Your 2026 Caldecott Comment Card
Today’s the big day! Once the Caldecott winners have been announced (webcast link), I want to know what you think. Go ahead and share in the comments.
- Which Caldecott choice are you happiest with?
- Which Caldecott-eligible 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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Happiest about “Stalactite & Stalagmite”. A book they missed is “Broken” by X. fang. And I wish “A World Worth Saving” was honored by the Stonewall committee.
Ooh me too! I LOVED “Stalactite & Stalagmite”! It was such an early favorite of mine that didn’t seem to get any lasting love. I am so excited it was honored!
Yeah – great to see that! That book is pretty mind-blowing and I’m really glad the committee honored it
Happiest about Every Monday Mabel! Love that book. Also pleased with Fireworks as the medal. For my “personal Caldecott” (not predictions, just what I thought should win) I gave Every Peach is a Story the medal. It got an APALA honor but I would have loved to see it get Caldecott recognition. It’s both aesthetically beautiful and has some excellent technical “storytelling” choices in the composition of the art. Three of my other honor choices got honors in other categories—The Keeper of Stories in the Syndey Taylor; The Invisible Parade in the Pura Belpre; and Song of a Blackbird in the Printz. Powerful Like a Dragon got shut out…I thought it was excellent in the “pictorial interpretation of theme” and “deliniation of characters/setting” criteria.
Every Peach was such a beautiful book!
Love Every Peach and The Keeper of Stories. Both gorgeous.
I’m happiest about Candace Fleming’s wins, because I think she may well be a genius? Her work is disciplined AND spectacular, over and over again.
I’m sad about the lack of love for A World Worth Saving — such a high degree of nuance and difficulty yet such a page-turner — and honestly, I don’t wanna think too hard about why it didn’t get the kudos it deserved. (Glad it was a National Book Award finalist, at least.)
I’m with you on Candace Fleming getting the Legacy award – wonderful to see that!
Loved the selection of a non-woke book! Fireworks is excellent.
Cat Nap was a favorite of mine from the year.
Was happy to finally see someone thinks its time to move on from continuing to call the award the Caldecott Medal. He was British wasn’t he. I like the idea of Jerry Pinkney, but I’d like to toss out another name, the illustrator who won 3 Medals and 6 Honors. Marcia Brown.
Perhaps the Pinkney Brown Medal.