A tried and true method to collecting illustrated children’s picturebooks is to collect first edition Caldecott Medal and Caldecott Honor award books.

For years, even prior to the internet, booksellers were well aware of the collectibility of Caldecott award books. Subsequently, many booksellers carry Caldecott books in their inventory, even those booksellers who normally don’t specialize in children’s books. As a result, of course in large part due to the credibility of the award, collecting first edition Caldecott books has a rich history and a fairly wide collecting audience.

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The American Library Association has awarded 70 books with the Caldecott Medal and 219 books with the Caldecott Honor, since the inception of the awards in 1938. First edition copies of these 289 books are pursued by thousands of collectors and booksellers, so, as you might expect from this high demand, the price for these books can be quite high.

It is not unusual for the first edition of a very recent Caldecott Medal book to bring 100% to 200% above the publisher’s retail price, even a book printed in the last 2—3 years! First editions of older Caldecott books fetch easily into the hundreds of dollars, and a select few are valued at over $1,000!

Values for First Edition Caldecott Medal Books

The following table is an excerpt from the Children's Picturebook Price Guide. The estimated values are for first edition copies, with dust jackets. The Children’s Picturebook Price Guide explains in understandable terms the methods to correctly identify most of the first edition Caldecott Medal books.

Illustrator's names are linked to searches for their books on eBay.

Titles are linked to the book's first edition identification points. We intend to document identification points for all Caldecott Medal first edition books, at the rate of one or two books per week. To see first edition points for other key children's books go to First Edition Identification.

