Genre 1 Creation of Children's Picture Books

A Caldecott Celebration: Six Artists and Their paths to the Caldecott Medal

Marcus, Leonard S. 1998. United States of America, Walker Publishing Company
Inc. ISBN 0-8027-8656-1


It is about six Caldecott Medal Winners, their struggles to make their dreams come true, about becoming an aritist.

The Caldecott Award is a very prestigious honor and it is given to the person whose artwork shows what people like to see. Named after a ninetheenth centrury English illustrator, Randolph Caldecott, for his lively picture books. This became the standard of work artist hoped to match, so to encourage American artists to rise to this same standard, the Caldecott Award was created and it is given to U.S. citizens or residents who submit their work as children's literature.
This book shares the artist passion for their work. It tells about their lives, hopes and dreams and how they become reality. The road to success for all was not easy, ut thier love for the arts helped them to fulfill their dreams.

The six artists or illustrators are:

Robert McCloskey - 1942 for "Make Way for Ducklings", he studied mallard specimens, consulted bird experts and purchased sixteen duck, that lived with him and his roommate in their studio. It was a messy situation but one that proved to be worth the trouble. The mediums used to create the illustrations were lighographic crayon on zinc plates.

Marcia Brown - 1955 for "Cinderella: or The Little Glass Slipper", she had always dreamed of illustrating books for children, mainly the fairy tales she grew up with, that at the time were not illustrated. This became her inspiration. The mediums she used to create her illustration were gouache, crayon, watercolor, and ink.

Maurice Sendak - l964 for "Where the Wild Things Are", he started with the original name for the story as "Where the Wild Horses are" back in l955, but it wasn't until 1963 that he changed his title to "Where the Wild Things Are". He researched Randolph Caldecott's work and found that it just didn't tell are story, it had a lively presence about it. He also used personal experiences and friends for his creation of his charaters. The mediums he use for his illustrations were India ink line over tempera.

William Steig - l970 for "Slyvester and the Magic Pebble" came to be after working as a cartoonist and an ad illustrator for many years. Robert krauss asked him if he would like to write children's stories, and with the desire to want to do something different he accepted the challenge, he was 60 years at the time. He found he had many ideas, drawings pigs was easy and his love for donkeys helped him to create his Caldecott Award book. The mediums he used was India ink and watercolor.

Chris Van Allsburg - 1982 for "Junanji" his inspriation was his love for drawing, building car and airplane models as a boy and pretending that he was the driver or pilot. His favorite book was by Crockett Johnson's "Harold and the Purple Crayon". His support was his wife, who was a schoolteacher, encouraged him and helped him with making sure he didn't repeat the storyline or making certain if part of the story could be made more simply. Once the story was written, his illustrations gave him the most pleasure in making the book, using plastic animal as images to draw, having children of friends pose as monkeys and his own imagination, his technique was to create real live looking pictures. The mediums he used for his illustration were Conte pencil and Conte dust.

David Wiesner - l992 for "Tuesday" he remembered growing up exposed to Mad magazines and action comics with no words and was fascinated to read pitures that told a story. In high school he made silent movies and as an undergraduate he continued to find new ways of telling picture stories. While studying at Rhode Island School of Design he was sked by Trina Schart Hyman (l985 Caldecott Medal winner for "Saint George and the Dragon"),after seeing his artwork, to design a cover for Cricket Magazine and told him to consider choosing children's book illustration as a career. This inspired him and as he worked on a second cover for the magazine, he got his idea for "Tuesday". He studied nature photos from National Geographic and sculpted frog models of clay. As for the title "Tuesday" sounded very much like "Ooze Day" which made it sound right for a book about frogs. The medium he used for his illustrations was watercolor.


Analysis

I like the way Leonard Marcus wrote this book, it was easy to read and interesting. The pictures he shows as to how the award winning books got started could inspire someone to continue their doodling if the have the love of art in their souls.
The simplicity of the book is very user friendly and easy to read.

Review
"Book bearing medals have the look of things that have been with us forever...
not a drop of the mystery and fondness one feels towards these works is diluted by the details shared in "A Caldecott Celetration" and after reading marcus's considered tribute, you'll only love these book the better."

Jean Lenihan
www.bookfinder.com


"Art is the major focus here, including photos of each author and their dummies, preliminary sketches, and finshed artwork. The transforamtions that take place between concept and final book are intriguing."...

Alice Cary
www.bookpage.com

Connections

Working with children to recognize their potential of their simple drawings.

Introducing different mediums in art class and discussing the importance of such diverse techniques.

Encourage students to discover what artists do to continue their love for art.