Recommended for Seekers of Caldecott Winners

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen

 

Admittedly I was not a big fan of I Want My Hat Back - mostly because it took me forever to accept that the creature looking for his hat was, in fact, a bear. I kept thinking it was a groundhog, and every one of my co-workers either guessed the same or guessed anything but bear. that aside,this time the little fish is the one with the hat - although he fully acknowledges that it is indeed not his. So what's a little hat-stealing fish to do? Hide. Hide ilke there's no tomorrow. Of course, the owner of the hat isn't about to give up easily, and those of us who've read I Want My Hat Back have some idea of what might happen to that fishy in the end...

This book was also the winner of the 2013 Caldecott Award, so congrats to Mr. Klassen and his obsession with animals, hats, and animals that steal hats.

Notes from the playlist: "Bangarang" by Skrillex

Recommended for Caldecott Award Readers

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears by Vera Aardema

This is another book that I'm sort of surprised took me so long to recommend. I remember this book from when I was a kid - and now I'm 27! It's pretty impressive when a book can stay with you for that long. Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears is a tale of exactly that. It's a West African tale explaining why mosquitoes do that annoying buzzing in your ear. It all starts off with a story the mosquito tries to tell the iguana and sets off a chain reaction of events that ends with Mother Owl refusing to wake up the sun. It will take King Lion to sort all this out. I think these tales are fun (I'm also a fan of the story of how the zebra got his stripes) and kids will like the bright colors of the illustrations, which is exactly what helped it land the Caldecott award in 1976. Probably not a story kids have heard before - so why not try something different?


Notes from the playlist: "Tourniquet" by Evanescence

Recommended for Kids

Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

There's a reason this book won a Caldecott Medal. Simply put; it's good. Hah! I remember this book from when I was just a little girl. I'm 26 now, and I still love it. Who doesn't love ducks? Ducks marching around through the city, all in a row, with policemen making sure that the ducks stay safe all the way to the cozy little lake on the other side of town. It's so simple and yet so memorable. The little ducks are perfectly illustrated, fuzzy with down and little webbed feet walking. The kind of book that kids will enjoy and love to look at later on. My sister and I actually drew in this book - but not a lot. There was just one little duckling that always seemed to be looking at something...so we added in a tiny fly for him to get distracted with. In my mind it was a fine addition to the book. :)


Notes from the playlist: "Flowers Only Grow Where There Are Seeds" by Anne Dudley