Credit for images above and below: goodreads.com

This month of January I got to attend a mock Caldecott Award voting event at my public library. I did this last year as well. It’s something I look forward to, in order to brighten up my January. It’s also something else to make January my month to focus on reading and books, when it’s natural to stay indoors, cozy up, and read! I’m already on track to have read on average one book a week, in 2025. That’s chapter books for adults. I don’t count the picture books I read aloud in Morning Basket time.

I just love picture books, so that’s why I love going to this mock Caldecott Award night. At the event, one of the children’s librarians explained to us the process of how the Caldecott Award committee decides the winner. The Caldecott Award is given every year to a children’s picture book published in the U.S. in the previous year, in English, that shows the most distinguished illustrations using excellence in art. What she emphasized over and over was that when committee members talk about the books, to in order to decide who will win, they have to explain why the book they are voting for has illustrations that are “distinguished.”

Here are the exact terms over here. The books I have pictured here on this blog post are some of the ones I saw that night.

So, for this mock Caldecott award night, we pretended to be the committee. We were shown about 24 books that were among the likely nominations. We got a minute or two to flip through each book. Then we discussed the books. Then we voted on our top three choices. Then the librarians tallied our votes. The number of votes for each book was then announced.

Then those books that get fewer votes got knocked off the list. We then discussed our choices and voted again on the narrowed down list. It was interesting to hear people’s opinions. Then we voted two more times, narrowing down the list each time.

My top three picks were:

1. Home in a Lunchbox

2. The Yellow Bus

3. Life After Whale

This year, my top pick was also the top pick of the group.

Here’s the book that really won, announced last weekend at the ALA ceremony in Phoenix.

Chooch Helped by Andrea L. Rogers, illustrated by Rebecca Lee Kunz

Then the runner-ups, the Caldecott Honor books for 2025 are:

Home in a Lunchbox illustrated and written by Cherry Mo

My Daddy Is a Cowboy illustrated by C.G. Esperanza, written by Stephanie Seales

Noodles on a Bicycle illustrated by Gracey Zhang, written by Kyo Maclear

Up, Up, Ever Up! Junko Tabei: A Life in the Mountains illustrated by Yuko Shimizu, written by Anita Yasuda

I’m sad that my top pick didn’t win, but happy that at least it got the Caldecott Honor level. It’s wonderful that we have so many fun picture books that come out every year on such a variety of topics! Now to start putting these books on hold at my public library so I can enjoy every single one! If you want to see a huge list of the 2025 nominees, and past year’s winners and contenders, go here. I look forward to all this picture book reading and sharing of these new books and hope you do too! Remember, picture books aren’t just for children!

If you want to read books according to the seasons and holidays, all year round, go here.