Congratulations to Marla Frazee's spectacular The Farmer and the Clown, winner of this year's Calling Caldecott mock vote!

While the rest of you were checking the weather and worrying about travel plans and charging your cellphones, we were here checking the returns for Calling Caldecott (results below).

Last year was unusual in that two books came in at a virtual tie, and so we really had no choice but to name one the winner and the other the sole honor book. This year was a little more typical. The winner was clear, with 477 points, a whopping 123 points above the next-highest vote getter. But the honor books were a little trickier to call. We had two books that garnered 300+ points, and the rest were in the 200s or less. But call it we must. On the real committee, the chair would consult The Manual and would talk about how the committee would proceed in order to name honor books.

Here is the relevant portion of The Manual:

Selection of Honor Books

Immediately following determination of the winner of the Caldecott Medal, and following appropriate discussion, the committee will entertain the following:

• Whether honor books will be named.


• Whether the committee wishes to choose as honor books the next highest books on the original winning ballot or to ballot again.


• If the committee votes to use the award-winning ballot, they must then determine how many honor books to name.


• If the committee chooses to ballot for honor books, only books that received points on the award winning ballot may be included. The same voting procedure is followed as for the award winner.


• If the committee has chosen to ballot for honor books, following that ballot, the committee will vote how many books of those receiving the highest number of points are to be named honor books.

As Robin's Gramma Gorman would say, "Clear as mud." Did you notice something? Psssst: a committee can name as many honor books as they wish. The sky is the limit! (However, 3-5 is the norm.)

We here at Calling Caldecott would have loved to honor as many books as possible in this remarkable year for picture books. But, like the real committee, we have to pay attention to the numbers. And in this case, there were only two books that came close to The Farmer and the Clown's totals. So our two honor books are (tada!) Sam and Dave Dig a Hole and The Right Word.



As you can see from the chart and graphic below, there was a definite gap between the winner and the two chosen honors and the next four top vote getters — The Adventures of Beekle, The Iridescence of Birds, Viva Frida, and Gaston — much as we would have liked to recognize them. But we are trying to model the real committee here, and historically there is little precedence for naming six honor books — and even less chance if the numbers don't support such a decision. (Note that we did have two books on our second ballot by the same illustrator: Christian Robinson. No doubt that his fans had to make some hard choices — if all the Josephine votes had gone to Gaston…well, things might have been different.)

Here are the full results:

	1st choice (4 points)	2nd choice (3 points)	3rd choice (2 points)	Total points
The Adventures of Beekle	23	34	23	240
Blizzard	9	21	35	169
Draw!	19	19	25	183
The Farmer and the Clown	72	43	30	477
Gaston	21	24	22	200
The Iridescence of Birds	25	26	25	228
Josephine	11	15	22	133
A Letter for Leo	23	11	12	149
The Right Word	40	37	28	327
Sam & Dave Dig a Hole	35	40	47	354
Viva Frida	21	27	26	217

 

Here's another way to get a visual picture of the results:



Thank you all so much for participating in our Mock Caldecott, even during (for some of us) a blizzard. In a few days from now, in cold and windy Chicago, our chatter will turn to the Real Winners. Meanwhile, why not take a few moments to let us know what you think about our results? And thanks again for voting.