Mock Caldecott Finalists - Batch 1

Each January, the American Library Association awards the Caldecott Medal to the artist of "the most distinguished American picture book for children." Who will win in 2016? Well, first- and second-graders are going to make their pick in library, and we'll see how our choice lines up with the national award. After reading six books so far, the following two titles will be moving on to the final vote:

simonandschuster.com

We Forgot Brock!
Carter Goodrich

Just looking at the cover, several kids were able to figure out that Brock might be an imaginary friend ... which he is. But to Philip, he is as real as can be. So real that he gets left behind at the big fair. Will the two reunite? Almost every single student I read this to voted to keep it on our list. They LOVED it.

Goodrich, a RISD graduate and artist who was the lead character designer for Brave, Ratatouille, and Despicable Me, has a lot of the artwork from this book posted on his web site. Many picture books these days are 32 pages, but this one is 48; most of the pages only have a couple of sentences, while the artwork tells a lot of the story. In fact, this could probably work without any words at all.

bethanybarton.com

I'm Trying to Love Spiders
Bethany Barton

This book was a fun combination of fact and fiction - we learned that spiders are related to ticks and scorpions; that they can eat up to 75 pounds of bugs in a year; and that they liquify their food and slurp it up. We also got to SMASH the spiders that appeared every few pages and freaked out the narrator. (One student was so enthusiastic that the page ripped, but it was easily taped up.)

Ms. Parenteau and Mrs. Breton do a spider unit every year, and this will make a great addition to the stack of books they check out for their classrooms!