Illustrator’s artistic skill
Appropriate art style for the story
Pictures help tell the story
Kids like it.
Kids discussed these things with a partner and as a whole group. After hearing all the stories, students voted for the book they thought should win the Caldecott Medal. They picked a book and explained why they thought it should win.
The envelope, please!
Third place was Waiting
Second place was Shark Detective
First place was Finding Winnie.
The following week, we watched a video of the ALA Youth Media Awards (Caldecott is announced around 55 minutes), and the kids were very excited to recognize some of the winners.
Here’s what the kids had to say about Mock Caldecott: