Both the Caldecott Medal Committee and the Schechter students in the Lower School voted, Finding Winnie: the true story of the world's most famous bear, as this year's Caldecott Gold Medal winner. Children said, "It is adventchitive." "It was two stories put together and the words matched the pictures." "It fitted perfectly." "You could feel Winnie's soft fur." "I was not in the library anymore but somewhere else."
     When I asked the children what they thought about the whole school Caldecott Medal unit their responses were:
  "It's fun to put your Caldecott glasses on.
  You get to compare books.
  It's fun to vote like you're a real librarian.
  You're free to make decisions and express your feelings         about a book.
  You see a variety of books and illustrations. They are all        cool in a way."

​I hope you get to read them too!

Our third book of our whole Lower School Caldecott Unit was Last Stop on Market Street,  written by Matt de la Pena and illustrated by Christian Robinson. We follow CJ as he reluctantly goes with his Nana onto a bus to an unknown location. The students are asked to look at all the details on the front cover of the book but they are in for a surprise when they see both the front and back together. There is a fire breathing dragon on the bus. Is it an advertisement on the side of the bus or is it a dragon in the baggage compartment ready to come on board? These are the things that our children see when they put on their Caldecott glasses.

CJ feels bored and trapped on the bus but his Nana is able to see possibilities where he sees none and beauty where he sees dirt. In the next to last page we discover that CJ and Nana have gone to volunteer at the local Soup Kitchen. This illustration prompted discussions on homelessness and the mitzvah of bringing in food to our school that is then donated to food pantries.
To get a glimpse at this ride through the city look at this link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-m6mIZY8aI 

Our last book, Finding Winnie,  by Lindsay Mattick and illustrated by Sophie Blackall was the True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear. It was difficult having to read it in two separate installments because it was very easy to fall in love with the bear, Winnie, (short for Winnipeg, Canada), his owner Harry Colebourne, and the boy Cole who is listening to a bedtime story and it was very hard to leave them in the middle. The children were immediately held captive when they saw Cole in his bed surrounded by a forest full of trees. By listening to the words and focusing on the pictures they were able to realize that the trees were not wallpaper or a wall painting but indeed Cole's imagination taking flight as he listened to his Mom's story. When I told the children that I didn't know why the illustrator chose to use yellow and white diamonds for the background of the cover I was so excited when they were able to tell me that it was because it was also used for Cole's blanket. I knew then and there that the children of the Lower School had really put on their Caldecott lenses and were seeing so many details throughout the books.

Look at the wonder in the children's eyes as they listen to the author explain why she wrote this book. Follow along with them at this link,
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5crtUwQl9Y  

In my next blog entry I will share the results of our voting.