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Caldecott Medal Winners 1938-2006
Year	Title	Illustrator	VG-	VG	VG+	Fine
1938	Animals Of The Bible	Dorothy P. Lathrop	$960	$1,200	$1,600
1939	Mei Li	Thomas Handforth	$960	$1,200	$1,600
1940	Abraham Lincoln	Ingri & Edgar d’Aulaire	$960	$1,200	$1,600
1941	They Were Strong and Good	Robert Lawson	$560	$740	$920
1942	Make Way For Ducklings	Robert McCloskey	$6,200	$8,200	$10,200
1943	The Little House	Virginia Lee Burton	$6,200	$8,200	$10,200
1944	Many Moons	Louis Slobodkin	$460	$620	$780
1945	Prayer For A Child	Elizabeth Orton Jones	$220	$280	$360
1946	The Rooster Crows	Maud & Miska Petersham	$440	$600	$740
1947	The Little Island	Leonard Weisgard	$300	$400	$500
1948	White Snow, Bright Snow	Roger Duvoisin	$280	$380	$480
1949	The Big Snow	Berta & Elmer Hader	$440	$580	$720
1950	Song Of The Swallows	Leo Politi	$280	$360	$460
1951	The Egg Tree	Katherine Milhous	$320	$440	$540
1952	Finders Keepers	Nicholas Mordvinoff	$260	$360	$440
1953	The Biggest Bear	Lynd Ward	$600	$800	$1,000
1954	Madeline's Rescue	Ludwig Bemelmans	$580	$780	$980
1955	Cinderella, Or The Little Glass Slipper	Marcia Brown	$580	$760	$960
1956	Frog Went A-Courtin	Feodor Rojankovsky	$480	$640	$800
1957	Time Of Wonder	Robert McCloskey	$540	$720	$900
1958	A Tree Is Nice	Marc Simont	$240	$320	$400
1959	Chanticleer And The Fox	Barbara Cooney	$360	$480	$600
1960	Nine Days To Christmas	Marie Hall Ets	$220	$300	$380
1961	Baboushka And The Three Kings	Nicolas Sidjakov	$160	$200	$260
1962	Once A Mouse	Marcia Brown	$320	$420	$520
1963	The Snowy Day	Ezra Jack Keats	$220	$280	$360
1964	Where The Wild Things Are	Maurice Sendak	$6,200	$8,200	$10,200
1965	May I Bring A Friend?	Beni Montresor	$200	$280	$340
1966	Always Room For One More	Nonny Hogrogian	$200	$280	$340
1967	Sam, Bangs, And Moonshine	Evaline Ness	$300	$400	$500
1968	Drummer Hoff	Ed Emberley	$220	$300	$380
1969	The Fool Of The World And The Flying Ship	Uri Shulevitz	$200	$260	$320
1970	Sylvester And The Magic Pebble	William Steig	$280	$360	$460
1971	A Story, A Story	Gail E. Haley		$180	$260	$340
1972	One Fine Day	Nonny Hogrogian		$180	$260	$340
1973	The Funny Little Woman	Blair Lent		$220	$320	$420
1974	Duffy And The Devil	Margot Zemach		$160	$240	$320
1975	Arrow To The Sun	Gerald McDermott		$220	$320	$420
1976	Why Mosquitoes Buzz In People’s Ears	Leo & Diane Dillon		$200	$280	$380
1977	Ashanti To Zulu: African Traditions	Leo & Diane Dillon		$140	$220	$300
1978	Noah’s Ark	Peter Spier		$180	$280	$360
1979	The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses	Paul Goble		$180	$260	$340
1980	Ox-Cart Man	Barbara Cooney		$180	$260	$340
1981	Fables	Arnold Lobel		$100	$160	$200
1982	Jumanji	Chris Van Allsburg		$300	$480	$600
1983	Shadow	Marcia Brown		$120	$180	$240
1984	The Glorious Flight	Alice & Martin Provensen		$120	$180	$240
1985	Saint George And The Dragon	Trina Schart Hyman		$160	$220	$300
1986	Polar Express	Chris Van Allsburg		$320	$500	$640
1987	Hey, Al	Richard Egielski		$80	$120	$160
1988	Song And Dance Man	Stephen Gammell		$120	$180	$240
1989	Owl Moon	John Schoenherr		$160	$220	$300
1990	Lon Po Po	Ed Young		$90	$120	$180
1991	Black And White	David Macaulay		$60	$80	$120
1992	Tuesday	David Wiesner		$100	$140	$200
1993	Mirette On The High Wire	Emily Arnold McCully		$70	$100	$140
1994	Grandfather's Journey	Allen Say		$70	$100	$140
1995	Smoky Nights	David Diaz		$60	$90	$120
1996	Officer Buckle and Gloria	Peggy Rathmann		$60	$80	$120
1997	Golem	David Wisniewski		$40	$60	$80
1998	Rapunzel	Paul O. Zelinsky		$50	$70	$100
1999	Snowflake Bentley	Mary Azarian		$80	$120	$160
2000	Joseph Had A Little Overcoat	Simms Taback		$40	$60	$80
2001	So You Want To Be President?	David Small		$40	$60	$90
2002	The Three Pigs	David Wiesner		$35	$50	$70
2003	My Friend Rabbit	Eric Rohmann		$40	$60	$90
2004	The Man Who Walked Between The Towers	Mordicai Gerstein		$35	$50	$70
2005	Kitten’s First Full Moon	Kevin Henkes		$25	$40	$50
2006	The Hello, Goodbye Window	Christopher Raschka		$25	$40	$50
2007	Flotsam	David Wiesner		$25	$40	$50

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Of the books published in the past twenty years, Song And Dance Man, Owl Moon, Snowflake Bentley, and My Friend Rabbit are slightly harder to find in first edition format then their peer group. Each of these books was under printed in their first print run, and subsequently went into multiple printings after the book and illustrator were awarded the Caldecott Medal.

Values for First Edition Caldecott Honor Books

Children's Picturebook Price Guide includes a list of the 216 books through 2006 which have won a Caldecott Honor award.

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Linda and Stan Zielinski are "serious collectors having fun with fun books." They have collected children’s picturebooks for over fifteen years, and spent six years combing bookstores, libraries, and the internet acquiring data for the Children's Picturebook Price Guide.

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