The Caldecott Honor of 2015

It's on everyone's minds: HOW did a graphic novel get a Caldecott Honor? This is nothing like when Hugo Cabret won. That could be justified, but a graphic novel? A YA book no less? How was that possible?

I don't know, but what I do know is that there is going to be discussion about it for months to come.

This Horn Book blog post from Calling Caledcott raises great points and a lot of points I considered: Wednesday Morning Quarterbacking: the Process Edition.  (HT Twitter Julie Jurgen @himissjulie).

When I mentioned to my husband that there will be discussion (and crazy discussion at that) he brought up the Sandman by Neil Gaiman, issue 19 caused a bit of a stir for winning a Short Story Award:

At the 1991 awards, comic book The Sandman issue #19 "A Midsummer's Night Dream" scripted by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Charles Vess, won the Award for Best Short Fiction.^[3] The widely circulated story that the rules were subsequently changed to prevent another comic book from winning is not entirely true. The official website states: "Comics are eligible in the Special Award Professional category. We never made a change in the rules."^[4] Gaiman and Vess, however, won the Award under the Short Fiction and not the Special Award Professional category.

From Wikipedia: World Fantasy Award 

I suspect the Caldecott rules will change after this. This One Summer will be harder to explain to parents. I'm surprised it's considered a 14 and under title. I'd put it in high school range, but that's just because of the topics dealt with in the book. It is a darker story.

So this raises a bunch of questions: who is the Caldecott for? Will more graphic novels be included or will the rules change? Have graphic novels always been included? Or will it change nothing and we'll go back to the usual picture books for the next few years until the next oddball? Time will tell.