Mock Caldecott 2026 discussion

Tomfoolery!: Randolph Caldecott and the Rambunctious Coming-of-Age of Children's Books by Michelle Markel




The Skull by Jon Klassen




The Green Piano: How Little Me Found Music by Roberta Flack




The Fire of Stars: The Life and Brilliance of the Woman Who Discovered What Stars Are Made Of by Kirsten W. Larson


For our final reading this month we have a unique selection of publications. How do they measure up to past Caldecott award winners and against what we have read throughout the year?


If we missed your favorite 2023 Caldecott contender, please let us know!

The Skull
Based on a traditional Tyrolean folktale, this is an easy-to-read story with darkish and gloomy illustrations perfectly appropriate for this slightly spooky tale. Broken up into 5 parts, this is a good transitional book for those readers graduating from beginner reading books.

Tomfoolery! is THE perfect picture book biography. Barbara McClintock was the perfect choice for a book about Randolph Caldecott. I read many, many picture books all year. Tomfoolery! truly had me swooning. Every page was interesting, magnificently detailed and beautiful. Caldecott's own illustrations are reproduced in this biography (the first book about Caldecott in this age group), which delighted me to no end. The spread where McClintock features contemporary children's book illustrators such as Dan Santat, Jerry Pinkney, Sophie Blackall, Maurice Sendak (there are lots more), and an image of herself, had me over the moon! This could finally be the book that wins Barbara McClintock a Caldecott. It is stupendous!

The illustrations for Skull are classic Klassen. Atmospheric and beautiful. The art for this title and Barbara McClintock's Tomfoolery! were both chosen for the current Original Art exhibit at the prestigious Society of Illustrators Museum. I read the original folktale that The Skull is based, as a child. I just loved it. Klassen's retelling-not so much. There just isn't much of a story. It really didn't come together for me.

I haven't read the other titles, but I have heard they are quite good.

I read the Skull to a few groups of 5/6 graders. They loved it!
They had all kinds of comments and wondered if there would be a sequel.
My grandkids (6-9 years) also loved it.
I read it a way that kept them guessing.

The Fire of Stars
The biography of Cecilia Payne is interesting and easy enough for children to understand. The pencil, walnut ink and digitally colored illustrations have the appearance of watercolors. They are adept at capturing the events in the biography, and depict facial expressions well. Sidebars and back matter present an evolutionist's story of how stars are "born," but since no one has ever observed this happening (even evolutionists think this takes millions of years), it is just a story, unlike Payne's actual observations of the spectroscopy of the elements that make up a star.

Tomfoolery
I definitely second Laura's vote for Tomfoolery. What a wonderful biography of the illustrator whose name graces a premier award for children's book illustrators! I also hope that it wins a Caldecott award. I not only loved McClintock's black India ink and watercolor illustrations; I loved that some of Caldecott's own illustrations were included on several pages, especially the double-page painting from The Diverting History of John Gilpin.

The Green Piano
I enjoyed the story of this multi-Grammy award winning singer/songwriter. The illustrations did enhance the events in young Roberta's life, but otherwise, I did not think they were particularly outstanding in any way.