What an exciting morning it was! Calling Caldecott was tuned into the livestream, with morning coffee and popcorn. The Real Committee selected one winner and four honor books.

The winner of the 2024 Caldecott Medal is Big, written and illustrated by Vashti Harrison, published by Little, Brown and Company.

The Caldecott honor books are:

In Every Life, illustrated and written by Marla Frazee, published by Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division.

 Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter, illustrated by Molly Mendoza, written by Aida Salazar; published by Scholastic Press.

There Was a Party for Langston, illustrated by Jerome Pumphrey and Jarrett Pumphrey, written by Jason Reynolds; published by Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

The Truth About Dragons, illustrated by Hanna Cha, written by Julie Leung, published by Henry Holt and Company, an imprint of Macmillan Publishing Group.

Congratulations to all the illustrators recognized this year!

Big not only won the Caldecott Medal but is a Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book, as well as a CSK Illustrator Honor Book. We praised the book for the way it employed color, size, proportion, and the limits of the physical pages of the book itself to send a message about body size and acceptance. The Pumphrey brothers' illustrations for There Was a Party for Langston are celebratory and joyous, and invite readers in to a literary-themed party that celebrates some of the greats of African American literary history. While Marla Frazee's In Every Life appeared on Calling Caldecott's second nominations round, we did not see the Honor Book designation coming, and we were surprised by two of the Honor Books: Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter and The Truth About Dragons. Dragons was also the picture book winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. 

It's worth noting on a larger scale that contrary to historical trends, where the Caldecott winners were heavily weighted toward men, only one of the books recognized this year is illustrated by male artists (the Pumphrey brothers). Every other book, including the winner, is illustrated by a woman. It's true that the disproportion is less in evidence in recent years, but it's still worth tracking!

Remember last week after our mock vote results were published, and we said that our vote was NOT predictive, did not have anything to do with the Real Committee's choices. Here is a prime example of that, since we did pick the winner and one of the honor books but did not even have the other three honor books on our collective radar. This is always a stimulating part of the process, and one that continues to keep us on our toes. We'd love to know what your reactions are to this year's Caldecott Medal and Honor Books — let us know by commenting below.

This is also the penultimate post of the Calling Caldecott season. Come back on Wednesday at noon when contributor Dean Schneider announces his choice for the 2024 Robin Smith Picture Book Prize, which honors the memory and legacy of his wife and Calling Caldecott's cofounder. Your current slate of coauthors would like to thank you all for reading and engaging with the blog these past few months. We will be back in the fall — and hope you will, too!