Calling Caldecott
Author: Robin Smith
2nd grade teacher
Nashville, TN
Lolly Robinson
Designer & Production Manager,
The Horn Book
Education professor, Harvard
University
Platform: WordPress
Audience: The audience for this
blog is teachers, librarians, or others who are interested in following the
Caldecott race. The comments are very active with a wide variety of people who
are interested in picturebooks.
Format/theme/loading: This blog is
a part of the Horn Book site which runs similar blogs that follow the top
contenders for the Newbery and Printz awards. The site loads easily and has a
traditional blog format with the posts on the left and links to other Horn Book
features on the right.
Navigation: The only way to follow
the blog is by reverse chronological order. There are tags on the posts but
there isn’t a list of linked tags.
Frequency of Posts: They post 2-3
times a week during the awards season – from September until January. There are
infrequent posts during other times, but mostly the blog goes silent.
Content of Posts: The posts are all
about current picturebooks and evaluating their merits based on the criteria
for the Caldecott award.
Strengths: Both of the writers have
served on the Caldecott committee in the past, so they have a great deal of
insight into the process. Some of the commentators also have a great of
expertise, and the conversation is often quite lively. It is very interesting
to see picturebooks evaluated using the Caldecott criteria.
Weaknesses: The lack of posting
from February – September. I think it would be quite valuable for them to post
on quality picturebooks during the month that they are published rather than
waiting until September to start up the blogging process.
Read Alikes:
- Heavy Metal: A Mock Newbery Blog blogs.slj.com/heavymedal
- ALSC Blog: Association for Library Services for Children www.alsc.ala.org/blog
- 100 Scope Notes 100scopenotes.com
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