From: bookmarch_at_aol.com
Date: Fri, 17 May 2013 14:13:24 -0400 (EDT)

Tricia's question on photos echoes what I brought up the other day. If we are looking at bias and especially unexamined and unquestioned bias, we nee d to look at the general area of nonfiction -- how often does it win (not u sing the Dewey terms of folklore, poetry, etc.), and then format -- photos versus drawn art. I strongly suspect that we as professionals have either n o, or a very poorly articulated, standard for what Caldecott level NF would look like -- in terms of art, layout, design, and, especially, what photo- illustrated NF would look like. What could qualify? Of course standards for fiction and drawing are not set in stone -- that is what many have discuss ed already -- but I suspect that standards for award-level NF and photos ar e not even discussed. And yet the Sibert decided to include consideration o f design -- implying that there is such as thing as award-level design (or failure to achieve that standard).

I have heard that the Caldecott committee is given an intro talk from a des igner about art and such. If so, do photos and photo layouts come up in tho se discussions? Are NF books ever used as examples of award-worthy art?

Marc Aronson
Received on Fri 17 May 2013 02:13:24 PM CDT