Read all the Caldecott winners and honor winners to/ with my child

I’ve fallen in love with Ruth Krauss. Her books are perfectly pitched for the 3 year old set and sweet and silly too.

I think the chum may have have been a bit too old for this one, but I loved it. Such a simple story but so heart-breakingly sweet. I think we must read 500 stories about winter and spring but this one was special, that’s for sure.

Another one illustrated by Marc Simont – winner for A Tree Is Nice. I liked this better. Again, it’s done in what I think of as a classic kid’s book style. But such character in the animals as they sleep and then wake. Those snails- so great! And the use of color as the climax is inspired.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 1960s. Illustrations so wildly baroque as to be losing coherence.

So much going on in every picture – layers and layers. Now I like a lot of stuff going on in a picture. I love visual overload, but I didn’t like these much. I didn’t find them engaging or very interesting. Just obscure.

The silly nonsense of the story was a big hit with the chum. Me too, but with better pictures, I think it would have been a bigger joy for both of us. He was reveling in the language – not the illustrations.

Another outstanding book from Gerald McDermott.

The Pueblo-esque art is just stunning. This kind of completely unreal and foreign art works so well for myths. It just makes sense that a unreal and magical story as unreal and magical pictures.

I especially like the pictures that go with the trials in the four Kivas. That Kiva of bees is pretty great.

Genius. Why did I not know this book?

So wonderfully random in the way of a child. So completely joyful and sing-songy and silly! Hooey hooey! I must seek out all of Ruth Kraus’s books now.

Sendak’s drawings totally support the text. The boy is a classic Sendak boy but everything else is just line drawings, as if they were drawn by the boy himself. The extra text in the drawings is great too.

I may have to buy this book.

“They and I are making secrets
and we’re falling over laughing
and we’re running in and out
- and we hooie hooie hooie –
then we think we are some chickens
then we’re singing in the opera then
we’re going going going going ooie ooie ooie.”

Wow, I wish I still had this book now that the Chinese girl obsession is here.

I was prepared for some unfortunate ethnic stuff in this book and was pleasantly surprised that the author clearly understands the culture and has an interest in sharing it with children, rather than poking fun. That being said, the girl/ boy dynamic is pretty heinous. It required some paraphrasing and I’m not raising a girl.

Cute story with a lot of cultural elements pleasantly familiar to anyone who has watched Little Einsteins or the Olympics.

Nice line drawings done with an eye to detail.

I actually could not bring myself to read this to the chum but, as I doubt my opinion of that will change and I looked through it myself, I’m marking it as read.

Bible story text involving animals – actually from the bible, not paraphrased. Way godly.

Very pretty deco/ art nouveau pictures. Actually a whole lot like the way the inside of the Casino in Avalon is painted. Not at all how I would think of bible stories for kids being illustrated, that’s for sure.

Almost worth reading, but not quite. Some of the nursery rhymes here are familiar and some totally aren’t. And some of them are lost for a reason.

We picked 5 rhymes on several different days and called it done.

The art is teal and black drawings in a very illustrative style. Long lines and a lot of detail. One can see why it was worthy of note in ‘38 but from today’s perspective, interesting but not entrancing.

Wow! What amazing drawings.

This is my first encounter with Clare Turlay Newberry and I’m surprised I never knew her before. I mean, she specializes in cats! I was quite mad for cats as a child since I couldn’t have one so I read a lot of cat books.

Anyway, I believe she’s got 4 more books on this list and I’m really looking forward to finding them. The story is a cute but a bit long for the chum (it includes poems!). A classic story of two animals who don’t get along and then learn to cohabitate – made slightly more adorable my being true.

But what art! Black and white with red touches. They reminded me right off of calligraphic drawings ( I know that’s the wrong term). So expressive and just beautiful.

It’s cute, right? Not my personal favorite of Fleming’s books (that would be Mama Cat Has Three Kittens) but a good toddler age book. Simple text, easy concepts and all.

I see this is the one of the first of her books, so I guess the award was for her strange blocky illustrative style – which hasn’t ever really changed so I guess that’s why just the one award. The shapes are quite simple yet there’s a depth to them.

The book says she made them by ”..pouring colored cotton through hand-cut stencils.” I can’t visualize what that means really but sounds involved and creative..

A favorite. I love the arc of the story and how true it all feels. It’s a period story that doesn’t tell you so. And it’s artsy and hip without being cute or dated.

I love the crazy mixture of textures and the way people are drawn realistically on one page and expressionistically or just as silhouettes on the next. And it all makes sense and helps tell the story.

Just love it.