5 Caldecott Medal Winners

Henkes, K. (2004). Kitten's first full moon. New York: Greenwillow.

Kitten is a curious little kitty who thinks the full moon is a bowl of milk in the sky. She ingests a big, falls off the porch, and takes a journey through the countryside trying to reach it. When Kitten climbs a tree, she gets scared and eventually jumps in the pond after the reflection of the moon in the water. Upon arriving home, Kitten finds a real bowl of milk waiting for her.

I loved this book because I happen to be huge fan of black and white and the illustrations were bold but expressive. I loved the layout of the pictures across the pages with different combinations of light and dark and black and white areas with the text in bold black letters. I can see where some people might think these illustrations were boring, but for this type of early reader, I think they are just right.

Rohmann, E. (2002). My friend rabbit. Brookfield, Conn.: Roaring Brook.

Rabbit is a little guy who seems to get into trouble everywhere. This story, which has very little text, is largely told through the progressive illustrations. When an airlplane goes out of reach, rabbit gathers his friends (all sorts of animals) and has them build a tower with their differently-shaped bodies. The animals' facial expressions tell the tale of their dispositions during this activity. At the end, Mouse, the narrarator, proclaims his devotion to his friend despite Rabbit's propensity for mischief.

The illustrations in this book are absolutely adorable! With bright colors and bold black outlines, these animals have an appealing yet cartoonish look. Rohmann somehow creates a great deal of movement with the shape of the lines. By turning the grass on an upward slant, there is a sense of rising action throughout the story that settles at the end back to a perfectly horizontal grass base.

Taback, S. (1999). Joseph had a little overcoat. New York: Viking.

Adapted from an old Yiddish tune, this book is the author's second and newly-illustrated version of a previously published book. This story is a true lesson in recycling and truly a tale of perseverance. The pictures are colorful and cartoonish and consist of a cut-out on each page that creates the illustration on the succeeding page. Joseph, who begins with an overcoat, minimizes his overcoat to a jacket, then a vest, necktie, hankerchief, and finally a button. When he loses his button, Joseph decides to write a book!

The special aspect of these illustrations is that there are many colorful patterns and they are infused with photographed patterns. This type of artistic creation completely blow my mind. In addition, the cutouts that fit into the picture on the current page and make a focal point on the subsequent page completely blow my mind. I cannot comprehend the genius that must go into such illustrations. Even if I am too concrete and dull to understand them, I can thoroughly admire them, as I definitely do admire these.

St. George, J. (2000). So you want to be President? New York: Philomel.

Illustrated by David Small, this Caldecott Medalist title is nonfiction and teaches readers all about past Presidents of the United States. I would best describe the illustrations as characatures, but are still assumedly historically accurate. This book is full of informative facts and encouraging tidbits for young readers who may have aspirations for the White House.

Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. New York: Clarion.

This picture book has no text. Wiesner creates a story through his incredibly realistic illustrations which are pictures and pictures of photographs. When I got to this book, I decided to let my 8-year-old son "read" it to me, to see it from a child's point of view. I typed exactly what he dictated and it is as follows:

Kid at the beach, seeing the bug. He drops the bug and looks at a sandcastle. It looks like he goes down and tries to build another sandcastle. Then he finds a crab. He goes by the sand and starts looking at the crab, then a big wave comes up and it washes him and the crab and the shovel all out. Then he finds a whatever that is...an old camera and he's like, "What is that?" He picks it up and reads what it says. It says Melville underwater camera. He looks around and then runs back to his mom and dad holding the camera. He shows it to his mom and dad and then the lifeguard. He doesn't know what it is. So he takes it out, opens it up and looks inside and he finds a battery or a roll of film. He examines it. He runs back out of the beach down the road, into a store named, "One Hour Photo." He shows the film to the lady and it looks like the lady is on the phone. Then she grabs the same kind of film as he had in the camera and she shows it to him. He's waiting and waiting and waiting. He runs out of the store with the photos. Then he runs back to the beach with the camera and the photos and he looks at the picture of the photos and he notices something. He looks really close. It shows some bionical fish and he looks and finds an octopus and some fish and a light fish - it's under the sea and it's like a living room where people have gotten chairs washed away. Then he sees a picture of a blowfish with three fish in it and they are above the ground and the blowfish is the hot air balloon and the three fish are the people of the thing and one fish fell and he's falling back into the sea. Then he looks at a picture of sea turtles with a bunch of shells as homes. Then he sees a picture of miniature people that are green and have air bubbles that have seahorses around them and there are - air helmets - and fish looking inside a hovercraft in the sea that have a little home and they have caught a fish and killed it for food. Then he looks at a picture of starfish with islands on them and little whales that are smaller than the starfish and if the starfishes lay down then they have islands.

At this point he lost interest a little so we narrated the rest of the book together. It is such a cute and creative story of time and progression. It was a special experience for me as a mother to hear the narration from his point of view. I love this book.