Caldecott Challenge Is On!

After much thought, I have decided to read the Caldecotts and Honor Books in the order that makes sense for me on any given day (very technical of me I know!)  Today, I wanted to begin, so I chose books I thought my kiddos could sit through at story time before bed. Many of the books I have right now had a lot of text in them (if you are a parent trying to get your kids to bed--this is sometime not the best mix). 

I frequently test read-a-loud books out on my own kids, so they were excited to hear about the Caldecott Challenge and help me out.  We dug out all of our "medal" books and went though the bag that Laura brought over today.  We finally decided on The Big Snow and Madeline to read together.

My favorite illustration in the book--and me and the kids reading:

The Big Snow by Berta and Elmer Hader won the award in 1949. My daughter F. made it through the entire story.  O. was rolling around on the floor midway through.  The pictures are delightful--the text got a bit long--although F. said she enjoyed it. I wonder if the book is better if read silently? F.did ask me if it was fiction or non-fiction so we got to have a good conversation about realistic fiction.

 Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans the Honor book for 1940 was a book I remember enjoying as a child.  As seen in the photos, it was a much bigger hit.  Here is F. "rereading" the story to her younger brother.  The rhyme helped the story move along.  She did ask me what it meant to "Pooh pooh" someone as Madeline did to the tiger, which made me laugh--I guess that isn't a term used too often anymore.

 F's favorite illustrations from Madeline: