CCBC-Net Archives
favorites, etc. -Reply
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Melody Allen <melodyan>
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 09:01:38 -0500
I would like to agree with Deborah Hopkinson's recommendation of Gabriella's Song. Note the endpapers with musical notes on the laundry hung out to dry and the wonderful flowing lines that sweep the reader through this story.
Three other picture books that seem to pass the test of Anita Silvey's now old editorial in Horn Book about whether Randolph Caldecott could win the Caldecott Medal are The Goose That Almost Got Cooked by Marc Simont, Bearsie Bear and the Surprise Sleepover Party by Bernard Waber, and What's the Matter, Habibi? By Betsy Lewin. Habibi has line drawings with watercolor washes reminiscent of Stevenson
(but with less skillful expression in the facial features). A camel refuses to give the children a ride until he proudly wears a fez. His loving owner wants to make him happy but must chase him through the marketplace. Nice page compositions. Bearsie Bear is a cumulative story of all the animals wanting to sleep in bear's bed on a cold night. All are welcome until porcupine jumps in, but in the end all is well. The text goes along like Henny Penny with subtle humor, and the line drawings with watercolors and lots of white space are charming and expressive, especially as each animal leaps into bed. The threat of Goose stew in the third book is introduced even before the title page with an illustration of a knife on a cutting board and appropriate vegetables. I have to admit that this book is also done in watercolors, with many diagonal lines in the page composition to draw the reader through the book and add to the sense of action. Dark colors reinforce the frightening moments. The animals and setting are gorgeously naturalistic.
While I'm on this roll with watercolors, I'd also like to draw attention to Tell Me a Season by Mary McKenna Siddals and illustrated by Petra Mathers. A simple, yet poetic text about the seasons is accompanied by lovingly rendered art, often childlike, that uses color to create mood and seems to glow with light.
Enjoying this discussion of favorites,
Melody Allen
Melodyan at dsl.rhilinet.gov
---------From: Deborah Hopkinson Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 1997 6:50 PM To: ccbc-net at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu; (Subscribers of ccbc-net) Subject: favorites, etc. -Reply
I'm still catching up with novels from '96, so by the time I read '97 books I'll have forgotten everyone's comments! But I do have some favorite picture books.
One is Candace Fleming's GABRIELLA's SONG, illustrated by Giselle Potter. Set in Venice, the story follows Gabriella's song as it gets passed around town from one person to another. The illustrations have a folk art quality and the colors are vibrant hopkinda at whitman.edu
Received on Wed 10 Dec 1997 08:01:38 AM CST
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 1997 09:01:38 -0500
I would like to agree with Deborah Hopkinson's recommendation of Gabriella's Song. Note the endpapers with musical notes on the laundry hung out to dry and the wonderful flowing lines that sweep the reader through this story.
Three other picture books that seem to pass the test of Anita Silvey's now old editorial in Horn Book about whether Randolph Caldecott could win the Caldecott Medal are The Goose That Almost Got Cooked by Marc Simont, Bearsie Bear and the Surprise Sleepover Party by Bernard Waber, and What's the Matter, Habibi? By Betsy Lewin. Habibi has line drawings with watercolor washes reminiscent of Stevenson
(but with less skillful expression in the facial features). A camel refuses to give the children a ride until he proudly wears a fez. His loving owner wants to make him happy but must chase him through the marketplace. Nice page compositions. Bearsie Bear is a cumulative story of all the animals wanting to sleep in bear's bed on a cold night. All are welcome until porcupine jumps in, but in the end all is well. The text goes along like Henny Penny with subtle humor, and the line drawings with watercolors and lots of white space are charming and expressive, especially as each animal leaps into bed. The threat of Goose stew in the third book is introduced even before the title page with an illustration of a knife on a cutting board and appropriate vegetables. I have to admit that this book is also done in watercolors, with many diagonal lines in the page composition to draw the reader through the book and add to the sense of action. Dark colors reinforce the frightening moments. The animals and setting are gorgeously naturalistic.
While I'm on this roll with watercolors, I'd also like to draw attention to Tell Me a Season by Mary McKenna Siddals and illustrated by Petra Mathers. A simple, yet poetic text about the seasons is accompanied by lovingly rendered art, often childlike, that uses color to create mood and seems to glow with light.
Enjoying this discussion of favorites,
Melody Allen
Melodyan at dsl.rhilinet.gov
---------From: Deborah Hopkinson Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 1997 6:50 PM To: ccbc-net at ccbc.soemadison.wisc.edu; (Subscribers of ccbc-net) Subject: favorites, etc. -Reply
I'm still catching up with novels from '96, so by the time I read '97 books I'll have forgotten everyone's comments! But I do have some favorite picture books.
One is Candace Fleming's GABRIELLA's SONG, illustrated by Giselle Potter. Set in Venice, the story follows Gabriella's song as it gets passed around town from one person to another. The illustrations have a folk art quality and the colors are vibrant hopkinda at whitman.edu
Received on Wed 10 Dec 1997 08:01:38 AM CST
