Updated Caldecott

Woo Hoo!!! In under a month I completed my first phase of the Caldecott challenge: I read every award winner and wrote a review for every one on my Goodreads account. I was surprised that I was able to find all of them through my local libraries. Only two were difficult to find. I drove to a library 30 minutes away, Abraham Lincoln and Nine Days to Christmas. I was surprised to note that I really enjoyed and appreciated some of the older books. However, my top rated books were So You Want to Be President?, Officer Buckle and Gloria, and This is Not My Hat. Those stories told a story through both the illustrations and words that was beautiful and captivating. As with any contest there was also some books I didn't understand the appeal. The newer A Ball for Daisy and Time of Wonder both fall into this latter category.

Overall, I am really enjoying this challenge. It's been very interesting to see how book choices have been chosen over time. You see trends and get an understanding of the time period just by looking at the book selection and the year it was chosen. There were a lot of fairy and folktales from many different countries. I found this surprising since the book must be the "most distinguished American picture book" yet so many depicted many other cultures.

This has been such a fun task, but I'm taking a little break from it for now to read some Newbery books and, wait for it, some adult books :-0.