Leading up to the 2021 Caldecott Medal awards, which is held yearly to honor “the most distinguished American picture book for children” of the preceding year, Corlears Librarian Laura Lutz came up with her own mock Caldecott activity for the 6/7s students and our Ks-7s virtual cohort.
“Hosting a Mock Caldecott unit with the students has multiple purposes: it introduces students to the rich history of children's literature, and it introduces them to the newest books published in a year,” explains Lutz. “It also encourages students to examine picture books with a critical eye; voting for favorites and advocating for the ‘most distinguished’ books ensures students are invested in the outcome.”
The students started out with 10 total books, all chosen using published “Best of 2020” round-ups from literary review organizations and news agencies. “Then we discussed all 10 books at length before narrowing down to our Top 5, and next we discussed further which of the Top 5 deserved top honors,” Lutz says. “Once discussion ended, students voted secretly for their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd favorites, just like the actual committee.”
Lutz, who happens to be serving on the real Caldecott Award Committee for the 2022 awards evaluating books published in 2021, taught the students to “step into the shoes of the actual committee.” The students spent weeks evaluating the books, making inferences and thinking critically about why the books had merit.
Some reflection questions were: What are the criteria? How does a group of people manage to work together to agree on the top award? How do I narrow books down to my favorites? Why is a book my favorite? What are the things I don’t respond to in a book? If I didn’t respond to it, who might respond to it?
“Seeing that each class chose different books illustrated to the students that every group is different, every committee is different, and there's subjectivity to the awards given,” Lutz says.
The original 10 books selected were:
- All Because You Matter – Written by Tami Charles, illustrated by Bryan Collier
- Black is a Rainbow Color – Written by Angela Joy, illustrated by Ekua Holmes
- Brick by Brick – Written and illustrated by Heidi Woodard Sheffield
- Everyone's Awake – Written by Colin Meloy, illustrated by Shawn Harris
- Honeybee: The Busy Life Of Apis Mellifera – Written by Candace Fleming, illustrated by Eric Rohmann
- I Am Every Good Thing – Written by Derrick Barnes, illustrated by Gordon C. James
- My Best Friend – Written by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
- The Old Truck – Written by Jerome Pumphrey, illustrated by Jarrett Pumphrey
- Packs: Strength in Numbers – Written and illustrated by Hannah Salyer
- We Are Water Protectors – Written by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated Michaela Goade.
As for the Corlears Mock Caldecott winners? One class chose Honeybee and gave a mock Caldecott honor to Packs: Strength in Numbers. Another class chose the winner as Everyone’s Awake and gave an honor to We Are Water Protectors. The virtual cohort students also chose Everyone’s Awake as their winner, and selected two books for honors: We Are Water Protectors and Black is a Rainbow Color.
Once the mock awards were decided, the students spent the next few classes talking about other awards, such as the Coretta Scott King Award, the Pura Belpre Award, the Geisel Award, and the Sibert Award.
Did any of the students’ choices match up with the real winners? Check it out! Here is a complete list of the 2020 award winners announced by the American Library Association on Monday, January 25th, 2021.
