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.
David Wiesner is an American illustrator and writer of children's books, known best for picture books including some that tell stories without words. As an illustrator he has won three Caldecott Medals recognizing the year's "most distinguished American picture book for children" and he was one of five finalists in 2008 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest recognition available for creators of children's books.
Officer Buckle and Gloria is a 1995 picture book by Peggy Rathmann that won the 1996 Caldecott Medal. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association listed the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children." It was one of the "Top 100 Picture Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal. The animated adaptation, narrated by John Lithgow and animated by Chris Larson, was released in 1997 by Weston Woods Studios.
The Horn Book Magazine, founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietors of the country's first bookstore for children, The Bookshop for Boys and Girls. Opened in 1916 in Boston as a project of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, the bookshop closed in 1936, but The Horn Book Magazine continues in its mission to "blow the horn for fine books for boys and girls" as Mahony wrote in her first editorial.
Flotsam is a children's wordless picture book written and illustrated by David Wiesner. Published by Clarion/Houghton Mifflin in 2006, it was the 2007 winner of the Caldecott Medal; the third win for David Wiesner. The book contains illustrations of underwater life with no text to accompany them.
Mei Li is a book by Thomas Handforth. Released by Doubleday, it was the second recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1939. As one of the first American picture books to have an Asian protagonist, it is considered a milestone for diversity in children's fiction.
Noah's Ark is a children's picture book written and illustrated by Peter Spier, first published by Doubleday in 1977. The text includes Spier's translation of "The Flood" by Jacobus Revius, a 17th-century poem telling the Bible story of Noah's Ark. According to Kirkus Reviews, the poem comprises sixty three-syllable lines such as "Pair by pair". "Without revising or even enlarging on the old story, Spier fills it in, delightfully." In a retrospective essay about the Caldecott Medal-winning books from 1976 to 1985, Barbara Bader described the book as "at once elaborate and feeble" and Revius' poem as "neither particularly suited to children nor eloquent in itself."
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship is a children's picturebook illustrated by Uri Shulevitz that retells a Russian fairy tale of the same name. The text is taken from Arthur Ransome's version of the story in the 1916 book Old Peter's Russian Tales; Ransome had collected the folktale when he was a journalist in Russia. The book was released in 1968 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and won a Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1969.
When I Was Young in the Mountains is a 1982 children's book by Cynthia Rylant, who has written over 60 children's books such as Missing May, which won the Newbery Medal. The book, which Rylant later said took her but an hour to complete, earned an American Book Award in 1982 and Diane Goode's illustrations won it a Caldecott Honor for children's literature.
The House in the Night is a children's picture book written by Susan Marie Swanson and illustrated by Beth Krommes. Published in 2008, the book is a bedtime verse about the light in a house during the night. Krommes won the 2009 Caldecott Medal for her illustrations.
The Lion & the Mouse is a 2009 nearly wordless picture book illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. The book, published by Little, Brown and Company, tells Aesop's fable of The Lion and the Mouse. In the story, a mouse's life is a spared by a lion. Later, after the lion is trapped, the mouse is able to set the lion free. Adapting the fable, with the moral that the weak can help the strong, as a wordless picture book was seen as a successful way of overcoming the brief plot generally found in the source stories. While it was Pinkney's first wordless picture book, it was not the first time he had told the story, having previously included it in his Aesop's Fables, published in 2000. Pinkney, who had received five Caldecott Honors, became the first African American to win the Caldecott Medal for his illustrations in the book. His illustrations were generally praised for their realism and sense of place. The cover illustrations, featuring the title characters but no text, drew particular praise.
Toy books were illustrated children's books that became popular in England's Victorian era. The earliest toy books were typically paperbound, with six illustrated pages and sold for sixpence; larger and more elaborate editions became popular later in the century. In the mid-19th century picture books began to be made for children, with illustrations dominating the text rather than supplementing the text.
Marla Frazee is an American author and illustrator of children's literature. She has won two Caldecott Honors for picture book illustration.
In the children's picture book Chanticleer and the Fox, Barbara Cooney adapted and illustrated the story of Chanticleer and the Fox as told in The Nun's Priest's Tale in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, translated by Robert Mayer Lumiansky. Published by Crowell in 1958, it was the recipient of the Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1959. It was also one of the Horn Book "best books of the year".
Barbara Bottner is an American author and artist who has published over fifty children’s books in all genres, and an award-winning teacher of writing for children. She has written primetime comedy, feature scripts, short stories for national magazines, animated shorts, essays, book reviews and scholarly articles. She contributes short theatrical pieces for the Braid Theater and occasionally spoken word around Los Angeles.
Andy and the Lion, written and illustrated by James Daugherty, is a 1938 picture book published by Puffin Books. Andy and the Lion was a Caldecott Medal Honor Book for 1939 and was Daugherty's first Caldecott Honor Medal of a total of two during his career. Daughetry won another Caldecott Honor in 1957 for Gillespie and the Guards, which he both authored and Illustrated. Andy and the Lion was re-issued by Viking Press in 1967 in hardcover format. It was the fifteenth printing of March 1967. A modern retelling of the Androcles And The Lion common folktale about a young boy who loves to read about lions.
Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat is a 2016 picture book biography by Javaka Steptoe about Jean-Michel Basquiat. Using a style similar to Basquiat's, the book tells the story of his childhood and early career. It won the 2017 Caldecott Medal and Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for its illustrations.
Wolf in the Snow is a 2017 wordless picture book by Matthew Cordell. The book was favorably received by critics and won the 2018 Caldecott Award. The story has drawn comparisons to fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood. The nearly wordless book tells the story of a girl and wolf who each get lost in the snowstorm. Cordell used distinctive illustration techniques for the girl and the wolf.
David Ezra Stein is an American author and illustrator of children's books. He is best known for his Interrupting Chicken series, which was adapted into an animated television show on Apple TV+ in 2022. The first book of the series has been named a Caldecott Medal honor book.
