2014 Caldecott Medal and Honors

Hooray! Hooray!  Locomotive by Brian Floca took the Caldecott Medal for 2014. It just happens to be my favorite picture book of 2013.

Honors were awarded to Journey by Aaron Becker

Flora and the Flamingo  by Molly Idle

and Mr. Wuffles! by David Wiesner.

One thing that is interesting to me is that all of the illustrators are also the authors of the stories. In Brian Floca’s case, that includes a written story but just because the other three books are wordless, it doesn’t mean that they don’t tell a story. Aaron Becker has a video on his website about the creation of his book Journey. Congratulations to all!

NYPL Top Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years

The New York Public Library (NYPL) presented its first ever list of the Top Children’s Books of the Last 100 Years. Many of the books are no surprise: Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Some have been featured on this blog: Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, Holes by Louis Sacher and The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. There are books that I loved as a kid: Charlotte’s Web by E B White, Madeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans and The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien. A generation later my children loved: Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume, The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe by C S Lewis and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. My grandchildren love: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J K Rowling .  Check out the  complete list at School Library Journal.

Art & Max

Art & Max by David Wiesner is about Art(hur), an artist and Max, an aspiring artist. Arthur is finishing a painting, Max offers a compliment and then asks if he could paint, too. After a bit of a protest, Arthur fixes Max up with canvas, paints and brushes. But Max is stumped, what should he paint? Arthur suggests that Max might paint him. Max, taking the suggestion literally, starts to paint Arthur. What follows is a whirlwind tour through several artistic media to bring Art to a magnificent new look.

Most first graders have been able to read this book easily. They have fun sounding out “ridiculous” and “preposterous” and they love the pictures that tell how Max tries to fix Art’s problem.

The Sonoma County Library has several copies. The Yulupa Library does not have a copy but they have several other books by David Wiesner.