to limit the list for our Mock Caldecott Election with the third and fourth grade students to twelve is going to be tough in 2011.  One thing for sure is that Mac Barnett's book, Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed The World), illustrated by Dan Santat will be included. 

Just seeing the huge words Oh No! on the cover conjures up all kinds of possibilities.  Couple that with the reflection of a giant toad and robot in each lens of the girl's glasses and off we go!  Revealed with the opening of the cover are detailed schematics for a robot and a growth ray device on the front and back endpapers respectively.

If the reader removes the book jacket the inside unfolds to be mock-up of a movie poster akin to those Japanese monster flicks.  Book jacket removed the cover is designed as a very used Computation Book.  Turning the page the illustration advises the reader to Please Stand By as if waiting for an emergency television report. 

With the story line moving briskly from a seemingly benign science fair project to a rampage of citywide destruction readers will be captivated by text and graphics that mesh without a wrinkle.  Uttering the words, I probably shouldn't have given it a superclaw, or a laser eye, or the power to control dogs' minds, our young heroine tries to remedy the chaos her creation has caused with no success.  Well, that is until she has another brainstorm.   It succeeds splendidly until the natural instincts of the toad and the presence of a small flying insect begin yet another event with equally catastrophic potential.

Each time I read this visual gem (and I've read it at least ten times) I find something new to enjoy whether it's the name of her school mascot on the gym wall---Home of the Fighting Jacklopes! or the line of dogs following her dressed in robot suits or the combination of English and Japanese signs on buildings.  It is the succinct, classic text of a young girl finding herself in a jam that is interpreted through wildly, imaginative illustrations with attention to detail that brings this book to a status far above others.  One can only speculate on the pure fun that Barnett and Santat had bringing their talents together but fun is what each reader has when traveling through the pages.  I dare you to read it just once.

Check out the author and illustrator web sites which can be reached by clicking on their names at the beginning of this blog. Smile while watching one of the YouTube book trailers.



P.S. My final list of Mock Caldecott Election books for 2011 hit 15.