Mock Caldecott 2026 discussion

Raven's Ribbons by Tasha Spillett.




Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan.




Let's Be Bees by Shawn Harris.




Faith Takes the Train by Kesi Augustine.



I absolutely love the art in these! What did you think of them?

Let's Be Bees
I loved this book, but only wrote a very brief review:
Rousing tale of father and child engaging in imaginative play. And yes, I loved the breezy cartoon illustrations.

Every Monday Mabel
What a darling story! and with Awan's appealing artwork. Every Monday, Mabel gets her cereal and goes outside to sit at the top of the driveway, waiting for...the garbage truck! Humorous, and even though Mabel's family does not share her enthusiasm, the final page shows all the other children and adults who are also waiting for the arrival of the garbage truck. I don't know if it is enough to impress the Caldecott Committee, but it may impress children.

Faith Takes the Train
A young girl and her mother returning home on the train see a man make an appeal to the other train riders for money or food. Faith offers the last part of her sandwich to him, and later asks her mother what else they can do to help. The illustrations are bursting with color from acrylics and watercolors, but they also have a retro book, reminiscent of picture book illustrations from the fifties and sixties. This heart-warming book may be a Caldecott possibility.

I think all four of these are strong.

So far I've got detailed notes for Faith Takes the Train:

The illustrations bring a NYC subway ride to vivid life, full of character studies and small, human stories. Endpapers explore the possibilities of pb&j-type sandwiches (a key plot element), joyfully suggesting creativity and abundance. The two-page spreads are an appropriate choice not just for the horizontality of a subway car but to make broad space for the many lively vignettes depicted. The cover scene contains all the key story elements: NYC; mother and daughter warmly interacting, the daughter excited, the mom listening affectionately; the pb&j sandwich; the pair emerging from the subway station (suggesting not a self-contained subway-only story but that life continues aboveground) and that plans are afoot. Inside, movement, character eye contact, diagonals, curves, and use of light draw the eye through the story. Visual perspective shifts in ways that make sense to the story and keep the spreads interesting.