And the 2012 winners are

Immediately the alarm clock went off Monday morning and the first thing I did was head to the computer. The anticipation was killing me. I wanted to know who had won the Caldecott awards for this year. I couldn't wait to see if my favorites were chosen. Well, so chose 2 out of 4. Not bad!

2012 Caldecott Medal Winner:
A Ball For Daisy by Chris Raschka

2012 Caldecott Honor Winners:
Blackout by John Rocco
Grandpa Green by Lane Smith
Me....Jane by Patrick McDonnell

I was taken by surprise with A Ball for Daisy. While I think it is a fabulous book and immediately purchased it when it was first published because wordless picture books are fabulous tools for writing and speech. The pictures and storyline is adorable. And of course it is about a dog, who could resist. But to win the medal, not my first choice. So I was a bit disappointed.

Grandpa Green, well that was hands down one of my favorites and I was hoping that would take the medal but an honor will do. An absolutely creatively written and illustrated book by the author that grabbed our attention in 2010 with his hilarious book, It's A Book.

Me...Jane, I enjoyed this book and probably would not been one that I would of chosen but it was the talk of the book world all year so of course it was going to win something.

Blackout was the only book that I did not have a chance to review before the awards came out and was the only book that I rushed out to purchase before seeing my students the next day. This is an adorable story about the lights going out in New York City in the summertime and how a family that is too busy to spend time together suddenly finds time to play that game of scrabble, get off the computer or phone and spend time together. The illustrations are fantastic because the illustrator uses a play on light and dark with cartoon like illustrations.