It’s January again, which means it’s #ALAYMA season, which also means it’s time for… EXTREME CALDECOTT PLACEMENT!

For those of you who are new to this tradition (which has become my one and only blogpost of the year), the basic idea is: With such a noteworthy achievement, why stop at placing the Caldecott sticker on the book's cover? Why not go all in and insert it inside the book itself? (For those interested in checking out past years, here is exclusive access to the archives: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, and 2015.)

Now, without further ado, your distinguished 2023 Caldecott Honorees:

AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT illustrated by Jason Griffin, written by Jason Reynolds (Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/Atheneum/Simon & Schuster)

BERRY SONG written and illustrated by Michaela Goade (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

CHOOSING BRAVE: HOW MAMIE TILL-MOBLEY AND EMMETT TILL SPARKED THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT illustrated by Janelle Washington, written by Angela Joy (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan)

KNIGHT OWL written and illustrated by Christopher Denise (Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

and finally the winner of the 2023 Randolph Caldecott Medal is (drumroll please)…

HOT DOG by Doug Salati (Knopf/Random House)

CONGRATULATIONS to this year’s fantastic awardees—and cheers to the Caldecott Committee for the Herculean task of reading through this year’s full slate of books and narrowing it down to these stellar five! Cheers!