Caldecott Medal

This is a love song devoted to that special relationship between grandparents and grandchild. The kitchen window at Nanna and Poppy's house is, for one little girl, a magic gateway. Everything important happens near it, through it, or beyond it. Told in her voice, her story is both a voyage of discovery and a celebration of the commonplace wonders that define childhood, expressed as a joyful fusion of text with evocative and exuberant illustrations.The world for this little girl will soon grow larger and more complex, but never more enchanting or deeply felt.

That's a big job, and getting bigger. But why not? Presidents have come in just about every variety. They've been generals like George Washington and actors like Ronald Reagan; big like William Howard Taft and small like James Madison; handsome like Franklin Pierce and homely like Abraham Lincoln. They've been born in log cabins like Andrew Jackson and mansions like William Harrison.

"And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; But there is no joy in Mudville-mighty Casey has struck out." Those lines have echoed through the decades, the final stanza of a poem published pseudonymously in the June 3, 1888, issue of the San Francisco Examiner. Its author would rather have seen it forgotten. Instead, Ernest Thayer's poem has taken a well-deserved place as an enduring icon of Americana.

A Caldecott Honor Book
""It's snowing, said boy with dog."
""It's only a snowflake," said grandfather with beard."