From: McClelland, Kate <mcclelland>
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 13:32:08 -0500

I will take this last minute to refer back appreciatively to Eliza Dresang?s brilliant summation of the critical awards process and say a few words about the 2002 Caldecott choices. When THE THREE PIGS arrived, it nearly knocked me off my chair? it was that daring and that clever. It was an early landmark in a year of many fine illustrated books. For me personally, it set a high benchmark. Many on the committee used this book with children bc we took seriously our charge to choose a book that "displays respect for children's understandings, abilities, and appreciations," and "one for which children are the potential audience." I discovered with a group of 2nd and 3rd graders that kids simply loved it, from the spread where the first pig sticks his nose out between the frames and speaks directly to the audience. And they were wowed by the spreads which were mostly white space with the pigs flying... the kids immediately identified it as signifying complete freedom? a thrillingly seductive and subversive concept for children. It was this idea, directly from the mouths of children, which led me to the conclusion that THE THREE PIGS was much more than just technically brilliant artistic tour de force (which of course it IS). It made me see that the underlying theme was the freedom one has to ?rewrite one?s own ending,? or as our committee believed a celebration of possibility.

Each of the Honor books was similarly appreciated by the children in my own library and by the committee? each for its own distinctive reason. Brian Selznick?s THE DINOSAURS OF WATERHOUSE HAWKINS (Scholastic) was a visual melodrama for which children literally gasped as the pages were turned, as though they themselves were present in the front row with that Victorian audience who glimpsed, for the first time, those amazing dinosaurs thanks to the passion of Waterhouse Hawkins. And, through Selznick?s careful characterization of Hawkins, they felt the blow very personally when his work was destroyed by literally and figuratively SMALL man.

Everyone appreciated Marc Simont?s THE STRAY DOG (HarperCollins), which captured universal feelings of longing with seeming ease of technique, in watercolor, gesture and page design? the double page spread of a departing car with childrens? arms outstretched towards one very small dog lingers long in everyone?s heart. And they loved the satisfying visual symmetry between the frontispiece and the last page.

Bryan Collier?s MARTIN?S BIG WORDS (Hyperion), making outstanding use of watercolor and collage, is almost heart-stopping in its impact as it leads the reader from the initial open, beaming portrait of Dr. King to the final portrait which looks directly at us with a look so direct and so challenging that it sends chills. Each illustration is infused with dramatic lighting and moving visual symbol. Children are rapt as this book is shared, knowing that it is a BIG story made somehow even more monumental through the art.

Each book is venturesome in its own way; each book has already been taken to heart by children all over America as our Caldecott Committee members shared them in the course of our work. But they are very different in style, media, composition and palette. This serves to underscore the richness of the fine art of illustration as practiced in America today. There is perhaps one thing that unifies these books besides their individual distinctiveness and eminence. Each in its own way describes visually something we desperately want to share with today?s children: possibility. It is my honor to be a part of the hard-working committee that identified these books, and my hope that children everywhere will read them. Kate McClelland; Chair, 2002 Caldecott Committee
Received on Mon 04 Feb 2002 12:32:08 PM CST