Caldecott Awards 2019
Feb. 2nd, 2019 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerThe Caldecott awards have been awarded! And the children’s librarian at my branch made a display of them, so I went ahead and read them all. There is a definite theme this year, and that theme is: adorable.
Medal Winner
Hello Lighthouse, by Sophie Blackall. This is the story of a lighthouse keeper and his family, somewhat reminiscent of Barbara Cooney’s work in the detail of the illustrations and the beautiful rendition of the water. I was particularly taken with the picture of the lighthouse with the side cut away, so you could look at all the little round rooms inside, and the round picture of the keeper’s pregnant wife walking around a round room, time-elapsed, so she’s getting bigger as she goes around - like a diagram of a waxing moon.
Honor books
A BIG Mooncake for Little Star, by Grace Lin. (Yes! Grace Lin won the Newbery Honor for When the Mountain Meets the Moon a few years ago. Someday she’ll score the medal.) A small girl and her mama bake a giant mooncake and hang it in the sky, only the little girl eats a little bit of eat each night, and the crumbs become stars in the sky.
Alma and How She Got Her Name, by Juana Martinez-Neal. Alma Sofia Esperanza Jose Pura Candela complains to her father about her name (“It doesn’t fit on anything!”), so he explains to her where each name came from. Again: adorable. I particularly liked the softness of the illustrations: they were done on handmade textured paper and you can see some of that texture still in the smooth pages of the picture book.
The Rough Patch, by Brian Lies. So there was another book, Blue, which the children’s librarian at my branch thought might win a Caldecott this year, and when it didn’t I felt we’d dodged a bullet. “Maybe the Caldecott committee decided against dead dog books,” I thought hopefully.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
The Rough Patch is this year’s dead dog book. Our hero is a fox who farms with his dog by his side, until the dog dies, at which point the fox (why are foxes in this world anthropomorphic but not dogs?) destroys his entire garden and lets the weeds take it over, except a stubborn pumpkin plant grows an enormous pumpkin which he takes the state fair, where it wins him third prize, which is either ten dollars…
Or a puppy.
Thank You, Omu!, by Oge Mora. Omu has made a vat of the most delicious thick red stew for her dinner - so delicious that the smell brings a little boy to the door, who comments that he smells the most delicious scent, at which point Omu gives him a bowl…
And then a policewoman comes. And a construction worker. And the mayor. And it becomes a heartwarming story about sharing, although I must admit I was definitely thinking “CLOSE YOUR WINDOW OR YOU’RE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY STEW LEFT FOR DINNER.”
Medal Winner
Hello Lighthouse, by Sophie Blackall. This is the story of a lighthouse keeper and his family, somewhat reminiscent of Barbara Cooney’s work in the detail of the illustrations and the beautiful rendition of the water. I was particularly taken with the picture of the lighthouse with the side cut away, so you could look at all the little round rooms inside, and the round picture of the keeper’s pregnant wife walking around a round room, time-elapsed, so she’s getting bigger as she goes around - like a diagram of a waxing moon.
Honor books
A BIG Mooncake for Little Star, by Grace Lin. (Yes! Grace Lin won the Newbery Honor for When the Mountain Meets the Moon a few years ago. Someday she’ll score the medal.) A small girl and her mama bake a giant mooncake and hang it in the sky, only the little girl eats a little bit of eat each night, and the crumbs become stars in the sky.
Alma and How She Got Her Name, by Juana Martinez-Neal. Alma Sofia Esperanza Jose Pura Candela complains to her father about her name (“It doesn’t fit on anything!”), so he explains to her where each name came from. Again: adorable. I particularly liked the softness of the illustrations: they were done on handmade textured paper and you can see some of that texture still in the smooth pages of the picture book.
The Rough Patch, by Brian Lies. So there was another book, Blue, which the children’s librarian at my branch thought might win a Caldecott this year, and when it didn’t I felt we’d dodged a bullet. “Maybe the Caldecott committee decided against dead dog books,” I thought hopefully.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
The Rough Patch is this year’s dead dog book. Our hero is a fox who farms with his dog by his side, until the dog dies, at which point the fox (why are foxes in this world anthropomorphic but not dogs?) destroys his entire garden and lets the weeds take it over, except a stubborn pumpkin plant grows an enormous pumpkin which he takes the state fair, where it wins him third prize, which is either ten dollars…
Or a puppy.
Thank You, Omu!, by Oge Mora. Omu has made a vat of the most delicious thick red stew for her dinner - so delicious that the smell brings a little boy to the door, who comments that he smells the most delicious scent, at which point Omu gives him a bowl…
And then a policewoman comes. And a construction worker. And the mayor. And it becomes a heartwarming story about sharing, although I must admit I was definitely thinking “CLOSE YOUR WINDOW OR YOU’RE NOT GOING TO HAVE ANY STEW LEFT FOR DINNER.”
no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 03:57 pm (UTC)TBF I can't remember another Caldecott book about a dead dog, but still. One is already more than anyone wanted.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-03 12:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 03:11 pm (UTC)Hello Lighthouse ... The Rough Patch ... A BIG Mooncake for Little Star
(why only those three? Why no love for Alma and How She Got Her Name? If I search on it, I get, in order, Rough Patch, Thank You, Omu!, BIG Mooncake, and Hello Lighthouse... and also Merci Suárez Changes Gears)
no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 08:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-02 10:15 pm (UTC)