From: Susan Dailey <obldailey>
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 08:34:23 -0500

I'd like to second Connie's vote for "When Marian Sang" by Pam Munoz Ryan and illustrated by Brian Selznick. We host two Mock Caldecott sessions at my librarian and have looked at a lot of picture books this year. Not many have really "grabbed me", but Marian did. (In fact, we are having trouble finding 100--our ideal number of titles--to preview that day.) We looked at another book done in gray tones and the illustrations just looked muddy. Selznick's don't have that quality at all. They are extremely effective, as is his use of light, which touches Marian in almost all the pictures.

I also really liked "Champion: The Story of Muhammad Ali" by Jim Haskins and illustrated by Eric Velasquez. The endpapers are a knock-out (pun intended) and the illustrations are beautiful.

However, if I were a betting person, I'd probably put my money on "Fireboat: the Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey" to win the Caldecott (or at least an honor). It is written and illustrated by Maira Kalman. Although the artistic style isn't one that really appeals to me, the pictures of the 9 disaster are highly effective and dramatic.

I almost forgot the latest book that intrigued me--"The Spider and the Fly" by Mary Botham Howitt, illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi. The gray tones are also very effective in this book and the "slightly" gruesome details are wonderful--the monarch butterfly wing curtains, the dead bug footstool, etc. The spider's note at the end is very funny. I'm not sure what young kids
(or the Caldecott committee) would think, but...

Still looking for great Caldecott contenders,

Susan Dailey, librarian, speaker and author of "A Storytime Year" Ossian Branch Library Ossian, IN obldailey at wellscolibrary.org
Received on Wed 04 Dec 2002 07:34:23 AM CST