Betsy is absolutely right: there are SOOO many wonderful, award-worthy 2023 books for the Caldecott committee to consider. But she's honed her predictions (after spring and summer), and here they are. And we will be covering all her choices on Calling Caldecott this season.

What do you notice about Betsy's Fall prediction list? Anything here that you said, uh huh, yep, that's what I expected (or hoped) to see on this list! Anything you think is missing? 

Regardless of whether your favorite is here or not, we can say that there's a wide variety of books presented here, and each puts forth a very distinctive artistic style and way of telling a story. The mood and tenor struck by these books range from somber to celebratory. We see pain, delight, heartbreak, stories of bravery and growth, and the beauty of nature. We see body-affirming manifestos, rollicking histories of children's illustrated books (oh the irony!), a peek into the world of the jumping spider, and environmental catastrophe and rebirth. We see meticulous artwork done by pen, collage work with stamps, as well as multimedia work with paint and sculpture. There are books with lengthy textual components and wordless books.  There is so much variety here, and all of it is so good in its own way that we really don't know how the committee compares such strong, yet different work. 

How about you? Are you ready to make predictions about the Real Committee's choices? We have a few favorites, but that doesn't always translate into Caldecott recognition. Having favorites is easy; making actual predictions is hard (unless you've got a slam-dunk year such as when Jerry Pinkney's Lion and the Mouse won...).

Let us know what you think of Betsy's choices. And are you a predictor or a "favoritor"?