To Heck With Caldecott and Newbery (Well Mostly)
Discover a bold take on Caldecott and Newbery winners with this curated list of standout books. Explore hidden gems and overlooked favorites beyond the awards!
Book
The Hundred Dresses
by Eleanor Estes
Eleanor Estes's The Hundred Dresses won a Newbery Honor in 1945 and has never been out of print since. At the heart of the story is Wanda Petronski, a Polish girl in a Connecticut school who is ridiculed by her classmates for wearing the same faded blue dress every day. Wanda claims she has one hundred dresses at home, but everyone knows she doesn't and bullies her mercilessly. The class feels terrible when Wanda is pulled out of the school, but by that time it's too late for apologies. Maddie, one of Wanda's classmates, ultimately decides that she is "never going to stand by and say nothing again." This powerful, timeless story has been reissued with a new letter from the author's daughter Helena Estes, and with the Caldecott artist Louis Slobodkin's original artwork in beautifully restored color.
Book
The True Meaning of Smekday
by Adam Rex
Gratuity Tucci (call her Tip)& gets a fairly early start behind the wheel.& She's 11--and she's good if you want to know.& & Plus, laws don't matter too much& these days, and Tip is desperate to find her mom who was abducted by aliens on Christmas Eve (technically Smekday Eve since the Boov& invasion).& So while the rest of the American population gets shipped via rocketpod to Florida--the proposed new United State of America--Tip heads south in& the family car to search for her mother. & On the way, & she meets a solitary Boov mechanic named J. Lo.& He's unarmed, and he can fix her battered car (make it fly), so she agrees to give him a ride, which leads to two& alarming discoveries.& One is that J.Lo turns out to be not so bad.& & The other& is that J.Lo is #1 on the Boov's most wanted list for making the hugest mistake in the history of Smekland (or earth depending on your point of view).& Now Tip and her many-legged friend are the only ones who can save the planet from a really big catastrophe. & &
Book
All-of-a-Kind Family
by Sydney Taylor
Meet the All-of-a-Kind Family -- Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie -- who live with their parents in New York City at the turn of the century. Together they share adventures that find them searching for hidden buttons while dusting Mama's front parlor and visiting with the peddlers in Papa's shop on rainy days. The girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises. But no one could have prepared them for the biggest surprise of all!
