Staff Favorite Caldecott Medal Winners

The Randolph Caldecott Medal is “awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children published in the United States.” Here are my favorite winning titles!

1942: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Mr. and Mrs. Mallard proudly return to their home in the Boston Public Garden with their eight offspring.

1943: The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
A country house is unhappy when the city, with all its buildings and traffic, grows up around her.

1955: Cinderella, or the Little Glass Slipper, illustrated by Marcia Brown; text: translated from Charles Perrault by Marcia Brown
Brown’s illustrated translation of Perrault’s tale in which Cinderella leaves behind a glass slipper in her haste to flee the palace before the fairy godmother’s magic loses effect won the 1955 Caldecott medal.

1963: The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
The adventures of a little boy in the city on a very snowy day.

1964: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
A naughty little boy, sent to bed without his supper, sails to the land of the wild things where he becomes their king.

1980: Ox-Cart Man, illustrated by Barbara Cooney; text: Donald Hall
Describes the day-to-day life throughout the changing seasons of an early 19th-century New England family.

1986: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
A magical train ride on Christmas Eve takes a boy to the North Pole to receive a special gift from Santa Claus.

1998: Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky
A retelling of a folktale in which a beautiful girl with long golden hair is kept imprisoned in a lonely tower by a sorceress. Includes a note on the origins of the story.

2005: Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
When Kitten mistakes the full moon for a bowl of milk, she ends up tired, wet, and hungry trying to reach it.

2009:  The House in the Night, illustrated by Beth Krommes, written by Susan Marie Swanson
Illustrations and easy-to-read text explore the light that makes a house in the night a home filled with light.

2011: A Sick Day for Amos McGee, illustrated by Erin E. Stead, written by Philip C. Stead
Amos McGee, a friendly zookeeper, always made time to visit his good friends: the elephant, the tortoise, the penguin, the rhinoceros, and the owl. But one day–‘Ah-choo!’–he woke with the sniffles and the sneezes. Though he didn’t make it into the zoo that day, he did receive some unexpected guests.

2013: This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen
A tiny minnow wearing a pale blue bowler hat has a thing or two up his fins in this underwater light-on-dark chase scene.

-Ms. Wendy