Every year, the Association for Library Service to Children awards the prestigious Caldecott Medal to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Some of those books are probably already on your bookshelves at home – they’re the ones with the gold sticker on the front featuring a rendition of the medal. Many of these books also can be found at the Spokane Public Library and other libraries in your area.

The award was named in honor of Randolph Caldecott, a 19^th-century English illustrator. It’s his birthday this month so Auntie’s Bookstore is having a Caldecott Storytime on Saturday.

Come down to enjoy the amazing artwork as we read some Caldecott Medal and Caldecott Honor books. All Ages. 11 a.m., Auntie’s Bookstore, Children’s section, 402 W. Main Ave. Free. (509) 838-0206.

 My family’s favorite book this year didn’t win the medal, but it did receive the Caldecott Honor (those are the books with the silver sticker). It’s called “How I Learned Geography,” written by one of my favorite artists, Uri Shulevitz. (He also wrote and illustrated other Caldecott honor books including “Snow.” In 1969, he won the Caldecott Medal for “The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship.”) “How I Learned Geography” is about a boy forced by war to become a refugee. Although he was often hungry, he found solace in a map that his father bought one day at the market instead of food. The book is based on Shulevitz’s life, and how his family fled the Warsaw Blitz during World War II. (Shulevitz now lives in New York City.) It’s an absolutely beautiful and inspiring book, I think.

What are your some of your family’s favorite books this year?

 The hosts of NPR’s Tell Me More (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98325158) recently shared their favorites. They include:

• ”Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood,” by Leonard Pitts Jr.. A book about African American men and their experiences as dads and with their own dads.
• “Infants and Mothers: Differences in Development,” by T. Berry Brazelton. A book that identifies three categories of infants in this formative period: quiet, active and average.
• “Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent,” by Meredith Small. A look at how child-rearing differs from culture to culture, and the effects on our children.
• “The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two,” by William, Martha, Robert and James Sears. All about attachment parenting.

That last one by the Sears family became the “baby bible” at my house. I also read “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” but that book made me a little paranoid.

Which baby or parenting books would you give as gift? And since we’re talking books again, what are your children’s favorite holiday books?