Thursday, January 21, 2016

Caldecott and Newbery Award Winners for 2016

For the month of January, I have been sharing with all grade levels the Caldecott and Newbery Award books. In grades K-2, we have read Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes (Caldecott winner in 2005), The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend by Dan Santat (Caldecott Winner in 2015) and This is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (Caldecott winner in 2013). So far students have really enjoyed listening to these titles and afterwards, they go searching for the Caldecott books in the media center to check out.

For grades 3-5, I have been sharing Newbery Award books with these students. I have many Newbery  favorites, but my favorite Newbery award book is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor. I was so excited that the cover was redone by children's book illustrator Kadir Nelson for the 40th anniversary edition. I haven't read it in a while, but I think I will so I can share this awesome book with my students.

I was so surprised that the picture book, Last Stop on Market Street, was selected to win the 2016 Newbery Award. Usually picture books aren't selected for this prestigious award. I purchased the book at my fall Scholastic Book Fair because of it being one of books nominated for the North Carolina Children's Book Award. I was so excited that I purchased a book before it won. I never have done that before. Finding Winnie by Lindsay Maltick, illustrated by Sophie Blackall won the 2016 Caldecott Award.