And once again, the votes are in!

The results of the 2023 Calling Caldecott Mock Vote yielded a winner and four honor books.

Farmhouse, written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall, is the winner.

The four honor books are Knight Owl, written and illustrated by Christopher Denise; Hot Dog, written and illustrated by Doug Salati; Choosing Brave, illustrated by Janelle Washington (and written by Angela Joy); and Blue, illustrated by Daniel Minter (and written by Nana Ekua Brew-Hammond).

Excellent choices, Calling Caldecott voters!

Looking more closely at the results, without getting into the statistical weeds the way the Real Committee must (the Caldecott manual says: "There is a formula to determine the winner. A book must receive at least 8 first choices at four points per vote for a total of at least 32 points, and it must have an 8 point lead over the book receiving the next highest number of points"), Farmhouse was the clear winner, with almost twice the number of points as the next highest vote-getter, and with far more first-place votes. Interestingly, Hot Dog garnered the second-highest number of first-place votes, but had a few fewer total points than Knight Owl because of that book's whopping number of second-place votes.

Although those three books were the top vote-getters, there wasn't a steep drop-off in numbers until after all four honor books.

Just for fun, keeping in mind that this is a mock vote and has NO bearing on the Real Committee's decision (who haven't even met yet to begin the process! In the real world, ALL eligible 2022 books still have a shot at being on the Caldecott table), let's do some further analysis of our winners.

Of the five books, one, our winner, was created by a previous Caldecott Medalist. Sophie Blackall has won twice before (for Finding Winnie and Hello Lighthouse). Daniel Minter is a previous Caldecott Honor recipient (for Going Down Home with Daddy). Everyone else would be new to the Caldecott fold — and in fact Choosing Brave is Janelle Washington's debut picture book.

The vote was fairly equally split between women and men artists (a talking point for sure given the award's historical tendency to favor male creators). 

And there's an excellent range of intended ages, with Hot Dog and Knight Owl perhaps marking the lower end and Choosing Brave and Blue marking the upper range.

Let me know if you see more to dissect!

I close with one last assertion as to the mock-ness of our vote. Remember, the real-world results will be announced on Monday. Meanwhile, we congratulate our winners, and we thank you all so much for participating.