A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artist and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal

Title: A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artist and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal
Author: Leonard S. Marcus
Publisher: Walker & Co.
Publication City: New York, New York
Publication Date: 1988
ISBNs: 0-8027-8656-1; 0-8027-8658-8(reinforced)

Summary
The Caldecott Medal celebrated 60 years in 1988, and as a tribute to the medal, Leonard S. Marcus chose one book from each decade as a highlight of the decade. The chosen books in order are: Make Way For Ducklings by Robery McCloskey, Cinderella; ot, THe LIttle Glass Slipper adapted by Marcia Brown, Where the Wild Things are by Maurice Sendak, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig, Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg, and Tuesday by David Wiesner. Each illustrator gives insight into how they chose the books storyline-or setting in Wiesner's case. The illustrators/authors go into some detail as to how they drew their illustrations, and why they chose the specific medium to portray their ideas.

Review
As the 70th year of Caldecott approaches, it will be interesting to see if there is an update to this book. For a fan of children's books, and for someone who likes to know the behind-the-scenes story of the story, then they will enjoy this book. Marcus makes the assumption that the reader has read each book and is familiar with the plots. The sketches provided to show beginnings of illustrations is a nice touch, and it is noticably lacking in the 1970s choice, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble. It makes the reader wonder why Marcus chose that particular book. "A Caldecott Celebration: is written at an appropriate level for a child who needs to write a book report on awards, illustrators, or children's books. The writing assumes the young reader can handle phrases like "stuffy mythological scenes" and "bloodcurdling rendition."

Professional Reviews

From Publishers Weekly:
Filled with witty anecdotes and pithy observations, Marcus's (Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom) approach to examining the works of six Caldecott Medalists will be of as much interest to adults as to picture book readers. He has chosen one book from each decade, "so that viewed together, the six offer an informal cross section through time of the American picture book": Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings, Marcia Brown's Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, William Steig's Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Chris Van Allsburg's Jumanji and David Wiesner's Tuesday. With a generous sprinkling of the artists' own words and sometimes those of his or her editor, Marcus chronicles the inspiration behind these works, the creative process, the artists' reactions to winning the prestigious award and its effect on their careers. He fills the volume with the kinds of details children relish: McCloskey once shared his Greenwich Village digs with 16 ducks and Steig does black-and-white drawings first, then fills in each color one by one throughout the book. Encouraging readers to see each picture book through the artist's eyes, Marcus shows Brown's compositional studies, explains how Van Allsburg chose from which perspective to view the coiled python in the living room and how Sendak decided "that the illustrations leading up to the rumpus would get larger and larger, as Max's emotions pushed out the words." He traces the evolution of the illustrations for Tuesday from Wiesner's first quick sketches, when the idea occurred to him on a jet plane. With Marcus's sure hand guiding this tour, readers will find cause for celebration. All ages.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Connections
Students will choose a book from the past decade (1998-present) and add a chapter on to "A Caldecott Celebration."
Students will compare and contrast the winner with the honors books and use their judgement on whether or not the committee made the correction decision.