From: Ginny Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 14:22:00 -600

I just looked at the CCBC-NET comments about Officer Buckle and Gloria for a second time. I found myself listing (from the discussion so far) this Caldecott winner's attributes : solid, well-done, child appeal (2), cheery, clear, realistic, upbeat, nice story, colorful, interesting safety tips, irony, familiar artistic approach (2), uses both words and pictures to express the story (2), delightful. And what about the repetition of page composition? Everyone seems dubious about linking the word "distinguished" with Officer Buckle and Gloria.
     I just returned from speaking and exhibiting books (including the ALA Award Books) at the dynamic, annual Western Wisconsin Education Conference in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Several hundred of the 1,200 K school staff registrants used the large hands-on CCBC book exhibit. Most of them had not seen Officer Buckle and Gloria before yesterday. Most of the people who approached me to talk after they looked at Officer Buckle and Gloria said, "Why?" "Average!" one person fumed.
     Grass-roots people actually care about the winner of the Caldecott Award. Not only do they want The News, they actually want The Book to be all it is supposed to be, i.e. distinguished. Like everyone in the CCBC-NET community who commented so far about Officer Buckle and Gloria, the people I met yesterday were not privy to the in?pth discussions of the recent Caldecott Committee. They do not know the range of the Caldecott Committee's finalists. But they want to take pride in the book that wins the Caldecott Award. I venture to say that they would probably disagree - as I do - with William Grimes who wrote in the New York Times (1/23/95:A2) that "the selection of 'Officer Buckle...', a cheery, conventional children's book with a clear message, was a return to form after last year's selection of 'Smoky Night'..." Well, Grimes is wrong. I knew this the moment I read his NYT article on January 23rd. And I knew it all over again yesterday. The teachers and library media specialists who talked with me yesterday understand that the Caldecott Medal is not awarded for a book conforming to a norm. A "return to form," indeed. That is not what professionals working directly with children expect of the annual Caldecott Medal winner. They are looking for exactly what CCBC-NET folks expressed all week long: a distinguished book, a book that will astonish them because of its excellence, its orginiality. Yes, they certainly hope that this book will also have child appeal. But what they do not want - and what disappoints them greatly - is an award winner that seems to be "average."
     Is Officer Buckle and Gloria merely average, or - even if it is not distinguished - do its many positive attributes move it into a different category? How about "notable?"
     Regarding the "vertical" Tops and Bottoms: Lois Ehlert used a vertical page composition in Mole's Hill (Harcourt Brace, 1994) and Snow Balls (Harcourt Brace, 1995). Certainly this year's Caldecott Committee members were acquainted with Ehlert's books and others employing that particular page arrangement. Apparently they appreciated additional exemplary qualities in Tops and Bottoms, although they probably agreed that the vertical arrangement was an effective decision for the picture book retelling of this particular tale. ... Ginny
********************************************************************* Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) A Library of the School of Education University of Wisconsin - Madison 4290 Helen C. White Hall, 600 N. Park St. Madison, WI 53706
Received on Sat 10 Feb 1996 02:22:00 PM CST