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1996 Caldecott
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From: Joanne Foss <fossj>
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 12:36:19 -0500
After my experience as a member of the 1995 Newbery Committee, I was sure that I would never try to second-guess an awards committee after the experience of evaluating so many books from such a different perspective. I have also always said I would never want to be on the Caldecott committee because I thnk that visual literacy is not one of my strenghs. (I have hardly enough of it for it even to be considered a weakness!) Even after making these two comments, I must say that I have a problem with some of the Caldecott choices that I have seen.
"Officer Buckle....." is delightful both in story and in pictures, but I don't see anything distinguished about it. It's a great example of a good story (one with a point without being didactic) and fun illustrations that enhance the story. I don't see what it is about the illustrations that make it distinguished. Looking at it reminds me of some of last year's Newbery discussions (relax, I'm not revealing anything juicy) surrounding books that were excellent examples of their genre, but to which our chair would ask us
"But does that make it distinguished"? Our answer was always no.
"Tops and Bottoms" for me raises the question, Would these illustrations have been considered distinguished if they would have been arranged on the page from left to right? I can't help answering no. I expect kids would like the novelty of the top and bottom page arrangement, but I found it hard to read. I found I had to force myself to look at the pictures because in reading left to right, it was uncomfortable to look up and down.
"Alphabet City" - This is a great book.It forced you to look at the eveyday scenes with an artist's eye. It's a reminder of how we look at so many day to day things without really seeing. J and Q really were ingenious to find. In some ways I almost wished that the letters wouldn't have been in alphabetical order because then you would have had to look even more closely to figure out the letters - with the alphabetical arrangement, you at least had a clue as to what to look for. I'm curious as to how many I would have really "seen" because I can never see anything I'm supposed to in the magic eye books.
I haven't been able to locate the Pinckney book yet, so can't comment on the pictures.
JoAnne Foss
Received on Sat 10 Feb 1996 11:36:19 AM CST
Date: Sat, 10 Feb 1996 12:36:19 -0500
After my experience as a member of the 1995 Newbery Committee, I was sure that I would never try to second-guess an awards committee after the experience of evaluating so many books from such a different perspective. I have also always said I would never want to be on the Caldecott committee because I thnk that visual literacy is not one of my strenghs. (I have hardly enough of it for it even to be considered a weakness!) Even after making these two comments, I must say that I have a problem with some of the Caldecott choices that I have seen.
"Officer Buckle....." is delightful both in story and in pictures, but I don't see anything distinguished about it. It's a great example of a good story (one with a point without being didactic) and fun illustrations that enhance the story. I don't see what it is about the illustrations that make it distinguished. Looking at it reminds me of some of last year's Newbery discussions (relax, I'm not revealing anything juicy) surrounding books that were excellent examples of their genre, but to which our chair would ask us
"But does that make it distinguished"? Our answer was always no.
"Tops and Bottoms" for me raises the question, Would these illustrations have been considered distinguished if they would have been arranged on the page from left to right? I can't help answering no. I expect kids would like the novelty of the top and bottom page arrangement, but I found it hard to read. I found I had to force myself to look at the pictures because in reading left to right, it was uncomfortable to look up and down.
"Alphabet City" - This is a great book.It forced you to look at the eveyday scenes with an artist's eye. It's a reminder of how we look at so many day to day things without really seeing. J and Q really were ingenious to find. In some ways I almost wished that the letters wouldn't have been in alphabetical order because then you would have had to look even more closely to figure out the letters - with the alphabetical arrangement, you at least had a clue as to what to look for. I'm curious as to how many I would have really "seen" because I can never see anything I'm supposed to in the magic eye books.
I haven't been able to locate the Pinckney book yet, so can't comment on the pictures.
JoAnne Foss
Received on Sat 10 Feb 1996 11:36:19 AM CST
