Kristen's comments (member since Apr 06, 2009)

Kristen's comments from the Mock Caldecott 2010 group.

Margaret wrote: "
I just received this book and it is beautiful. So simple but such a thoughtful treatment of a "counting" book. Unusual and charming.
Zero Is The Leaves On The Tree"

I am requesting it from the library right now.

Out of all the books I have read this year “Moonshot” is one of my favorites. The illustrations and story are very accurate and help teach children about the first men on the moon.

Jerry Pinkneys “The Lion and The Mouse” has beautiful pictures. Even though there is no text, children will easily be able to discern the story.

I have not heard of Shana Corey’s book but I plan on looking it up now that it has made the Caldecott Hopefuls list.

Mermaid Queen The Spectacular True Story Of Annette Kellerman, Who Swam Her Way To Fame, Fortune & Swimsuit History! by Shana Corey, Moonshot The Flight of Apollo 11 by Brian Floca, and The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney are all earning a lot of attention. Do you think they are a future Caldecott?

Howdy all,

I'm sorry that I haven't done much with the group yet but it's a little slow at the start and I have been away this summer. I live in Austin Texas and love beautiful artwork in picture books. While I am a stay at home mom, I dream of someday being an elementary school librarian to pass on my joy of reading.

I am getting so excited for the upcoming Caldecott awards. Picture books are so incredible and fun to share with children. There are so many neat picture books out there. Please feel free to add to the bookshelf when you come across an exceptional book, my only request is that it truly be a Caldecott contender for 2010 by being published this year.

Now that things are really moving I hope we can begin to discuss some of these great stories and illustrations.


My favorite to date is Moonshot The Flight of Apollo 11 by Paul Kupperberg I love how accurate and detailed the drawings are.

Please introduce yourself and let us know what your favorites so far?

Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley

We're All in the Same Boat by Zachary R. Shapiro

Tsunami! by Kimiko Kajikawa

What did you think, is there a future Caldecott here?

These titles were so diverse. They were all great and I thoroughly enjoyed them, but I wonder what the Caldecott committee will think.

Darwin’s story was well illustrated and interesting but I wonder how it will be received by children. Has anyone tested it with small children?


Red sing was not at all what I thought it would be. It was clever and fun look at the seasons and colors.

The Curious Garden was probably my favorite of the three. I liked how the curious garden explored with a little help. Very cute.

It has taken me awhile to report on these titles, I just had a really hard time getting my hands on Red Sings from the Treetops, and I wanted to wait till I had seen them all.

Darwin One Beetle Too Many By Kathryn Lasky

Red Sings from Treetops A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman

The Curious Garden by Pete Brown

What did you guys think? Did you like the illustrations? Which of the three do you think is the best?

I took the next three from Alysons Caldecott hopefuls list. For July's reads.

Chicken Little by Rebecca Emberley

Tsunami! by Ed Young

We're All in the Same Boat by Zachary R. Shapiro

I put the top three from Alyson's list of caldecott Hopefuls as our book of the month, and we can start from there. It looks like a pretty good list.

Darwin One Beetle Too Many by Kathryn Lasky

Red Sings from Treetops A Year in Colors by Joyce Sidman

The Curious Garden by Pete Brown

Alyson wrote: "One book we have all liked that is not on you list is Darwin One Beetle Too Many. The illustrations make you want to be a naturalist too and perfectly capture Darwin's curiosity."

That's a cute one. What did you think about the illustrations? I did add that one back in April, but I see some others on the list there that I don't have. I will have to add them. Maybe we could read the top three on the list for the book of the month.

Now that June is coming let’s start looking at some of the more notable books. We are looking for books, published this year, that are great contenders for the Caldecott.

Because they are picture books I'm thinking we should look at about three a month.

Does anyone have some suggestions?

There were a couple there that I didn't have so I added 'em. Thanks for the link!

Great! I added it to the bookshelves. Thanks for the imput Alyson. :D
Anyway I am going to try and get this from the library, it looks like it has received a lot of attention. Let me know if you find more and feel free to add them to the bookshelves.

If you find a book with exceptional illustrations and a great story let us know so that we can take a look at it too. So what have you found so far that was published in 2009?

The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the most wonderful illustrated children’s book of the year. This year we can follow the picture books that are receiving a lot of attention and choose for ourselves which book we would pick if the decision were up to us. Kid’s books are not difficult to read so it won’t take too much effort, provided the libraries around the country have many of the newly published books, it’s going to be fun.