Your 2021 Caldecott Comment Card
Today’s the big day! Once the Caldecott winners have been announced, I want to know what you think. Go ahead and share in the comments.
- Which choice are you happiest with?
- Which book did the committee miss?
Filed under: Articles
About Travis Jonker
Travis Jonker is an elementary school librarian in Michigan. He writes reviews (and the occasional article or two) for School Library Journal and is a member of the 2014 Caldecott committee. You can email Travis at scopenotes@gmail.com, or follow him on Twitter: @100scopenotes.
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Yay for We Are Water Protectors! Sad they left out Lift by Minh Lê and Dan Santat and If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall.
Interesting to see that many of the predicted winners/honorees were snubbed–This Old Truck, Swashby, etc. But definitely happy about the winner!
‘Water Protectors’ was one of my favorite books I read last year period, and if the current trends on our library’s passive Mock Caldecott stand it looks like it’ll be winning an Honor from us, too. My biggest disappointment is that we had NONE of the actual Honor books even in our Mock Caldecott– actually, even in the LIBRARY yet! (I can say that I’ve ORDERED Outside In, but it’s been on backorder for awhile– can’t imagine that’ll change soon now!) but that’s more disappointment in myself than in the committee!
SNUB-wise I do wish ‘The Old Truck’ and ‘The Oldest Student’ had got SOMETHING if not a Caldecott– a King I guess, I don’t know if the ‘Oldest STudent’ is QUITE nonfiction ENOUGH for the Silbert (current trends on our Mock have that latter one taking our Medal!) And I didn’t really expect any committees to love ‘In a Jar’ as much as I did, but it would have been great if they had!
I would have enjoyed seeing The Old Truck or Praire Days by Patricia MacLachlan and Micha Archer be recognized. Glad We Are Water Protectors won. Some of the honor titles weren’t on my radar at all.
Definitely happiest about WATER PROTECTORS – the winner of my dreams, and one I was rooting for! I would have liked to have seen love for either ALL BECAUSE YOU MATTER or I AM EVERY GOOD THING, two powerful books that have really resonated with our community.
I’m SO happy for all of the honorees (all women!!!) but I agree with the commenter above–it was disappointing to see none of our Mock Caldecott selections make it in. We Are Water Protectors and Honeybee were the only ones from our crop of 11 to get any recognition yesterday. Quite a surprising result, and it must have been an exceptionally strong year. Would have loved to see If You Come to Earth, Your Place in the Universe, or The Old Truck snag an honor.
I am overjoyed with the Caldecott selections. I have been swooning over We are Water Protectors, The Cat Man of Aleppo and Outside In since their release dates. I would have liked Swashby and the Sea, Bedtime for Sweet Creatures and The Barnabus Project to have been winners as well.
I love that all the Caldecott winners this year are first-timers (i think?) and new-to-me illustrators. Not that I don’t LOVE If You Come to Earth and The Oldest Student, for example, but I also love widening the circle of artists who are recognized for their unique talents. I am sad that The Boy Who Dreamed of Infinity was not recognized.