Boys’ Latin’s own lower school librarian, Eiyana Favers, serves on Caldecott Committee

Two years. 24 hours of Zoom meetings. 1200 books. Through suggestions and nominations whittled down to 50. Then whittled down to five. In the end, one Caldecott Award winner and four Caldecott Honors. 

In 2021, Eiyana Favers, Boys’ Latin’s lower school librarian, was selected to be one of the 15-member committee to make that determination. At the end of January this year she traveled to New Orleans for three days of intense discussion that resulted in the naming of “Hot Dog” by Doug Savati as the Medalist. The renowned award, first given in 1938, recognizes the “most distinguished Americanpicture book for children.” 

The two years began with Ms. Favers taking the opportunity to read all of the past winners and beginning to understand the processes involved in choosing a winner. During the second half of that first year she the read books suggested by the American Library Association on art, children’s literature and past winners and studied the criteria used to determine the winner: excellence of execution in the artistic technique employed; excellence of pictorial interpretation of story, theme, or concept; appropriateness of style of illustration to the story, theme or concept; delineation of plot, theme, characters, setting, mood or information through the pictures; excellence of presentation in recognition of a child audience. Favers likens the entire two years to taking a course and the three-day conference to taking the exam. 

In an interesting anecdote, Ms. Favers recounted that the very first of the 1200 books she read was “Hot Dog.” She was impressed with the book, knew it met all of the criteria, and said to a friend, “Did I just read the Caldecott winner?” However, she put that thought aside and continued reading. “I didn’t want to go to the conference with a favorite in mind. I wanted to allow the process to happen.” she said. 

The process happened, and “Hot Dog”, the first book by an author/illustrator to win, took home the prestigious Caldecott Award.

Ms. Favers is grateful for the opportunity to have been a member of the committee and sums up the two years by saying, “This was an amazing experience!” She eagerly anticipates sharing the winners and many of the nominated books with her lower school students.