It's official! Our library's Caldecott Club has voted for its -- very unofficial -- choice for the 2014 Caldecott Medal, and our winner is "Mr. Wuffles," written and illustrated by David Wiesner. The actual winner of the 2014 Caldecott Medal will be announced on Monday January 27 at the American Library Association's conference in Philadelphia. If the official Caldecott Medal committee agrees with us that "Mr. Wuffles" is the best-illustrated picture book of 2013, then Wiesner will make history as the first person to win four Caldecott Medals. Currently, he is one of only two people (Marcia Brown is the other one) who have won three Caldecott Medals.
How did we choose "Mr. Wuffles" as our unofficial 2014 Caldecott Medal winner? Our Caldecott Club met once a month from October through January and read four picture books each time. At the end of each meeting, we voted for our favorite of those four books. Then, at our January meeting, we took those previous winners, including the January one, and created our finalist list. Then we voted on our top winner. "Mr. Wuffles" got the most votes, so it's our winner. The other three finalists are our unofficial 2014 Caldecott Honor books. They are: "The Day the Crayons Quit," "Little Santa," and "Big Snow."
Our reading list was drawn largely from the Calling Caldecott blog. The children's book experts who run the blog came up with their own list of what they consider to be possible 2014 Caldecott contenders: On your mark, get set, read! - The Horn Book Of course, the actual winner may be a real surprise -- even to experts! Look for the news about the winner on January 27, and then plan to come on Monday February 10 at 7 p.m. to our final Caldecott Club of the season, when we'll read the actual 2014 Caldecott Medal winner and any Caldecott Honor books.