Caldecott Monday: A Ball for Daisy
Feb. 12th, 2018 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThe 2012 Caldecott winner, A Ball for Daisy, is cute as the dickens. Daisy is a little gray dog with a big red ball that she loves to play with. She pushes it! She chases it! She sleeps snuggled up beside it on the couch!
Then Daisy and her owner take the ball to the park. They play fetch, they nearly lose the ball behind a fence, OH NO, but Daisy's owner saves it, and then it's back to fetch again, at which point - a big brown dog STEALS THE BALL.
Daisy gives chase! The brown dog runs off! Daisy is nearly neck and neck, ready to try to knock the ball from the brown dog's mouth, but the brown dog bites down and the ball goes pop.
Daisy is in despair. The picture book is wordless so this is conveyed both through Daisy's body language (she is quite expressive for all she is basically a few squiggles) and by the fact that the background watercolor wash dims from its previous cheerful greens & blues & yellows to sad splodges of violet and gray. Daisy goes home and melts into the couch in her sadness. Her owner tries to cheer her up with a cuddle, but it's just not the same as her very own ball that never had to leave her behind to go to school. :(
But the next day, they go back to the park, and... the brown dog is back! And his owner has a replacement ball. <3 So the two dogs and the two girls become friends and have a happy day at the park. Doesn't that sound like the beginning of a beautiful friendship?
***
I actually have one more piece of picture book news this week: one of my friends is having a baby so I am of course planning to inundate her with piles of picture books, which I thought I would have to buy online because naturally I want to get all the picture I liked as a small child and Barnes & Noble just doesn't sell them anymore...
But the other day I was in Bloomington and I went to the book corner and they have a picture book baskets which must be themed around The Best Picture Books of All Time because they have a glorious selection that includes many of my beloved childhood favorites!
After some contemplation of this bounty, I nearly settled on Miss Rumphius - but then it occurred to me that Rachel almost certainly has Miss Rumphius already. So I bought Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake instead.
Then Daisy and her owner take the ball to the park. They play fetch, they nearly lose the ball behind a fence, OH NO, but Daisy's owner saves it, and then it's back to fetch again, at which point - a big brown dog STEALS THE BALL.
Daisy gives chase! The brown dog runs off! Daisy is nearly neck and neck, ready to try to knock the ball from the brown dog's mouth, but the brown dog bites down and the ball goes pop.
Daisy is in despair. The picture book is wordless so this is conveyed both through Daisy's body language (she is quite expressive for all she is basically a few squiggles) and by the fact that the background watercolor wash dims from its previous cheerful greens & blues & yellows to sad splodges of violet and gray. Daisy goes home and melts into the couch in her sadness. Her owner tries to cheer her up with a cuddle, but it's just not the same as her very own ball that never had to leave her behind to go to school. :(
But the next day, they go back to the park, and... the brown dog is back! And his owner has a replacement ball. <3 So the two dogs and the two girls become friends and have a happy day at the park. Doesn't that sound like the beginning of a beautiful friendship?
***
I actually have one more piece of picture book news this week: one of my friends is having a baby so I am of course planning to inundate her with piles of picture books, which I thought I would have to buy online because naturally I want to get all the picture I liked as a small child and Barnes & Noble just doesn't sell them anymore...
But the other day I was in Bloomington and I went to the book corner and they have a picture book baskets which must be themed around The Best Picture Books of All Time because they have a glorious selection that includes many of my beloved childhood favorites!
After some contemplation of this bounty, I nearly settled on Miss Rumphius - but then it occurred to me that Rachel almost certainly has Miss Rumphius already. So I bought Patricia Polacco's Thunder Cake instead.
