LET'S HEAR IT FOR JON KLASSEN!!

Next is the Caldecott, celebrating its 75th year of awarding illustrators for their creativity.  This was my happy place because Jon Klassen won for "This Is Not My Hat".  If you have not read Klassen's books, please do so at the first opportunity.  They are delightful!  We all know it is wrong to take things that don't belong to us but the way Jon shows us that truth is far from didactic or preachy.  There were five honor books this year! (It's OK - they were celebrating their 75th birthday after all.)  "Creepy Carrots" illustrated by Peter Brown -a bunny is taking carrots that don't belong to him - see what the carrots do!; "Extra Yarn" illustrated by (guess who!) Jon Klassen! - a young girl spreads joy everywhere by knitting from a box of yarn that never runs out until an evil Archduke steals it from her; "Green" by Laura Vaccaro Seeger which pays homage to the color green - this one can be read over and over again; lots of new things to discover!  I have not personally read the last two -  "One Cool Friend" illustrated by David Small and "Sleep Like A Tiger" by Pamela Zagarenski so I will have to wait to talk about them. 

  Have you read any of these books?  What did you think of the awards?  Happy, sad, mad?  There are always other books out there that you would like to see win - but I was happy with this year's results.  It's rare that I have read so many - I don't know if that's because I made a concerted effort to read more of the books that had a bit of buzz surrounding them or if I was just "three times lucky" in my book choices this year.  I'm happy to tell you more about a specific title if you like - I just don't have the space to do it here. My first draft for my imaginary database has been submitted.  I am creating a database of award-winning children's books.  Based on an imaginary assignment at imaginary elementary schools.... but fortunately using REAL books!