Fuse 8 n’ Kate: The Caldecott Contenders of 2025
Hooray! With the ALA Youth Media Awards on the near horizon (Monday, January 27th at 8 a.m. MT to be precise) it’s never been a better time to debate some possible winners of the Caldecott Award. Today, I hand over to Kate an unprecedented FOUR possible contenders (rather than my usual three)! Will she opt for the vibrant father-daughter vibes of My Daddy Is a Cowboy, the rainbow wry-wit of Touch the Sky, the luminous family-centric storytelling of Joyful Song, or the heartfelt sincerity of Home in a Lunchbox? Only this podcast can say for sure.
Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, Audible, Amazon Music, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
Kate Recommends: Bluey
Betsy Recommends: Hair the movie
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Kirkus, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on BlueSky at: @fuse8.bsky.social
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Woohoo–what a thrill to see Touch the Sky in the conversation! And to follow up on your comment about the unknown art director–it was the fabulous Danielle Carnito who came up with the swoopy type design.
Well then let’s tip that hat low for Danielle then. That design is inseparable from the whole.
I see Joyful Song everywhere. That book is a ripoff of THE WALK. The same refrain (WE WALK ON) and structure. I like it in the walk. But I don’t like that structure for this book. My mother met the illustrator at a book fest and he signed that book for her. And she bought it for all three of her children and all seven of her great grandchildren. She got that book for me and my sister. I used it in my classroom. And our students really love that book. And my daughter brought it to my attention.
Can they do that? Can one author rip off another author? And why isn’t anybody saying anything. Is that common for authors to take from other authors and not give credit? Isn’t that like plagiarism or something?
I love MY DADDY IS A COWBOY. TOUCH THE SKY is clever. I have to check out the other book. But out of JOYFUL SONG and THE WALK, THE WALK is a much better book. I would like to hear what the author and illustrator have to say about this.
LOVE your idea to move YMA awards to ALSC institute! Will take a while to retrain myself they aren’t in late January, but I agree – a crowd is needed when announce winners. The one time I went to ALSC institute it was in Sept & that would mess with all books published in X calendar year. So I don’t know…. ALSC institute was fabulous. 2010 I think.