We started reading from a list of 24 potential Zervcott winners while celebrating Picture Book Month in November. We discussed Caldecott criteria and rated each of those 24 books on how well the illustrations stood up to criteria and captured student interest in December. We narrowed down to a Top 10 and students from K-5 selected their 3 favorite contenders in January. Finally, my second graders served as a Zervcott committee and doled out the medals and honors by ranking the surviving 7 books.
Here's how it all played out.
The initial list:
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild - Peter Brown
Brave Girl - Michelle Markel, ill. Melissa Sweet
The Matchbox Diary - Paul Fleischman, ill. Bagram Ibatoulline
Flora and the Flamingo - Molly Idle
Exclamation Mark! - Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld
The Day The Crayons Quit - Drew Daywalt, ill. Oliver Jeffers
The Watermelon Seed - Greg Pizzoli
Bluebird - Bob Staake
Big Snow - Jonathan Bean
Unicorn Thinks He’s Pretty Great - Bob Shea
Building Our House- Jonathan Bean
The Dark - Lemony Snicket, ill. Jon Klassen
Hello My Name is Ruby - Philip C. Stead
The Beginner’s Guide to Running Away From Home- Jennifer Larue Huget, ill. Red Nose Studio
A Splash of Red - Jen Bryant, ill. Melissa Sweet
The Boy and the Airplane - Mark Pett
Warning Do Not Open This Book - Adam Lehrhaupt, ill. Matthew Forsythe
Journey - Aaron Becker
Train - Elisha Cooper
Locomotive - Brian Floca
Mr. Wuffles - David Wiesner
Little Red Writing - Joan Holub, ill. Melissa Sweet
On A Beam of Light - Jennifer Berne
The Boy Who Loved Math - Deborah Heiligman, ill. LeUyen PhanThere was a lot of love for many of these books. 616 rankings later, these 10 came out on top:
As all of the book appreciation was happening, 2nd graders also designed medals for the winning books. This year's Zervcott committee had a tie for the medal, while awarding 3 honors. Here's what they loved:
Zervcott Honor #3
Mr. Tiger Goes Wild by Peter BrownZervcott medal by Briana
Warning: Do Not Open This Book! by Adam Lehrhaupt, Illustrated by Matthew Forsythe
Zervcott medal by Caroline
Zervcott Honor #1
The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt, Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Zervcott medal by Carolina
And the WINNER(s) of the 3rd annual ZERVCOTT medal are:
The Watermelon Seed by Greg Pizzoli AND
Unicorn Thinks He's Pretty Great by Bob Shea
Zervcott medal by Lucas
Thanks to all who participated!
