My Caldecott challenge: Although these Caldecott winner and honor books are not, for the most part, books I’ve read aloud to my son, I still found them interesting. A few I had strong negative opinions of; they show that even books that earned the Caldecott award do become dated!
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey won the 1942 Caldecott Medal, and yet its story is timeless. I love the story about a family of ducks in Boston. While the illustrations do reveal “older” looking cars, I didn’t notice as a kid and I don’t care today: I love this book. It’s lovingly illustrated with pencil sketches, and I very much enjoy the realistic birds and setting.
Even though I’m not from Boston, it’s clear that McCloskey has lovingly illustrated an accurate setting. My son and I own this book and I read it to him occasionally (he doesn’t love it as much as I do). He loves the sound of all the ducks’ names (Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Ouack, Pack, and Quack) and thinks it is fun when I try to say them all really quickly in one breath.
