The Caldecott

The Caldecott is the Holy Grail of Children's Books. It's the Academy Award of Picture Books.

And by God, I WANT ONE!

And the great thing about it, is that anyone talented can win it! It's an American Library Assc. ALA award, so it doesn't matter if a small press or big press publishes it. In fact, sometimes stores have a hard time stocking the book if a small press wins, they have to run off and print lots more to meet the huge overnight demand. There's one gold medal, and sometimes up to 5 silver medal runner-ups. Even winning a silver is huge.

So.... I'm going to go for it!

Maybe it's the buzz off the publisher meeting, but I've read at least 1500 picture books (that's tallied when I consider I've read about 6 books a week for storytime over several years), so I have a good idea of what's out there, and what books win. I've gotten to where I can predict who'll at least get honored. And my book is really good: it's theme, the look, the design, the characters... I think it has a real shot!

Here's the criteria from the Caldecott site:


marked by eminence and distinction: noted for significant achievement
marked by excellence in quality
marked by conspicuous excellence or eminence
individually distinct

And the review committee has to keep in mind:


Excellence of execution in the artistic technique employed;
Excellence of pictorial interpretation of story, theme, or concept; of appropriateness of style of illustration to the story, theme or concept; of delineation of plot, theme, characters, setting mood or information through the pictures.

Maybe I'm just a proud Mama Bunny, but I'm going to submit my book... Heck, it's been a dream of mine to HAVE a book I COULD submit...

Oh, but what if I won? That's the Willy Wonka Golden Ticket! That's Movie adaptations, and video games, and theme parks! LITTLE BUNNY KUNG FU LOG RIDE!!!

*deep breaths, deep breaths*

And consider my image of the other recent Caldecott winners. Notice any similarities? Yes, they are not afraid to award the medal to black and white books! And there lots more then the ones I'm showing here. The Olivia book has a huge toy and collectible line out now...

*sigh* it's a cool dream :)