> The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the American Library Association "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for
children [...] Honor books may be named. These shall be books that are also truly distinguished." The Caldecotts are awarded to an
illustrator of an American picturebook; the ALA gives a sister award, the Newbery, to authors for literary merit.
First edition Caldecott Medal and Honor books are highly collectible and are at the pinnacle of contemporary collectible children's books. Their collectibility is well known and widespread, and the market is not constrained to only children's book specialist. Many generalist booksellers also make trade in first edition Caldecott books. Because of this, the market is highly liquid - first edition Caldecott books are easily sold.
Since the inception of the awards in 1938, the ALA has awarded 74 books with the Caldecott Medal and 232 books with the Caldecott Honor. First edition copies of these 300 some-odd books are pursued by thousands of collectors and booksellers. As you might expect from the high demand, the value 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 Caldecotts only decades old fetch hundreds of dollars, several over a $1,000, and select few are valued over $10,000.
>
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.
Year | Collec tibility | Scar city | Book Title | Illustrator | VG | VG+ | Fine |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1938 | 8 | 6 | Animals Of The Bible | Dorothy P. Lathrop | 1,800 | 2,400 | |
1939 | 7 | 7 | Mei Li | Thomas Handforth | 1,500 | 2,000 | |
1940 | 7 | 7 | Abraham Lincoln | Ingri & Edgar Parin d'Aulaire | 1,650 | 2,200 | |
1941 | 6 | 6 | They Were Strong And Good | Robert Lawson | 675 | 900 | |
1942 | 9 | 9 | Make Way For Ducklings | Robert McCloskey | 16,500 | 22,000 | |
1943 | 8 | 10 | The Little House | Virginia Lee Burton | 11,250 | 15,000 | |
1944 | 7 | 6 | Many Moons | Louis Slobodkin | 1,200 | 1,600 | |
1945 | 6 | 5 | Prayer For A Child | Elizabeth Orton Jones | 390 | 520 | |
1946 | 7 | 6 | The Rooster Crows | Maud & Miska Petersham | 1,050 | 1,400 | |
1947 | 8 | 6 | The Little Island | Leonard Weisgard | 1,950 | 2,600 | |
1948 | 7 | 7 | White Snow Bright Snow | Roger Duvoisin | 1,650 | 2,200 | |
1949 | 7 | 7 | The Big Snow | Berta & Elmer Hader | 1,650 | 2,200 | |
1950 | 7 | 7 | Song Of The Swallows | Leo Politi | 1,650 | 2,200 | |
1951 | 6 | 6 | The Egg Tree | Katherine Milhous | 540 | 720 | |
1952 | 7 | 8 | Finders Keepers | Nicholas Mordvinoff | 1,950 | 2,600 | |
1953 | 7 | 8 | The Biggest Bear | Lynd Ward | 1,800 | 2,400 | |
1954 | 7 | 5 | Madelines Rescue | Ludwig Bemelmans | 555 | 740 | |
1955 | 7 | 7 | Cinderella | Marcia Brown | 1,350 | 1,800 | |
1956 | 7 | 7 | Frog Went A Courtin | Feodor Rojankovsky | 1,050 | 1,400 | |
1957 | 7 | 6 | A Tree Is Nice | Marc Simont | 750 | 1,000 | |
1958 | 6 | 7 | Time Of Wonder | Robert McCloskey | 555 | 740 | |
1959 | 7 | 4 | Chanticleer And The Fox | Barbara Cooney | 315 | 420 | |
1960 | 7 | 6 | Nine Days To Christmas | Marie Hall Ets | 570 | 760 | |
1961 | 6 | 6 | Baboushka And The Three Kings | Nicolas Sidjakov | 405 | 540 | |
1962 | 7 | 6 | Once A Mouse | Marcia Brown | 705 | 940 | |
1963 | 7 | 10 | The Snowy Day | Ezra Jack Keats | 4,500 | 6,000 | |
1964 | 10 | 8 | Where The Wild Things Are | Maurice Sendak | 10,500 | 14,000 | |
1965 | 6 | 6 | May I Bring A Friend | Beni Montresor | 360 | 480 | |
1966 | 7 | 6 | Always Room For One More | Nonny Hogrogian | 630 | 840 | |
1967 | 7 | 6 | Sam, Bangs, And Moonshine | Evaline Ness | 450 | 600 | |
1968 | 7 | 6 | Drummer Hoff | Ed Emberley | 435 | 580 | |
1969 | 7 | 6 | The Fool Of The World And The Flying Ship | Uri Shulevitz | 420 | 560 | |
1970 | 7 | 8 | Sylvester And The Magic Pebble | William Steig | 1,050 | 1,400 | |
1971 | 7 | 10 | A Story, A Story | Gail E. Haley | 3,450 | 4,600 | |
1972 | 7 | 6 | One Fine Day | Nonny Hogrogian | 510 | 680 | |
