Differences between Caldecott and Newbery Awards

The Newbery Award

The Newbery Award has been awarded annually since 1922 by the American Library Association. It is awarded to a distinguished American Children's book published the previous year. It is given in honor of the eighteenth century bookseller John Newbery.

The Caldecott Award

The Caldecott Award has been awarded annually since 1938 by the American Library Association. It is awarded to a children's picture book with the most distinguished pictures that was published that year. It is given in honor of nineteenth century illustrator Randolph Caldecott.

Is one award better than the other? In my opinion, neither award is better than the other. The awards are given for two different reasons- the Caldecott is given for distinuished illustrations and the Newberry is given for distinguished writing. I think that both awards are pretigious and aren't comparable to one another because they are given for two different reasons. For a picture book illustrator, recieving the Caldecott Award would be an honor. For a children's book writer, recieving the Newbery Award would be an honor. I think that the pictures in a children's picture book are just important as the text, because lots of younger children use the pictures in the story to understand it's meaning, especially if they can't read. Even as an adult, if the text is not visual enough for me, I like to have pictures to go along with the text.