It makes us feel so warm and fuzzy inside reading a review like this. :-)
"Caldecott Awards are not popularity contests… or so they say. But let’s be honest for a second. The likelihood that a book from a small publisher will steamroll books from the bigger, richer presses with huge publicity budgets is pretty slim. There are always exceptions (Crown probably being the most obvious example) but at the end of the day, it comes down to the companies willing to wine and dine the committee members. Here’s a fun fact: While ALA committee members are forbidden from discussing the books up for contention in any way on social media, it is not against the rules to accept invitations to lunches and dinners held by the very publishers attempting to woo the members with their most beautiful books. I remember attending a lunch at ALA Mid-Winter years ago (not as a committee member), sitting next to Caldecott committee folks while artists discussed their methods and techniques at length. How is that fair to the little guys like Ripple Grove Press here? Some smaller publishers are so cash strapped, they can hardly afford to send copies of their books to all the people on the committee. My point is that this book deserves an award, but the likelihood that it will receive one is almost non-existent. It’s beautiful and strange, so let’s appreciate it in our own time." http://blogs.slj.com/…/newbery-caldecott-2020-final-predic…/