1973 | 7 | 5 | The Funny Little Woman | Blair Lent | 315 | 420 | |
1974 | 7 | 5 | Duffy And The Devil | Margot Zemach | 300 | 400 | |
1975 | 7 | 7 | Arrow To The Sun | Gerald McDermott | 735 | 980 | |
1976 | 7 | 6 | Why Mosquitoes Buzz In Peoples Ears | Leo & Diane Dillon | 435 | 580 | |
1977 | 7 | 6 | Ashanti To Zulu | Leo & Diane Dillon | 420 | 560 | |
1978 | 7 | 5 | Noahs Ark | Peter Spier | 255 | 340 | |
1979 | 7 | 5 | The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses | Paul Goble | 255 | 340 | |
1980 | 6 | 4 | Ox-Cart Man | Barbara Cooney | 90 | 120 | |
1981 | 9 | 5 | Fables | Arnold Lobel | 705 | 940 | |
1982 | 7 | 4 | Jumanji | Chris Van Allsburg | 135 | 180 | |
1983 | 6 | 4 | Shadow | Marcia Brown | 75 | 100 | |
1984 | 7 | 4 | The Glorious Flight | Alice & Martin Provensen | 128 | 170 | |
1985 | 10 | 4 | Saint George And The Dragon | Trina Schart Hyman | 660 | 880 | |
1986 | 7 | 4 | Polar Express | Chris Van Allsburg | 113 | 150 | |
1987 | 7 | 5 | Hey, Al | Richard Egielski | 165 | 220 | |
1988 | 7 | 6 | Song And Dance Man | Stephen Gammell | 255 | 340 | |
1989 | 7 | 4 | Owl Moon | John Schoenherr | 98 | 130 | |
1990 | 7 | 4 | Lon Po Po | Ed Young | 98 | 130 | |
1991 | 7 | 4 | Black And White | David Macaulay | 90 | 120 | |
1992 | 8 | 4 | Tuesday | David Wiesner | 113 | 150 | |
1993 | 7 | 4 | Mirette On The High Wire | Emily Arnold McCully | 83 | 110 | |
1994 | 7 | 4 | Grandfathers Journey | Allen Say | 75 | 100 | |
1995 | 7 | 5 | Smoky Night | David Diaz | 113 | 150 | |
1996 | 7 | 4 | Officer Buckle And Gloria | Peggy Rathmann | 68 | 90 | |
1997 | 7 | 4 | Golem | David Wisniewski | 60 | 80 | |
1998 | 7 | 4 | Rapunzel | Paul O. Zelinsky | 60 | 80 | |
1999 | 7 | 5 | Snowflake Bentley | Mary Azarian | 83 | 110 | |
2000 | 7 | 4 | Joseph Had A Little Overcoat | Simms Taback | 53 | 70 | |
2001 | 7 | 3 | So You Want To Be President | David Small | 34 | 45 | |
2002 | 7 | 3 | The Three Pigs | David Wiesner | 34 | 45 | |
2003 | 7 | 6 | My Friend Rabbit | Eric Rohmann | 90 | 120 | |
2004 | 7 | 4 | The Man Who Walked Between The Towers | Mordicai Gerstein | 38 | 50 | |
2005 | 7 | 4 | Kittens First Full Moon | Kevin Henkes | 38 | 50 | |
2006 | 7 | 4 | The Hello Goodbye Window | Christopher Raschka | 34 | 45 | |
2007 | 7 | 4 | Flotsam | David Wiesner | 30 | 40 | |
2008 | 7 | 4 | The Invention Of Hugo Cabret | Brian Selznick | 27 | 36 | |
2009 | 7 | 6 | The House In The Night | Beth Krommes | 49 | 65 | |
2010 | 7 | 4 | Lion & The Mouse | Jerry Pinckney | 23 | 30 | |
2011 | 7 | 6 | A Sick Day For Amos McGee | Erin Stead | 38 | 50 | |
2012 | 7 | 6 | A Ball For Daisy | Christopher Raschka | 34 | 45 | |
2013 | 7 | 4 | This Is Not My Hat | Jon Klassen | 17 | 22 |
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.
Children's Picturebook Price Guide includes a list of the 216 books through 2006 which have won a Caldecott Honor award.
© Stan Zielinski
A serious collector having fun with fun books.
© Stan Zielinski. Author of the Children's Picturebook Price Guide
This
work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
In layman's terms, that means you may excerpt, share, and use this material as long as you credit Stan as the author and provide a link back to the specific content page. And do not sell it or use it for commercial purposes.
The information offered on 1stedition.net and the blog is offered free of charge. Any uses, references, and or copies of this website in whole or in part must include the bibliographic citation, including author attribution, article title, date (in the case of blog posts) and link to the URL 1stedition.net. Include the copyright notice.
In no event shall a Creative Commons Attribution License or Stan Zielinski be liable for any damages of any kind arising out of or in connection with the use of the articles on this website. This website is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. Descriptions of, or references to, persons, websites, or businesses does not imply endorsement of that person, website or business.