All Things Caldecott: Mock and Real Results.

I finished counting all the votes and tally’s for our Mock Caldecott just in time to watch the real event online. I was very surprised by the book St. Philip Students chose. I knew they liked the book but I didn’t realize they loved the illustrations so much that it was the clear winner. But first, there were three books that were very close to winning. The St. Philip Mock Caldecott Honor books are

But, there was one clear winner loved by most students but especially by the 4th and 5th graders. The 2014 St. Philip Mock Caldecott winner is

Now that the St. Philip’s students have spoken I will answer the question they have been asking me these past three weeks. What book do I think should win? There were so many good books but for me there was one that I thought was the best representation of a Caldecott winning book. Mr. Tiger Goes Wild embodies everything illustrations should be when telling a story. I love how we see Mr. Tiger change, from his slow decent to the ground to his two page spread of getting naked. How ironic a tiger that in the wild is always naked, has to take off his proper clothing to really go wild. The moment was not lost on the children. Every time I read the story and turned to the naked page they laughed and laughed but then said, “but tigers are always naked”.

Now on to the the actual winners. I have to say, part of me is surprised at the books that were looked over. The other part of me isn’t that surprised at all. I know there are so many amazing books that it seems to be an almost impossible choice. There will always be that book, the one you think should have won but wasn’t even honored. Mr. Tiger just happens to be one such book. The books that were honored are wonderful and were all in contention for our Mock Caldecott. But, St. Philip’s students only ended up picking one of the three honor books.The three honor books for 2014 are

The 2014 Caldecott Medal winning book isn’t a surprising choice. It was on many people’s lists. Unfortunately St. Philip’s students were a bit harsh when critiquing this book. My guess is that they still aren’t used to thinking of Non-Fiction books as Caldecott worthy picture books. The length of the text also turned them off a bit. With Common Core at the forefront of most educators minds a Non-Fiction, informational text picture book seems like a very sound choice.

That’s all folks! Until next year…