Caldecott Winners

 Mom on her computer, sister on her cell phone, Dad working in the kitchen.....sound familiar? BLACKOUT written and illustrated by John Rocco is the story of a typical summer night inside a busy family's apartment where no one is available to play even a simple board game. Outside, horns honk, streetlights blare and the summer city night is hot and noisy. Then......the lights go out......and the magic begins! Families and neighbors play together and  street parties emerge above and below the apartment. This story will take you back to simpler times and memories of long nights playing outside in the dark.This book was named as a 2012 Caldecott Honor Book. You will love it! ( Disney-Hyperion Books, 2011)

                                                                                                                   

 A BALL FOR DAISY written and illustrated by Chris Raschka is the 2012 Caldecott Medal Winner. This delightful wordless picture book shows you all the fun a dog can have with her ball. We follow Daisy through a range of emotions and activities she experiences with her ball.....joy, excitement, security, and then we move to worry and sorrow when another dog pops her ball! Sadness takes over Daisy at the loss of her round plastic companion, but then a thoughtful gesture restores her good nature and all ends well! (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2011)

Child's Play

ME...JANE , written and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell, is the charming story of Jane Goodall.As a young girl., Jane receives a stuffed toy chimpanzee that she takes everywhere she goes. She explores birds, spiders, squirrels and other plants and animals in her backyard.She makes sketches and takes detailed notes of her findings. She dreams of one day traveling to Africa to study and help the animals there. The story ends with the realization of this dream and an actual photograph of Jane Goodall with a baby chimpanzee.This sweet story is a Caldecott Honor Book winner.(Little, Brown and Company, 2011).
 

 BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY, written and illustrated by Melissa Sweet, is a Sibert Award Winner. This is the story of Tony Sarg , the puppeteer of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As a boy, Tony loves marionettes and puppets. He spends all of his spare money on toys that are curious and interesting.Fascinated by these puppets, he studies them and the mechanics behind how they move. He later moves to London and then New York where he begins performing on Broadway. Macy's commissions him to design their parade in 1928.It is such a hit and becomes a tradition we still enjoy today.(Houghton Mifflin, 2011).