Caldecott Week

I seem to have taken a break from posting on this blog for the past few weeks.  Maybe I haven’t blogged, but I have had a wonderful time with the family.  It was great to be together with all of you.

This week has been Caldecott Week.  The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually and recognizes the preceding year’s most distinguished American picture book for children.  The award is named for Randolph Caldecott, a 19^th Century English illustrator.  (Funny that we keep naming prestigious American awards for Englishmen.) 

Can we really count picture books as reading?  Of course we can!  A picture book provides a visual experience.  Just like other books, it has a storyline and a theme, but these are developed through a series of pictures rather than words.  One thing that I love about picture books is that you get to add your own words much of the time.  To be considered for the Caldecott Medal, the target audience of the book should be up to age 14.  But 56-year-olds still enjoy picture books!

Looking forward to next week, it is the GRANDMA CHALLENGE OF 2015.  Here are the rules that I can remember.  (Did I add anything else?) 

1.     Get into pairs and team up to read more pages than I read during the week.

2.     You MUST report on a daily basis.  Daniel is going to take care of the reporting.  There will be none of this wait-until-Saturday-to-report business.

3.     ALL teams that beat me will receive $20 to split, either pro rata or in halves, the team’s choice.

4.     If ANY team beats me, then everybody gets ice cream.  I scream, you scream, we all scream … yada yada yada.

5.     Picture books DO NOT count for adult readers. 

So far I know of three teams that are gearing up for the challenge:  Amanda and Heather; Ben and Violet; Daniel and Whitney.  So pair up and either report your pairing as a comment to this blog or let His Highness the Incentive Master know.  Just so you know, I’ve got two page-turners sitting on my shelf just waiting for me—Sphere (thanks Ben!) and Deception Point. 

At midnight on Saturday night we will “Let the wild rumpus start!”  Who said that and in what book?