The winners of the annual Caldecott award have been announced! Receiving top honors this year, the winning picture book is The Invention of Hugo Cabret written and illustrated by Brian Selznick.  Honorable mentions were awarded to: Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story From the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine and illustrated by Kadir Nelson,  First the Egg written and illustrated by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain  by Peter Sis, and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems.

In honor of this award, SERLS once held it’s ”Mock Caldecott Election” on January 3rd, in which participants learned about the criteria used by the Caldecott award committee and used this criteria to choose their own winners.

 This year, our Mock Caldecott Election was led by Linda Tiffany, Youth Services Librarian from the Columbus Metropolitan Library. After much lively debate, our workshop participants cashed in their poker chips literally, with a blue chip signifying first choice, red as second and white as third. The fact that the SERLS’ winners differed from the “official” winners just goes to show that 2007 was an exceptional year for children’s picture books!

Llama Llama Mad at Mama, written and illustrated by Anna Dewdney, was chosen as the SERLS’ winner. The books that received honorable mentions were:

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice Herrington, illustrated  by Shelley Jackson.

Little Night written and illustrated by Yuyi Morales

The Perfect Nest by Catherine Friend, illustrated by John Manders