The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Beside the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books.
Chris Van Allsburg is an American writer and illustrator of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for Jumanji (1981) and The Polar Express (1985), both of which he also wrote, and were later adapted as successful motion pictures. He was also a Caldecott runner-up in 1980 for The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. For his contribution as a children's illustrator, he was a 1986 U.S. nominee for the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition for creators of children's books. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Michigan in April 2012.
Cynthia Rylant is an American author and librarian. She has written more than 100 children's books, including works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Several of her books have won awards, including her novel Missing May, which won the 1993 Newbery Medal, and A Fine White Dust, which was a 1987 Newbery Honor book. Two of her books are Caldecott Honor Books.
Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins was an English sculptor and natural history artist renowned for his work on the life-size models of dinosaurs in the Crystal Palace Park in south London. The models, accurately made using the latest scientific knowledge, created a sensation at the time. Hawkins was also a noted lecturer on zoological topics.
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husband-and-wife team "a seamless amalgam of both their hands". In more than 50 years, they created more than 100 speculative fiction book and magazine covers together as well as much interior artwork. Essentially all of their work in that field was joint.
Ann Matthews Martin is an American children's fiction writer, known best for The Baby-Sitters Club series.
Pam Muñoz Ryan is an American writer for children and young adults, particularly in the Multicultural genre.
Emily Arnold McCully is an American writer and illustrator who is best known for children's books. She won the annual Caldecott Medal for U.S. picture book illustration in 1993 recognizing Mirette on the High Wire which she also wrote.
Chris Raschka is an American illustrator, writer, and violist. He contributed to children's literature as a children's illustrator.
The Doll People is a children's novel written by Ann M. Martin and Laura Godwin, first published in 2000. It is illustrated by Brian Selznick, the author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. It tells a story about the imaginary world of dolls when no one is watching. A doll made from china and her new best friend made of plastic try to find her aunt that long ago went on an adventure and never came back. Others in the series include The Meanest Doll in the World, The Runaway Dolls, The Doll People Set Sail, and The Doll People's Christmas
Jon J Muth is an American writer and illustrator of children's books as well as graphic novels and comic books.
A Story, a Story is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Gail E. Haley that retells the African tale of how the trickster Anansi obtained stories from the Sky God to give to the children of the earth. The book was produced after Gail E. Haley spent a year in the Caribbean researching the African roots of many Caribbean tales. Released by Atheneum, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1971.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a children's historical fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic. The hardcover edition was released on January 30, 2007, and the paperback edition was released on June 2, 2008. With 284 pictures between the book's 533 pages, the book depends as much on its pictures as it does on the words. Selznick himself has described the book as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things". The book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal, the first novel to do so, as the Caldecott Medal is for picture books, and was adapted by Martin Scorsese as the 2011 film Hugo.
Hugo is a 2011 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, and adapted for the screen by John Logan. Based on Brian Selznick's 2007 book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it tells the story of a boy who lives alone in the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris in the 1930s, only to become embroiled in a mystery surrounding his late father's automaton and the pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès.
Razi Hirmandi (with the real name of Seyed Mohammad Razi Khodadadi is an Iranian writer/translator who translates from English into Persian for children and adults.
Erin E. Stead is an American illustrator of children's books. She won the 2011 Caldecott Medal for the year's best-illustrated U.S. picture book, recognizing her first publication, A Sick Day for Amos McGee.
Wonderstruck (2011) is an American young-adult fiction novel written and illustrated by Brian Selznick, who also created The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007). In Wonderstruck, Selznick continued the narrative approach of his last book, using both words and illustrations — though in this book he separates the illustrations and the writings into their own story and weaves them together at the end.
Andrew Baron is a self-taught, award-winning paper engineer and singled out by Robert Sabuda, a leading children's pop-up book artist, as a wunderkind of pull tabs, specific devices used to cause movement in pop-up books.
The hybrid novel is a form of fiction, characterized by reaching beyond the limits of the anticipated medium through the incorporation of varying storytelling methods, such as poetry, photography, collage, maps, diagrams, posters and illustrations. The hybrid novel refers to a broad spectrum of literary work such as the graphic narrative and fusion texts.
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins is a 2001 picture book by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Brian Selznick. The book tells the story of Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins and how he built the Crystal Palace dinosaurs. The book was a recipient of the 2002 Caldecott Honor for its illustrations.
