Caldecott Medal

We have Miss Regina Brooks with us who is the founder and CEO of Serendipity Literary Agency based in New York where she represents established diverse base of award-winning clients in adult and young adult fiction, non-fiction, children's literature.

Her clients have received the Newbery, Caldecott, Edgar, Kirkus, NAACP, Image and and National Book Awards honors.

She's currently the president of the Association of American Literary Agents, which we call the AALA.

She co-produces the People Publishing Conference, which you guys have heard us talk about.

Layman was born in Saigon, Vietnam, later studied art in California, and even worked as an artist at DreamWorks Animation before becoming a full-time children's book illustrator.

In 2020, she received one of the biggest honors in children's illustration, a Caldecott honor for her work, and Bear came along.

Let's get started.

Thank you for joining us, Ms. Pham.

And it's by Pasha Westbrook and illustrated by Madeline Goodnight.

And then the last one I'll mention is We Are Water Protectors, which was a Caldecott Medal winner.

And it's by Carol Lindstrom and illustrated by Michaela Goad.

So those are some recommendations.

He has the way to contact him.

And he has that Certified Medium Forever Family Foundation like crest, like Caldecott seal.

Ooh.

That's how you know it's

And there's a new book coming from Jashar Awan and Rahela Jumafor-Bell.

And I read the book and I said, this book is getting a Caldecott in 2027.

You heard it first here.

The book is not even out yet.

I just had this beautiful interaction with Aaron Becker.

So Aaron Becker, I love.

And I was invited for the last, for like eight years, I was picking the Caldecott books every year.

It's my thing.

And so we would walk hand in hand when you're like six and seven, seven, walk to a local library in Cashmere Gardens.

And I would, I would pull books, not the Caldecott books, not the books for children.

I would tell people I didn't read where the wild things are until I got to maybe college.

Somebody had the book because I didn't read that.

If you take two seconds, you think about it.

Clearly they can read the titles.

And then I think that's the humiliation that comes was to walk over to the kids in Caldecott section to the teacher and say, will you please come tell this person at the front desk that I can check out these books?

Yeah.

But first, let's start this week by looking at new releases, starting with I Wonder If I'm Growing, illustrated by John Klassen, with words by Rafi.

In this smartly-paced picture book, Caldecott medalist Klassen gives visual form in his signature style to one of the most plaintive and triumphant songs in musician Rafi's catalogue.

I wonder if I'm growing, sighs a pale-skinned child, across spreads that reveal only the crown of their tussle-haired head and the top half of their eyes.

As the pages turn, the child peers over a footboard out a window and into a bathroom mirror, while a shifting sun and moon alongside the tune's lyrics hint at the often-dragging speed of childhood change.

[laughs]

... because they're pretty, like, Caldecott Award-winning, you guys.

Just so you know.

I love it.