2019 Caldecott and Newbery Predictions

It's Book Award Season! Here are our 2019 Caldecott and Newbery Predictions. There are a lot of Great Books for Kids here!

Last year, we participated with great excitement in the Everyday Reading Mock Caldecott. We had so much fun!

It made such an impression on me and the kids. I decided to pay more attention to the great picture books out there all year long. I started reading more library/librarian blogs and book publications. I paid attention to professional librarian predictions all year long.

The kids and I together read a lot of great books last year.

So, by the time January rolled around this year and Janssen posted her Mock Caldecott book list and score sheet for the 2019 Caldecott Awards, we had already read ALL of the books on her list! It was a proud moment for me.

We also read a lot of middle grade books in 2018 too. When I looked to see what the book world professionals were predicting for the Newbery Awards this year, I was again pleasantly surprised to see that I'd read most of them.

So we're here today to make predictions! This is more fun for me than any other award ceremony or sporting event of the year. Who needs the Super Bowl when you can get this jazzed up about Picture Book Awards?!

Caldecott Prediction 2019

What I want to win and I what I think will actually win don't always line up. However, in the case of the Caldecott Medal this year, I think my top pick may actually have a really good chance of being the official winner.

I'm voting, wholeheartedly, for Dreamers by Yuyi Morales.

The illustrations are stunning. The story is also timely. With such a heated debate about immigration happening in this country right now, I would love to see this book about Yuyi Morales' own immigrant experience receive widespread attention and appreciation.

It's also a beautiful tribute to the power of books and the libraries that make them available to everyone. When Morales came to this country in 1994 with her son, she barely spoke any English. They felt alone and afraid . . . until they discovered libraries.

It's a beautiful book! Yuyi Morales has won a lot of book awards over the years, but I think this may finally be the year she takes home the Big Prize. Fingers crossed.

More Caldecott Predictions

Some of the other books getting a lot of buzz from the professionals are Blue by Laura Vaccaro Seeger and A House That Once Was by Julie Fogliano.

I liked them. But, if I got to pick, I'd choose these ones for some Caldecott recognition:

Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall

Drawn Together by Minh Le

Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse by Marcy Campbell

Nothing Stopped Sophie by Cheryl Bardoe

The Wall in the Middle of the Book by Jon Agee

We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell

Newbery Prediction 2019

This is a lot trickier for me to predict than the picture books. There were so many good middle grade books in 2018 that are strong contenders.

I've seen a lot of buzz about The Season of Styx Malone by Kekla Magoon and Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson. I wouldn't be sad if these won.

However, my vote goes to Front Desk by Kelly Yang.

I love a book with a strong, young female heroine and Mia Tang is exactly that!

The Tang family are recent immigrants from China in the 1980's. It feels lucky when Mia's parents get a job running the Calavista Motel. But the job isn't quite what they thought it was going to be and they're starting from zero in America.

It's engaging realistic fiction based on the author's own immigrant experience. Mia is a fantastic, lovable, courageous, intelligent character. She really makes the book shine.

It's a delightful read from cover to cover. It's also infuriating at times as you see the mountain of struggles the Tang family faces as Chinese immigrants.

I especially loved the author's note at the end where she tells about her own experience coming to America from China in the 1980's. So many of Mia's experiences in the book are based on Kelly Yang's real life experiences - even some of the ones that seem too crazy to be real!

This would be a very deserving Newbery winner.