Picture Book Award: The Caldecott Medal
In the parent world, there is a widely-circulated belief that if a picture book has earned a Caldecott award, one can have confidence that it is a suitable and high-quality book. This demonstrates just how popular Caldecott award-winning children’s books are.
Each year, from the tens of thousands of books published in the United States, one Caldecott Medal and several Caldecott Honor books are handed out by the American Library Association. Whether a book has earned a medal award or honor award, a Caldecott award can be described as ‘one in a million’ and thus it is one of the most popular picture book awards in China. So, we can understand that if a book has a Caldecott medallion on its cover, it has achieved a very high status.
We present to you below several Caldecott Medal Award winning picture books from the past five years, and some of them are in our library collection. We welcome our students to borrow them.
2022: Watercress
This year’s Caldecott Medal went to Watercress, written by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin. The book also won this year’s Newbery Honor Award.
The author, Andrea Wang, is of Chinese American descent. In this autobiographical story, she describes the story of a young girl who digs watercress with her mother while listening to her mother’s stories about living in China, and learns about Chinese traditions. She explained that this story was both an apology to her parents and a love letter. It’s an encouragement to all children who feel like they don’t fit in, and to families who are having a hard time. It is the second Caldecott award for Chen Zhenpan, a Chinese-born illustrator whose Grand Canyon won the Caldecott Award in 2018.
2021:We Are Water Protectors
2020:The Undefeated
2019: Hello Lighthouse
2018:Wolf in the Snow
Past Caldecott award-winning books can be borrowed from our library. We welcome all students to come, review them and borrow them!
Children’s Literature Award :The Newbery Medal
The Newbery Medal was created in 1922 by the Association for Library Service to Children, a branch of the American Library Association, in honor of John Newbery.
The Newbery Medal is awarded annually to outstanding works of children’s English literature published during the previous year. The Newbery Medal is given to one book and a few Honor books every year. Only authors who are US citizens or residents can be considered for the award.
Charlotte’s Web, Frog and Toad, One Million Cats and The Last Stop on Market Street have all earned Newbery Medals. The award just celebrated its 100th birthday this year.
Here are this year’s Newbery award-winning books:
2022 Newbery Medal:The Last Cuentista
2022 Newbery Honor Books:Red, White, and Whole
2022 Newbery Honor Books:A Snake Falls to Earth
We can see from the winners of this year’s Newbery Medal winners the diversity among Newbery award-winning books. The winners included stories from various ethnic groups such as Latinos, Indians, Native Americans, Chinese Americans, and so on. For over a century, Newbery’s goal of discovering outstanding children’s books for children has never changed. But as Kirby McCurtis, President of the American Library Children’s Services Association, said in a Newbery 100th Anniversary interview, “Today’s Newbery is different from the Newbery 100 years ago. Today’s Newbery awards jury is dedicated to discovering broader expressions and stories for today’s children.”
Our library collection also includes many works of previous Newbery Medal recipients as well as books with other international and well-known literary awards. We encourage all students who are curious or interested to come to the library to review them and borrow them.