Fuse 8 n’ Kate: 2022 Caldecott Contenders

Every year I present Kate with three Caldecott contenders. And not to brag, but we’ve had a pretty good track record. I only show her three titles, but in 2021 we discussed We Are Water Protectors which inevitably won an Award and in 2020 we discussed Going Down Home With Daddy, which won an Honor. Will our streak continue when the Awards are announced on January 24th? Or will we do as poorly as we did in 2019? Only time will tell. Now let us all chant together: “Beret That Snake!” “Beret That Snake!” “Beret That Snake!”

Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.

Show Notes:

In case you’re curious, this is what Kate’s looking like these days. From holiday red to she’s-in-Minnesota-freezing-her-butt-off-right-now blue.

How do you create foreshadowing utilizing picture book design? I’d be captivated if any designer were to do a course on the historical use of the black page in picture book storytelling. Though my mind is blank of examples, I’m quite certain I’ve seen variations on this in other books.

Guns in picture books are also worth of an entire book in and of themselves. How they’ve been used in fictional vs. nonfiction children’s literature has changed over a number of decades. From books like Robert the Rose Horse where they appear with little regard to human life to current and contemporary books that look at the past, as with Unspeakable, it’s a fascinating topic.

This is the image that Kate and I feel odd about. We also agree, “It is an impossible book to end.”

I completely missed the Before and After endpapers on the book the first several times I read it. Glad I have Kate’s sharp-eyed spotting to notice what they did.

Our cousin has been given a challenge. She is crafty. She owns a snake. She also assures us that she will “beret that snake” for us.

Fascinating. I’d forgotten that Klassen did Kooser’s House Held Up By Trees. Always interesting what information publishers chose to place on their bookflaps.

Kate’s always a sucker for baby doggo eyes.

Without Kate noticing, I would have missed Victo Ngai’s signature seal on these images.

The overlapping of the hands fools your eye into believing that you are seeing movement on the page. It’s a remarkable move on the artist’s part.

The last time we saw Victo Ngai illustrate a book, it was Chris Barton’s Dazzle Ships.

Be sure to follow the ALA Youth Media Awards here on Monday, January 24th at 8 CST. Link to my Pre-Game Show to come. Stay tuned.

Kate Recommends: HomeChef

Betsy Recommends: 99% Invisible episode Mini-Stories: Volume 13 section on The Jazz Cup (seen below):

Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate, Newbery / Caldecott Predictions