Browse

Caldecott Honor Book

Caldecott Honor Book award

The Caldecott Honor Books are runners-up to the Caldecott Medal, is awarded for the previous year’s most distinguished American picture book for children.

The award was named in honor of the nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott.

Learn more: official Caldecott Medal and Honor homepage.


Winners:

Four and Twenty Blackbirds (1937)

This is a compilation of longer traditional nonsense verse such as The Robber Kitten and Frog Went A-Courting. Many are quite violent.

Read online at Internet Archive.

Author(s): Helen Dean Fish
Illustrator(s): Robert Lawson

Seven Simeons: A Russian Tale (1937)

King Douda enlists the seven Simeons to help him find a bride.

Author(s): Boris Artzybasheff
Illustrator(s): Boris Artzybasheff

Wee Gillis (1938)

This is the story of how Wee Gillis decides whether to live in the Scottish lowlands like his mother’s family, or in the highlands like his father’s people. This is the second book by the author and illustrator of Ferdinand.

This is the limited edition: 525 copies bound in burlap and signed by the author and illustrator.

Author(s): Munro Leaf
Illustrator(s): Robert Lawson

Andy and the Lion (1938)

A little boy named Andy was interested in lions. On his way to school, he met a real lion with a thorn stuck in its paw.

Author(s): James Daugherty
Illustrator(s): James Daugherty

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)

The classic tale of Snow White.

Read online at archive.org

Author(s): Wanda Gág
Illustrator(s): Wanda Gág

Wee Gillis (1938)

This is the story of how Wee Gillis decides whether to live in the Scottish lowlands like his mother’s family or in the highlands like his father’s people.

This is the second book by the author and illustrator of Ferdinand.

Read online at archive.org

Author(s): Munro Leaf
Illustrator(s): Robert Lawson

Madeline (1939)

The smallest of the twelve French orphans under the care of Madame Clavel wakes up one night with a tummy ache.

Read online at archive.org

Author(s): Ludwig Bemelmans
Illustrator(s): Ludwig Bemelmans

Cock-a-Doodle Doo (1939)

In this case it’s a rooster raised by a duck in a familiar story.

April’s Kittens (1941)

April’s cat Sheba has three kittens. But her father insists that theirs is strickly a one-cat household. April must give up three cats, but which ones?

Author(s): Clare Turlay Newberry
Illustrator(s): Clare Turlay Newberry

An American ABC (1941)

Each letter has a large illustration and a patriotic essay.

Paddle-to-the-Sea (1941)

Explore the Great Lakes and the Saint Lawrence Seaway with Paddle.

Read online at archive.org.

Author(s): Holling C. Holling
Illustrator(s): Holling C. Holling

Nothing At All (1941)

When his two visible brothers are chosen as pets by a two children, their invisible brother realizes he must get to work and make himself visible so he too can become a pet.

Author(s): Wanda Gág
Illustrator(s): Wanda Gág

A Child’s Good Night Book (1943)

A first going to bed book.

Read online at archive.org

Author(s): Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrator(s): Jean Charlot

The Mighty Hunter (1943)

The mighty hunter skips school to go hunting, but an encounter with a bear makes him decide that he should work on his education.

The Christmas Anna Angel (1944)

The Christmas Anna Angel makes Christmas cakes for Anna and her brother.

Read online at archive.org

Author(s): Ruth Sawyer
Illustrator(s): Kate Seredy

In the Forest (1944)

A boy with his new horn is followed by animals as he walks through the forest.

Author(s): Marie Hall Ets
Illustrator(s): Marie Hall Ets

My Mother is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World (1945)

We don’t love people because they are beautiful. They are beautiful because we love them.

Read online at archive.org

Author(s): Becky Reyher
Illustrator(s): Ruth Chrisman Gannett

Little Lost Lamb (1945)

The little black lamb wanders off from the flock, but the shepherd and his dog go back up the mountain to find him.

Author(s): Golden MacDonald
Illustrator(s): Leonard Weisgard

You Can Write Chinese (1945)

Teaches children simple words in Chinese and how the characters are formed.

We count 60 unnumbered pages.

Read online at archive.org.

Author(s): Kurt Wiese
Illustrator(s): Kurt Wiese

Stone Soup (1947)

Three soldiers arrive at a town intending to make soup with a stone. In the end the whole town enjoys a feast with them.

Author(s): Marcia J. Brown
Illustrator(s): Marcia J. Brown

Sign up for our free book-of-the-week email!

Looking for updates from the Treasury of Great Children's books? Look no further, our Book-of-the-Week email is free and will keep you informed of the latest happenings!

Please fill out the form to subscribe:

* indicates required