Caldecott Medal Manual by ALA

In 1922, the American Library Association (ALA) approved the creation of the Newberry Medal to honor the most distinguished children's book published the previous year. Recognizing the artists creating picture books were neglected in this category, the Caldecott Medal was created in 1937. The medal was named for Randolph Caldecott, a great english illustrator, who's style can be described as energetic, realistic and humorous.

Members of the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC) nominate members for the Caldecott (and Newberry) committee. Those committee members must be free from conflict of interests, understand confidentiality and be willing to spend time reading books published that meet the criteria. In addition to reading the books, they must also be prepared to write critically and read through various texts what a picture book represents. Not all members of ALSC would have the reviewing skills necessary.

Criteria for the Caldecott Medal

With the criteria, in mind, the committee takes specific note and criticism's of each book read so that when it is time to nominate books the information is readily available to jog memories. Each committee member is asked to submit nominations and it is recommended to do this on a monthly basis.

Once all recommendations have been submitted, the committee will choose the winner. It is optional to award Caldecott Honor Books and these should be a very select group.

The manual is available as a pdf file on the ALA website. Inside is an excellent example of a document used to track what has been read. I am going to adopt this with my future reading. I have seen numerous posts on the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) listserv for ideas on how new graduates could learn how/practice/get paid to write reviews. It is a skill that would be difficult to acquire without having feedback from someone. By the way, the response to the posts is to contact journals, post on a blog, write for the library, etc.