Randolph Caldecott Award Winning and Honored Books
The Caldecott Medal, established in 1938, was named in honor of nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. It is awarded annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, a division of the American Library Association, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Learn more about this award at Caldecott Medal Home Page.
Below are the Caldecott Medla winning and Honor books awarded to Black illustrators or illustrators of books featuring Black characters. In 2024, Vashti Harrison became the first Black woman to win a Caldecott Medal (read more ▶).
One Book Recieved The Caldecott Award or Honor in 2008
Honor Book – Kadir Nelson
Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad
by Ellen Levine, Illustrated by Kadir Nelson
Publication Date: Jan 01, 2007
List Price: $17.99
Format: Hardcover, 40 pages
Classification: Fiction
Target Age Group: Picture Book
ISBN13: 9780439777339
Imprint: Scholastic Press
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Parent Company: Scholastic Inc.
Read a Description of Henry’s Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad
A stirring, dramatic story of a slave who mails himself to freedom by a Jane Addams Peace Award-winning author and a Coretta Scott King Award-winning artist.
Henry Brown doesn’t know how old he is. Nobody keeps records of slaves’ birthdays. All the time he dreams about freedom, but that dream seems farther away than ever when he is torn from his family and put to work in a warehouse. Henry grows up and marries, but he is again devastated when his family is sold at the slave market. Then one day, as he lifts a crate at the warehouse, he knows exactly what he must do: He will mail himself to the North. After an arduous journey in the crate, Henry finally has a birthday — his first day of freedom.