From: LThompson at Scholastic.com <LThompson>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2000 12:19:00 -0500

Marian Drabkin wrote:

Actually, the references are not to "Fiddler", but to the stories on which whoever-it-was based the musical. There are references in bits and pieces of newspapers and book titles to at least one well-known figure in Jewish literature, in addition to Sholem Aleichem, who is the name that most people seem to recognize. . . .


My response:



I really appreciate this commentary on the text of "Joseph" and the way the text and illustrations necessarily take part together in how and what a picture book communicates. Yes, the Caldecott is not given for text, but for illustration, but as one of the major awards for picture books, I keep hoping the Caldecott will come to award excellence in the picture book form, not just in picture book illustration. Because that's just how picture books work! It's sort of as if there were no Tony Award for a whole play, only for its stage and costume design. So hooray for discussions of the nuances of picture book art, but hooray, too, for thoughtful attention to picture book texts - the kind that fiction texts receive - and the way they work together. Such should never be thought irrelevant.

Lauren Thompson Senior Editor Scholastic Press
Received on Thu 27 Jan 2000 11:19:00 AM CST