For the past week my students have been busy dissecting, discussing, and loving picture books as we tried to select the one winner and three honors books for the 2017 Caldecott. This is the second year I have done this exploration with 7th graders and as one student told me, “This is one of my favorite units” and I agree. Picture books allow all of my students to access tough issues, complex ideas, and also to gain a new appreciation for this artform. They are a constant companion of what we do in our classroom and in our reading journey. They form the ties of our community. Delving into these books have allowed my students to think deeply about their own opinions and also worked on their debating skills. While our exploration was short, I used some ideas from Jes Lifshitz’s longer Caldecott unit and then meshed my own ideas with it. To see her post go here.
I asked each class to come up with one winner and three honors books. Here are our choices:
1st Hour
Honor: Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campory and Theresa Howell, ilustrated by Rafael Lopez
Honor: They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel
Honor: Samson in the Snow by Philip C. Stead
Winner: The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers
3rd Hour
Honor: Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Honor:
Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campory and Theresa Howell, ilustrated by Rafael Lopez
Winner: A tie between
The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers
And
They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel
5th Hour
Honor:
Radiant Child by Javaka Steptoe
Honor:
They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel
Honor:
Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campory and Theresa Howell, ilustrated by Rafael Lopez
Winner:
The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers
6th Hour
Honor:
They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel
Honor:
Honor:
Before Morning by Joyce Sidman illustrated Beth Krommes
Winner:
The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers
7th Hour
Honor:
The Night Gardener by The Fan Brothers
Honor:
Thunder Boy Jr. by Sherman Alexie and illustrated by Yuyi Morales
Honor:
Before Morning by Joyce Sidman illustrated Beth Krommes
Winner:
They All Saw A Cat by Brendan Wenzel
Now we wait until January 23rd to see how right or wrong we were
Pernille Ripp 
There is a lot of commonality in their choices. I’m curious about your process. How do they get narrowed down and chosen? We choose are winner next week. I have a younger group (grade 5) and we will narrow it down to 8 on Monday and then down to 4 on Thursday. Friday we choose a winner and the remaining 3 are honour books. The students love this unit. I love listening to their reasoning and critical thinking. Students who rarely weigh in on reading discussions tend to speak and make sure their choices are heard during this unit. I love the discussions and engagement. We spend 3 weeks on this unit and I would wager that it is one of our richest inquiries. This year we are adding a persuasive writing element, and writing to our Learning Commons coordinator. Our letters will ask her to add a personal fave title to our school collection. Winner or not the students are requesting a book be added to the library. We have designed a commemorative book plaque to be placed in the chosen books. I can’t wait to see what they pick as the winner. Last year my grade 7s choose “Finding Winnie” as their winner and were thrilled when the ALA agreed.
How do you purchase all of these books or are they already in your school library? Thanks
We do not have picture books in our library so I have purchased most of these myself. A colleague did this and used library books from the public library
Thanks for your quick reply!
Help! I would love to do this unit with my 5/6’s this year. I would love to start tracking down the books but I am a bit unfamiliar with the Caldecott process. How do you know which books are nominees? Thanks!
You don’t, which is what makes it so much fun. I keep a list in my own heads and then also see what other blogs are saying have Caldecott potential.
Oh, tricky! Thanks for sharing your list!