The Caldecott Challenge (Part II)

Part I | Part III | Part IV | Part V

When we last left our humble children’s lit blogger, he was hunkered down in a corner of his public library, mind set on reading every Caldecott-winning book in one day.

Read Part I.

Pardon me while I switch to first person. Much better.

What I discovered is, this is going to be pretty difficult. Some of the early winners were a far cry from the 32 page length we most often associate with picture books. Today, the challenge continues.

1952: Finders Keepers , illustrated by Nicolas, pseud. (Nicholas Mordvinoff); text: Will, pseud. [William Lipkind] (Harcourt)

1953: The Biggest Bear by Lynd Ward (Houghton)

1954: Madeline’s Rescue by Ludwig Bemelmans (Viking)

1955: Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper , illustrated by Marcia Brown; text: translated from Charles Perrault by Marcia Brown (Scribner)

1956: Frog Went A-Courtin’ , illustrated by Feodor Rojankovsky; text: retold by John Langstaff) (Harcourt)

1957: A Tree Is Nice , illustrated by Marc Simont; text: Janice Udry (Harper)

1958: Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey (Viking)

1959: Chanticleer and the Fox , illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text: adapted from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales by Barbara Cooney (Crowell)

1960: Nine Days to Christmas , illustrated by Marie Hall Ets; text: Marie Hall Ets and Aurora Labastida (Viking)

1961: Baboushka and the Three Kings , illustrated by Nicolas Sidjakov; text: Ruth Robbins (Parnassus)

1962: Once a Mouse , retold and illustrated by Marcia Brown (Scribner)

1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (Viking)

1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (Harper)

1965: May I Bring a Friend? illustrated by Beni Montresor; text: Beatrice Schenk de Regniers (Atheneum)

1966: Always Room for One More , illustrated by Nonny Hogrogian; text: Sorche Nic Leodhas, pseud. [Leclair Alger] (Holt)

Reflections: An excellent stretch of books. There were some classics that are still around today (Where the Wild Things Are, The Snowy Day), and some titles that you don’t see all that often today that can still delight (I especially enjoyed A Tree is Nice). However…

Progress: Oh, man. The clock is a-ticking. I’m fearing the worst. Let’s see if I can get a few more in…

Tune in tomorrow for The Caldecott Challenge (Part III)

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