2011 Caldecott Awards Announced!

2011 Medal Winner The American Library Association announced their Youth Awards last week, with the 2011 Caldecott Medal going to Erin Stead for her illustrations in A Sick Day for Amos McGee, written by Philip C. Stead, published by Neal Portor/Macmillan. Published in May, 2010; 32 pages. From the publisher’s website:   ”THE BEST SICK … Read more

A Book Collectors Perspective, Jerry Pinkney

This past Monday at the American Library Association’s mid-winter conference, Jerry Pinkney earned his first Caldecott Medal awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Well deserved, I might add. Pinkney had previously won five Caldecott Honor awards over his forty year career. Winning the Caldecott Medal enhances the … Read more

Newbery, Caldecott Awards Announced Today!

American Library Association Announces Literary Award Winners BOSTON, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Library Association (ALA) today announced the top books, audiobooks and video for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, King, Newbery and Printz awards – at its Midwinter Meeting in Boston. A list of all the 2010 Newbery and Caldecott … Read more

Revisiting Twenty Caldecott Medal Books

Background Similar to a couple of years ago, we recently performed an internet search for the first editions of the first twenty Caldecott Medal books, wondering how many are currently being offered for sale. The searches were performed across multiple book sites, ABE, ABAA, and Bookfinder, and were filtered for first edition books with dust … Read more

Demon Horde of Children’s Books

By nature not an overreactor, but fearing for the lead-free life of my children, their children, and children in near and far locales, including Eastville in southwestern North Dakota, decided to part with my five thousand or so collectible children’s book collection. The value of the collection, the vast majority first editions, some rare, some … Read more

Dr. Seuss and the Beginner Books

Dr. Seuss and the Beginner Books Up until the mid-1950s, there was a degree of separation between illustrated educational books and illustrated picturebooks. That all changed, dramatically and with much national fanfare, with the 1957 publication of Dr. Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat (Random House). Here was an early reader, full of 220 madly … Read more

Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

Franchise Books There are a number of children’s books initially published with modest expectations, which then blossomed into franchisable pop culture phenomena causing million dollar windfalls for their authors and publishers. The Little Engine That Could, Madeline, Cat In The Hat, come quickly to mind. In most instances the first edition book for each franchise … Read more