The ALA's Caldecott Winners for 2015

This morning the American Library Association announced their coveted youth media award winners (Caldecott, Newberry, etc) for books for young people. In addition to the Caldecott Award winner, surprisingly, seven other picture books walked away with the Caldecott Honors.

Unfortunately, you probably have never heard of most of these books and if you’ve tried to find them since this morning, you probably haven’t had much luck. Amazon sold out of a few of them within minutes, and my local library had only one of the eight books in circulation (frowney face). Barnes and Noble had three of the eight books on hand, but alas, I bought their only copy of The Adventures of Beekle: An Imaginary Friend. So… they now only have two of them.

The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat – I am so excited for Dan Santat. He has illustrated a couple of our favorite picture books (Ninja Red Riding Hood, Crankenstein) and the illustrations in Beekle are fantastic. The story is about Beekle, an imaginary friend, who doesn’t actually have a friend. Despite dreaming about, hoping and waiting around for an imaginary friend to come for him, he never gets picked. So… he takes matters into his own hands. This is a great story that teaches about going out into the world and finding/working for what will make a person happy, rather than sitting around and waiting for life to happen.

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole by Mac Barnett, Illustrated by Jon Klassen – Jon Klassen (I Want My Hat Back, This is Not My Hat) continues to make quite a name for himself in the world of children’s pictures books. This is the second time that Klassen has teamed up with Mac Barnett. I LOVED their first picture book Extra Yarn, which also won a Caldecott Honor. Sam and Dave Dig A Hole tells the silly story of two boys and a dog who are digging for buried treasure, despite their efforts, they are unable to find any treasure, though readers will no doubt agree with the dog, that Sam and Dave keep barely missing the prize. Very fun.

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales, Illustrated by Tim O’Meara – Ann Cannon’s expert team called this one in the Salt Lake Tribune a few weeks ago. I did not love it. Some of the illustrations I really liked, but a few of them are photographs of what looks like a claymation Frida. I found them a little frightening. I did think the text of the book was beautiful though.

The Right Word: Roget and His Thesaurus by Jen Bryant, Illustrated by Melissa Sweet – This book is about Peter Roget and how he came to publish the first thesaurus. The illustrations in this book are pretty incredible. In addition to the text, young readers can find extra things to look at and learn about in the illustrations.

The Noisy Paint Box: The Colors and Sounds of Kandinsky’s Abstract Art by Rosenstock, Barb (2014) Hardcover by Barb Rosenstock, Illustrated by Mary GrandPre – You may recognize the name of this illustrator… she did all the jacket art for the American editions of the Harry Potter books. The Noisy Paint Box is about the artist Vasily Kandinsky and how he lead the way for the creation of abstract art.

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki, Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. This book is about a girl who goes to a beach house for the summer. I did not like this book at all. Inappropriate content for children. You can see a full review of this book here.