And the 2017 Suffolk Libraries Mock Caldecott Winner Is...

Today was a big day for beautiful books at SCLS, as 27 librarians convened to choose a Caldecott champion out of 15 deserving contenders. Our starting list was as follows:

• The Airport Book, written and illustrated by Lisa Brown
• Are We There Yet? written and illustrated by Dan Santat
• City Shapes, written by Diane Murray and illustrated by Brian Collier
• Flora and the Peacocks, illustrated by Molly Idle
• Freedom in Congo Square, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by R. Gregory Christie
• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn, written and illustrated by Kenard Pak
• Jazz Day, written by Roxanne Orgill and illustrated by Frances Vallejo
• Maybe Something Beautiful, written by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
• Return, illustrated by Aaron Becker
• School's First Day of School, written by Adam Rex and illustrated by Christian Robinson
• The Sound of Silence, written by Katrina Goldsaito and illustrated by Julia Kuo
• There is a Tribe of Kids, written and illustrated by Lane Smith
• They All Saw a Cat, by Brendan Wenzel
• Thunder Boy, Jr., written by Sherman Alexei and illustrated by Yuyi Morales
• The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles, written by Michelle Cuevas and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. 

Our books were chosen through an open recommendation process. In addition to the Caldecott terms, our only requirement was that there had to be at least 20 copies held in the county, which did rule out some current strong contenders buzzing around the kidlitosphere.

Derek introduces The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles

We started the day with a series of presentations from willing volunteers who refreshed everyone's memories on the titles with brief introductions. We then held a lightning round of voting that knocked the field of contenders from 15 down to the following eight:

• Flora and the Peacocks, illustrated by Molly Idle
• Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn, written and illustrated by Kenard Pak
• Jazz Day, written by Roxanne Orgill and illustrated by Frances Vallejo
• Maybe Something Beautiful, written by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell, illustrated by Rafael Lopez
• The Sound of Silence, written by Katrina Goldsaito and illustrated by Julia Kuo
• They All Saw a Cat, by Brendan Wenzel
• Thunder Boy, Jr., written by Sherman Alexei and illustrated by Yuyi Morales
• The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles, written by Michelle Cuevas and illustrated by Erin E. Stead. 

Attendees then broke down into groups and had an hour to discuss the titles, after which they voted. We used Caldecott-style voting rules, minus the rule about the winner having to have an eight-point lead in the interest of time.

After tallying the votes, we had a tie in total points, with one of the tied titles receiving one more 1st place vote than the other. With the consensus of the group, we did a vote by show of hands to choose between the two. And our winner was...

Maybe Something Beautiful, illustrated by Rafael Lopez!

This delightful title warmed our hearts with its vibrant colors, lovable faces and full bleed illustrations that burst off the page with dancing motion and music. The book's diverse cast of characters and hopeful message of change through inclusive action and creativity paint a bright, hopeful picture. We hope that through Mira, young readers of our pick will see the beauty and potential in themselves and unleash their creativity to drive the darkness out of the corners of their world.

Based on our final numbers, we also chose two honor winners: the very VERY close runner up, They All Saw a Cat by Brendan Wenzel and the etheareal The Uncorker of Ocean Bottles by Michelle Cuevas and Erin E. Stead.

Thank you to all who participated! I hope you enjoyed the day as much as I did, and go forth to spread the joy of our beautiful winners!