Greeting, fellow members of the children's book community, on this day after a most momentous one in our history.

Yesterday, Michaela Goade, who is of Tlingit descent and is tribally enrolled wih the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, won the Caldecott Medal for We Are Water Protectors. By so doing, she became the FIRST EVER non-white woman to win the medal. (You can check for yourself here at ALA's site where the winners from 1938 to present are listed.) She is the first non-white woman, the first Indigenous woman, the first BIPOC woman to win — there are lots of ways to put it. All are true, and all are ground-breaking. 

Michaela Goade made some comments to the AP Press yesterday, which you can read here, and she also commented for SLJ.

If you geek out over seeing things like an artist at work, head to this 7-Imp post from March 2020 in which you can see things like Michaela's color studies from the book. 

In the excitement of yesterday, with this happy news folded into a post about the whole Caldecott roster, we wanted to return today just to emphasize and celebrate this historic event. Congratulations again to Michaela Goade! And really, congrats to our whole field for (finally) achieving this milestone.

For more, click on the tag ALA Midwinter 2021.