A Caldecott Celebration: Seven Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott MedalCaldecott
Bibliographic Information:
Marcus, Leonard S. 1998, 2008. A CALDECOTT CELEBRATION: SEVEN ARTISTS AND THEIR PATHS TO THE CALDECOTT MEDAL. New York, NY: Walker & Company. ISBN 9780802797032
Plot
This Juvenile nonfiction begins with an introduction about the Caldecott Medal - its namesake, its requirements, and its winners. It focuses on seven select winners and their works. A brief biography on each illustrator is offered as well as quotes from acceptance speeches, photos, and images of their award winning illustrations. It covers seven illustrators from a variety of years addressing each of their styles and how they became award winning illustrators. It also includes a comprehensive list of winners from 1938-2007 and a glossary.
1. Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey (1942)
One of my childhood favorites about a family of ducks wondering Boston looking for a safe place to live. They eventually come across the public park with its gardens and ponds and decide that the Boston Commons make for a suitable home. The people of Boston of course are very shocked to see ducks wondering around the city, even stopping traffic. McCloskey thought of the story after witnessing a family of ducks one day in the park, eventually buying six (different) ducks into his apartment for two years as he mastered their behavior. His illustrations were done with lithographic crayon on zinc plates to offer a very understated sketch like view into this city and the quest of the ducks. Reviews of the book complimented its warmth and sense of security for children reading of a family finding a safe home. A concept I don't think I understood at the time, but now agree with it being the overall point of the story. Perhaps, this early experience of mine was a subconscious thought in my decision to move to Boston many years later.
2. Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper by Marcia Brown (1955)
Her style of illustrations was gouache, crayon, watercolor, and ink which offered a colorful rough sketch of bright simplicity. It is the story of Cinderella, quiet peasant girl visited by a fairy godmother who gives her the dress and glass slippers to attend the ball. When the prince falls in love with her just before the stroke of midnight, she runs away before the spell granting her the fancy new costume change can disappear leaving behind only one glass slipper, which the Prince uses to find her. Brown was a Caldecott runner up six times before receiving the award in 1955 (and later when on to win two more). She spent three months researching French dress, as she preferred the French version of the tale, and had to do the illustrations with only the four base colors printers used: yellow, blue, red, and black. She did the color combinations herself to create her warm illustrations of the classic fairytale.
3. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1964)
A story of a wild child who is sent to bed without supper and imagines a world where he is king of the wild things. They misbehave, break things, run wildly around (all activities Max did at home), but eventually Max realizes home is where he is meant to be and returns - to a loving mother and his supper. Sendak created his wild things with "india ink line over tempera" - not sure what that meant before reading the description. He began with sketches, then painted on top of the sketches, thus creating a sort of frenzied story similar to what a hyper child like Max himself could draw. The illustrations are out of scale,exaggerated details, and unique elements fitting to a child's imagination, possibly adding to the reason children love the story - for it's originality and for the child who misbehaves and goes on an adventure.
4. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (1970)
The illustrations of Steig's donkey who finds a magic pebble - and is turned into a rock, and then realizes once he's gone how much he is loved - personify animals yet maintains a childlike image of them. Done with india ink and watercolor, it is light and pleasing to go from illustration to illustration. The story takes on feelings of self worth and awkwardness,but the illustrations offer clarity and composure. In the end Sylvester has a bit more confidence and is once again returned to his true donkey self and to the parents that so greatly missed him.
5. Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg (1982)
The illustrations by Van Allsburg resemble photographs more than sketches or paintings and he achieved this with conte pencil with conte dust for this story. With pencil and dust, he creates images of lifelike animals, who at time are frightening, but mostly their realism has kept me from reading this book to children. Between the wild animals (running amok in the children's house after playing a game) and the danger they create it is a story for older children. His illustrations blend animals and household objects together creating an image of the unusual and unexpected. Amusement for children, but still a bit frightening to have animals emerge from a jungle game. Quite amazing illustrations though.
6. Tuesday by David Wiesner (1992)
To me, the most beautiful illustrations in this collection. Watercolor offers fluidity and depth like other medians cannot. Wiesner was an artist who tried many focuses before deciding on children's book illustrations and certainly before he decided to create a book about flying frogs. Without any words, the full story is created in the illustrations of lifelike frogs who arrive on flying lily pads into a peaceful town. In total, Wiesner has won 3 Caldecotts and 3 honors.
7. The Man Who Walked Between Towers by Mordicai Gerstein (2004)
Now getting to forms I understand, Gerstein used pen, ink, and oil to create his cool illustrations that even using cool colors seem to produce action on each page. It is the story of the man who walked between the Twin Towers on a high wire while they were being constructed. Gerstein, dealing with the aftermath of September 11, 2001 and the demise of the Twin Towers remember the story of the man who walked between the towers in 1974. He used photographs taken back in 1974 by the walker to create many sketches of different angles and heights. The story became about the walk between these two towers partly because Gerstein wanted to create a book focused on the creation of the towers knowing that from then on most stories about the towers would be of their destruction.
Reviews:
School Library Journal
Gr 3-6…The large, attractive pages invite readers to savor the multitude of illustrations. Some of them show the various drafts leading up to the finished artso that readers can easily see the evolution of the artists' ideas. Anecdotes about the relationship between the illustrators and their editors are also included, reinforcing the idea that this collaboration is very important in the creation of excellent books. With an index, a glossary (lithographic crayon, pre-separated art, etc.), and a bibliography of all of the Caldecott Medal winners (though not the Honor Books), this title has just about everything readers might want. Most of all, it has such wonderful tidbits-Robert McCloskey sketching the bottom of a duck's bill from his vantage point on the floor, Maurice Sendakbuying an armful of roses for Ursula Nordstrom when he won, etc. So many good stories for children and adults to enjoy.-Barbara Scotto, Michael Driscoll School,Brookline, MA
Publishers Weekly
With a generous sprinkling of the artists' own words and sometimes those of his or her editor, Marcus chroniclesthe inspiration behind these works, the creative process, the artists' reactions to winning the prestigious award and its effect on their careers…Encouraging readers to see each picture book through the artist's eyes, Marcus shows Brown's compositional studies, explains how Van Allsburg chose from which perspective to view the coiled python in the living room and how Sendak decided "that the illustrations leading up to the rumpus would get larger and larger, as Max's emotions pushed out the words." … With Marcus's sure hand guiding this tour, readers will find cause for celebration. All ages. (Oct.)
Connections:
As this book offers an inside look into the creation of award winning illustrations and also into the lives of the illustraters, one could continue with biographies of artists or do program focused on other award winning books. To some reading all the Caldecott winners could be like reading the Times Top 100 Books. It would offer knowledge into all the different art forms as well as the process of book illustration has evolved since that is mentioned in each personal story as well.
Perhaps the most obvious next step would be to allow children to create stories or create pictures using a variety of mediums.
No comments:
Post a Comment