The 2015 Mock Caldecott List

I can understand why most teacher librarians have Mock Caldecott lists of 20 or more. It is hard to pare down the number of books, especially given that our goal is to expose students to literature and literature awards. I don't have enough time to explore that number of books. Given my schedule, what I want to cover about the Caldecott, and the experience I want for the students, I have to narrow the list down to five or six. This year I have a friend and colleague to help!

After a month of deliberating, my friend, and Library Pal, Laura Given (@liblaura5) and I have come up with our top six books. We'll be teaching this unit with each of our third grade classrooms and coming together for Skype visits and voting.  We'll be reviewing Caldecott Criteria, exploring books, and eventually voting following the same procedure of the Caldecott Committee.

So which books will be considering? In alphabetical order, they are:

The Adventures of Beekle: 
The Unimaginary Friend

Written and Illustrated by Dan Santat

Here's a Beekle book trailer 

created by two of my 5th graders.

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Draw!

by Raúl Colón

Interview on TeachingBooks.net

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Josephine 

Written by Patricia Hruby Powell

Illustrated by Christian Robinson

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Sam & Dave Dig a Hole

Written by Mac Barnett

Illustrated by Jon Klassen

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The Right Word

Written by Jen Bryant

Illustrated by Melissa Sweet

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Viva Frida

Written and Illustrated by Yuyi Morales