Caldecott Awards are given to the illustrators of children’s books.
One of the greatest gems of a book I read to the children was a Caldecott Book. Whereas Newbery awards are given annually to the authors of children’s books, the Caldecott Medal awards are given to the illustrators for the most distinguished American picture book for children.
The 533 pages of this children’s book were gripping to me. With that whopping number of pages, I was surprised to find it was a Caldecott winner, until I opened it and found that over half the pages were pencil illustrations in black and white. The book I’m talking about is The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik. The story is told partly in words, and partly in pictures. I used the drawings as an art study for my children. For example, one page had a sea of people’s heads in a train station all facing away from you, with just one head turned to look back. Your eyes are drawn to that face because of the lighting the artist used in his drawing. This is your introduction to the main character of the book.
Mr Selznik wrote another one called Wonderstruck, similar in length, that is the simultaneously-told story of two people 50 years apart in time. His story is told in words, and hers in pictures. As you move through this book, you forget to notice that you are reading a story by picture and interchanging it with words, in the same way that part way through a subtitled-movie, you forget that you are reading the movie. I digress… this Selznik-drawn story did not win a Caldecott award, but is also wonderfully put together in word, and especially in drawing.
Other Caldecott winners and honor books that we have read include the following list.
- Paddle-to-the-Sea by Holling C. Holling, a great book to introduce the geography of the Great Lakes
- Abraham Lincoln by Ingri & Edgar d’Aulaire
- Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans, on which the tv show is based, narrated by Christopher Plummer from the musical The Sound Of Music
- Frog & Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel.
As I said with Newbery Books, just because a book didn’t win an award, doesn’t mean it isn’t a gem in its genre. Many of the books with pictures we’ve enjoyed aren’t on the Caldecott list. That said, you can know that an award like that has gems on its list. Go mining and find them, and enjoy them together!
