From: The Fertig Family <susanhep>
Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2000 11:14:30 -0500

Here's one more note about Caldecott possibilities as seen by children. I read five critically acclaimed books (Weslandia, Sector 7, Come On, Rain, Happy to Be Nappy, and Bark, George) to approximately 50 third graders and their top two choices for the George Mason Elementary School (Alexandria, Virginia) Caldecott Award were Weslandia and Sector 7. They liked the mind behind Weslandia, the many inventions Wesley came up with, the happy ending, and the mysterious pictures. I guess that?s a reference to the looming plants, the numerous perspectives Hawkes gives us, and the magical swirl of alien seeds. They also noticed the contrasts in bright and dark As for Sector 7, while some 8-year-olds thought a picture book should have words, most responded to the details of Weisner's eloquent illustrations. They picked out the clever little cloud following his father back to earth, the details such as the cats in the window, the red cap against the grey fog which made the main characters easy to search for, the intricate machinery (very cool with lots of detail), the ambivalent adults some of whom actually seem to like the new fish-cloud shapes. One child even noticed that as the adult was tearing the fish-picture in half, a cloud was transforming and was half cloud and half fish. A nice aside to all of this is that the teacher is reading Weslandia again as a discussion starter when the class studies ancient cultures. What is a culture? Timely choice. Susan Hepler
Received on Fri 07 Jan 2000 10:14:30 AM CST