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The Caldecott award is being presented next Monday, along with all the other ALA Youth Media Awards. This brings me such geeky joy I'm getting up at 5:30 am to watch the webcast. And I value my sleep. (You people on the East Coast can breathe now--it starts at 7:45 EST.) Besides streaming video, the American Library Association is texting and Twittering and Facebooking the proceedings. Frankly, folks, if you're at all connected with books for kids, you won't be able to get away from it.

If you want to know a little more about the Caldecott and its fellow awards, look no further than Susan's recent post at Booklights. I love when she writes such excellent rundowns, since it saves me the work. The lady knows whereof she speaks--she used to work in the bookstore industry and apparently ALA Awards morning was like the invasion of Normandy.

There's a lot of talk about Jerry Pinkney's The Lion and the Mouse, and I certainly wouldn't gnash my teeth over that. But I'll tell you what I would absolutely love to see: a Caldecott award or honor (excellence in illustration of children's books) for David Lucas' Something to Do. I read this last week and fell in love. No joke. Review soon.

The Geisel award, only a few years old, is another straight-up "excellence in" award, this time for excellence in early readers (named after Dr. Seuss, of course). I'm going to take a wild guess and say Mo Willems is probably going to get at least an honor, which he has almost every year since it was introduced.

Other honorees? Hmmm. I wouldn't be astonished to see some sentimental love for The Frogs and Toads All Sang, some of Arnold "Frog and Toad" Lobel's unpublished poems packaged into a picture book. If Dr. Seuss was the king of early readers, Lobel was the Prime Minister.

For some more guesses, stop in over at 100 Scope Notes and read the interview with Caldecott expert Ed Spicer.

What do you think will get the shiny sticker?