Oh this process is a tricky one – deciding on the most beautiful of the beautiful. This year I am sharing twelve titles with my students. But if I could include Canadian illustrators, I would have fifteen titles here. Check out the bottom of the post for books from Canadian illustrators that I would love to include.
I LOVED this experience last year. Read about Mock Caldecott 2015 here and here.
This year I am extremely excited to go through this process again with my new class. I will use the same 3 questions I used with my grade 3/4 class but I have simplified the language a little bit to be more appropriate for this group of Grade 2/3 students.. Students answer each question for each book with a rating of 1 – 5,
This book is a book kids will really like. 1 2 3 4 5
The illustrations in this book are excellent. 1 2 3 4 5
The illustrations are a great fit for the story. 1 2 3 4 5
Here are the twelve titles on our Mock Caldecott 2016 list. Listed alphabetically by illustrator (as they would be shelved on last year’s Caldecott Honor artist Lauren Castillo‘s picture book shelves 🙂 )
Water is Water: A Book About the Water Cycle written by Miranda Paul and illustrated by Jason Chin
Special Delivery written by Phllip C. Stead and illustrated by Matthew Cordell
The Night World by Mordicai Gerstein
The Skunk written by Mac Barnett and illustrated by Patrick McDonnell
Float by Daniel Miyares
My Pen by Christopher Myers
Wolfie the Bunnie written by Ame Dyckman and illustrated by Zachariah Ohora
Emmanuel’s Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah written by Laurie Ann Thompson and illustrated by Sean Qualls
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson
The Bear Ate Your Sandwich by Julia Sarcone-Roach
Lenny and Lucy written by Philip C. Stead and illustrated by Erin E. Stead
The Whisper by Pamela Zagarenski
These Canadian OMG titles are not to be missed when we are doing illustration swooning of the best of the best kind. Unfortunately, these are not eligible for the Caldecott medal.
Ask Me written by Bernard Waber and illustrated by Suzy Lee
This is Sadie written by Sara O’Leary and illustrated by Julie Morstad
Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson and Sydney Smith
Which titles would you include for Mock Caldecott 2016?
There's a Book for That 
Great list of picture books Carrie! I’m particularly fond of My Pen and The Whisper. And for the record…I would have included your three Canadian illustrators on my list also! All three books are among my 2015 favorites!
🙂 So glad you agree Susan about these amazing Canadian titles! They are also favourite titles for me! I just bought The Whisper and whoa . . .
BOATS FOR PAPA by Jessixa Bagley is my favorite book of the year!
I read this book because of you! It is pretty beautiful.
I’ve read all but Water Is Water, & just found it at my library book sale. All are so beautiful. I might add Toys Meet Snow and The Bear Report, but there are so many to savor. Thanks for your list Carrie. Of them, The Whisper is a favorite.
I also read The Bear Report and loved it. The Whisper is incredible.
Carrie, I love those titles! May need to do with my 2nd and 3rd graders! Thank you for sharing.
It is a very fun process!
So glad I saw this! I’m going to do it with my gifted third graders. Let’s share our results.
Would be wonderful. I am planning to begin reading the titles this week and start voting late next week. It is a lot of fun!
I have never done a Mock Caldecott but you’ve inspired me to try it Carrie! I know some other friends who are going to do it too, but your list is here and so wonderful so I’m just going to go with yours! 🙂 First job is to assemble all the books and read them myself. Looking forward to the process!
Well I am very honoured! I did my first one last year (included in the links above) and it was one of my favourite things of the year! I have a younger group this year but we have been voting all year on #picturebookaday (for the week) so I think they have the concept of voting down. I have been reading past honor/medal titles and talking about illustrations to get them used to the idea.