Nic Bishop Frogs

by Nic Bishop

A companion to his book on spiders, Frogs is full of photographs that are startling in their clarity. Can a non-fiction photographic book take home the Caldecott? Why not?

How I Learned Geography

by Uri Shulevitz

Uri Shulevitz' name is all over the Caldecott records! Will this book add to his list?

Displaced by war from Poland to Turkestan (now Kazakhstan), Uri's family endured poverty and hunger. One day his father brought home from the market not bread, but a world map! Initially frustrated, Uri came to appreciate how the map and his imagination sustained him during those difficult times.

The art in this book is a little mutable--it contains both simple sketches with muted colors and colorful collage, small contained panels and two-page spreads. The author's note includes the only surviving photo of the author at that age, a mpa he drew as a child, and a sketch he drew as a teen.

The Little Yellow Leaf

by Carin Berger

Very tender illustrations with clever use of paper as a medium. It's one of those books that you read and then re-read right away. I really love it and plan to use it in my story times (if I can get through it without choking up)!

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Old Bear

by Kevin Henkes

Old Bear is classic Henkes (in his "Good Day" and "Kitten" style) and this gentle, simple story of a bear who dreams the winter away is expanded by the changing palette. Each season he dreams of has its own 2-page spread, with pastels for spring, greens and blues for summer, reds and oranges for fall, and blues and whites for winter.

I'm Bad!

by Kate & Jim McMullan.

Who's bad? A T-rex!

Cartoony--and I mean that in a good way: these pictures are on the move, with sound effects. (Whoosh! Boing! Stomp stomp stomp!) Plus there's a fold-up spread that gives a new perspective on the main character AND on the "size" theme of the book.

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My Friend, the Starfinder

by George Ella Lyon

Didn't you have this one on your table at the YSIG meeting? What a nice story! I love Gammell's people--so full of life that they kind of spill out of their space.

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A Kitten Tale

By Eric Rohmann

Again, I'm behind on my reading, but I loved Rabbit, so why wouldn't I love this one, too? Am I making this list harder to narrow down? I like Rohmann's distinct, child-like pictures and the way they depict mood.

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Keep Your Eye on the Kid

by Catherine Brighton

I haven't seen this one, just ran across an older SLJ blurb where it was mentioned, so here's part of the Kirkus review:
"In a short first-person account illustrated with precisely detailed period scenes, Brighton traces Keaton’s childhood in vaudeville and his introduction to the then-nascent art of filmmaking. Even while depicting a speeding locomotive demolishing a house and other renowned movie moments, her art has a formal air that perfectly echoes her central figure’s distracted, expressionless demeanor. "

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Hello, Day!

by Anita Lobel
A picture book for the youngest listeners, Hello, Day shows farm animals greeting the morning: "The sun rose. Good morning. The Rooster said, "Cock-a-doodle-do!" Each of Lobel's full color pictures shows a large image of the animal, but the art is anything but simple. Lobel uses a combination of markers, pencil, colored pencil, watercolor, and gouache, and the resulting pictures are rich, vibrant, and layered.

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Silent Music

by James Rumford

Silent Music: A Story of Baghdad is narrated by Ali, a boy who "loves soccer and loud music" but most of all he loves calligraphy. His musings on his struggles to improve at such a beautiful art during a time of threat and war are illustrated by pencil and charcoal, enhanced with digital collage work, with Arabic script on every page.

Get the book (or come see the book on my desk for the next week or so).

Wonder Bear

by Tao Nyeu

I haven't read this one yet but a friend mentioned it and from what I can tell from Tao Nyeu's website it looks amazing.

Place your hold here

Frankenstein Takes the Cake

by Adam Rex

This might not be Adam's year for the Caldecott. However, he is so funny and so talented, I wanted to include this. Plus 'tis the season for a Frankenstein book! Get it here. The rest of the "title" reads : Which is Full of Funny Stuff Like Rotting Heads and Giant Gorillas and Zombies Dressed as Little Girls and Edgar Allen Poe. The Book We Mean - Not the Cake.

If this sounds good, you'll love his 2006 offering Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich and Other Stories You're Sure to Like Because They're All About Monsters and Some of Them Are Also About Food. You Like Food Don't You? Well, All Right Then. You can get that one here You might also want to check out Adam Rex's website just for fun!

We Are the Ship

by Kadir Nelson

You gotta see this one! Kadir Nelson is the illustrator last year's Caldecott Honor and CSKing Illustrator Award for Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom. This year he presents We Are the Ship: The Story of the Negro Baseball League. It's getting serious Caldecott buzz (plus Newbery buzz as well: Nelson is the author, too).

Each chapter has several full color, two page oil paintings. Many are painted from old photographs at the National Baseball Hall of Fame or the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, but the life Nelson brings to the subjects is breathtaking. Check out the way he uses light, or the way he makes each ballplayer's face individual and unique even in the large group pictures.

We just put it on order, so get your hold in!

Twenty Heartbeats

by Dennis Hasely; illustrated by Ed Young

Ed Young has a Caldecott Medal for Lon Po Po (and two Honors for other books besides)--now he's produced more beautiful mixed-media collage artwork for Twenty Heartbeats.

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