Mock Caldecott Award Panel

For the last few year (well, last ten+ years) I have facilitated Mock Caldecott Award panels with Dr. Mary Rycik's EDEC 323 Tradebooks and Technology with Literature students.  Each term we meet in the Instructional Resource Center to evaluate titles eligible for the Caldecott Award and select our winner. Titles selected for review by the student panel are recent additions to the library's juvenile collection; they are subject to terms and criteria established by the Association for Library Services for Children, American Library Association Medal committee.

Listening to the group discussion is always enlightening; they provide an interesting and fresh perspective to the process. I usually have a favorite among the titles selected for the panel; more often than not they are able to persuade me look more closely at a book I may have initially discounted. This group posted interesting questions about the process, including how people are selected to participate - and - if selection is more a matter of 'who you know' opposed to 'what you know.'  I offered School Library Journal's recent article The Givers: What it Takes to Serve on the Newbery, Caldecott Committees, by Shelley Diaz.

Mr. Tiger Goes Wild, by Peter Brown, was selected as this year's Mock Caldecott Award winner. The Dark, illustrated by Jon Klassen, was noted as an honor book. If interested, all of the titles considered today are located on the IRC Mock Caldecott Panels Pinterest board.

Follow IRC @ Ashland University Library's board Mock Caldecott Panels on Pinterest.

Weekly Reader

We are Never, Ever Getting Back Together (Probably)
"I was young when I fell in love, and like all those involved in youthful love affairs, I was filled with passion and idealism. I was sure that my love would defy the odds, and last forever. The object of my affection wasn't movie-star handsome or rich, but was intelligent, sophisticated, and noble. I knew when we met that our values were in alignment. In my undying devotion, I worried constantly about whether I was good enough; it never occurred to me to wonder if my love was good enough for me." -- Ingrid Steffensen, Chronicle of Higher Education, 1/15/14

Exactly How Many Students Take Online Courses?
"We know that online education went mainstream years ago. Academic leaders believe it will become even more prevalent in the coming years. But how many American students are taking at least one online course right now?" -- Steve Kolowich, Wired Campus, 1/16/14

Kindness is Possible
"Word association game time. First word: Academic. Chances are, “kindness” wasn’t the first thing that came to mind. (Indeed, much has been said and written about the abundance of just the opposite in academe: pettiness, to put it nicely.) But a new blog aims to change that. The Academic Kindness Tumblr is a place for students and professors to post random and not-so-random acts of kindness they’ve witnessed during their studies or work, to remind themselves and others that colleges and universities may not be so inhospitable after all." - Colleen Flaherty, Inside Higher Ed, 1/9/14