Picture Book Reviews

1. Bibliography
Marcus, Leonard S. 1988. A Caldecott Celebration, Six Artists and Their Paths to the Caldecott Medal. New York:Walker and Company. ISBN 0802786561

2. Plot Summary
A Caldecott Celebration is an expository piece from Leonard S. Marcus which gives the background of six illustrators over the past six decades who have won the prestigious award. The explanations not only give a biography of the illustrators but also how they came to draw the material that won the Caldecott medal. Marcus chose one artist per decade to write about in this book. The six artists are Robert McClosky, Marcia Brown, Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Chris Van Allsburg, and David Wiesner.


3. Critical Analysis
Leonard S. Marcus begins each author's section with a quote from their Caldecott acceptance speech. This is a very effective approach to opening the discussion on each artist because it allows the reader a look at what the illustrator was thinking or feeling at the time. Marcus then gices a background of how the illustrator became an artist in the first place. He explains how Robert McCloskey was creating many different types of art to make money during the depression.

Marcus also explains how the six artists came to create the now famous works that earned them the Caldecott award. He explains the process of editing and revision that goes into work like this until the final works that ended up being in the proze winning books. For example, in the Maurice Sendak section, Marcus states, "The story kept getting longer, slower paced. Sendak again put it away."(21) Leonard Marcus also makes use of the pictures in this book by providing photographs of the original sketches for the stories. He then shows the progression the artists make to the products that end up int he picture books. For example, Marcus shows the beginning scketches that Chris Van Allsburg makes for Jumanji and then provides the final art from the book.


4. Review Exerpt
Publishers Weekly - "Filled with witty anecdotes and pithy observations, Marcus's approach to examining the works of six Caldecott Medalists will be of as much interest to adults as to picture book readers."

School Library Journal - "Choosing a winner from each decade, Marcus has assembled an impressive lineup of talent-Robert McCloskey, Marcia Brown, Maurice Sendak, William Steig, Chris Van Allsburg, and David Wiesner."


5. Connection
- This book is a good read for teachers who use picture books as teaching tools, it gives a better understanding of the artists, the process and the significance of the Caldecott medal.


- Exerpts of this book can be used in a lesson prior to or after reading one of the selected winners to a class to give deeper understanding and appreciation.


1. Bibliography
St. George, Judith. So You Want to be President? Illustrated by David Small. New York: Philomel Books. ISBN 0399234071


2. Plot Summary
Judith St. George wrote a humorous story that explains some of the details about the former Presidents of the United States. She mentions many of the differneces and similarites among the forty-two presidents that are included. St. George describes the way some of them look, the foods they liked or did not enjoy, their pets, where they grew up and how long they were President. These are just some of the descriptions she includes throughout this brief explanation of who the Presidents have been and how they lived.


3. Critical Analysis
In the picture book So you Want to be President?, Judith St. George explains details about the different Presidents of the United States in a playful manner. St. George begins by talking about the White House and tells of what it has and what Presidents have there. For instance, "the President has a swimming pool. bowling alley, and movie theater." (9) She also explains that if your name is James, you might become the President because there has been six Presidents with that name. Another commonality St. George lists is that eight Presidents have lived in log-cabins. The differnet sizes of some Presidents are mentioned along with a picture of Taft being lowered into a specially made tub, by a crane. The illustrations by David Samll are humorous exagerations of the points that St. George makes throughout the book.

There is also a part about which Presidents have been good looking and which presidents have not been so good looking. For example, St. George states that Harding was a hansdsome man but that Lincoln was "homely", however, being hansome or not had nothing to do with how good of a President they were. She mentions how some presidents have been related, for instance the Adams, Roosevelts, and the Harrisons. To end the book, Judith St. George wrote the oath that every President has taken and explains that every President "in his own way" has tried to fulfill this promise, "I do solemly swear ( or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."(46)


4. Review Exerpts
REVIEW BY JOHN L. SEIGENTHALER - "Here is a nifty little book -- deftly written and laced with light humor -- that introduces very young readers to the 42 politicians who have become president of the United States."

Publishers Weekly - "A clever and engrossing approach to the men who have led America."


5. Connections
-This would be useful to any classroom teacher who is focusing on United States History, it can be read as an introduction to a unit.


-Because middle schoolers enjoy and benefit from picture books as well, this would be a tool for an 8th grade US history teacher.






1. Bibliography

Grifalconi, Ann. the Village that Vanished. Illustrated by Kadir Nelson. 2002. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0803726236


2. Plot Summary
This is the story of a tribe that is in trouble because slavers are coming to their village to enslave them. A young girl, Abikanile, and her mother, Njemile, are members of the Yao tribe. The story opens with the girl listening to her mother pray to the ancestors to protect them. They go back to the tribe where Njemile offers a suggestion that they should disappear deeper into the forest to escape being captivated. The tribe does not take to it at first but then they decide to go. All but one old woman named Chimwala, Abikanile's grandmother, decide to go, she stays behind and pretends to be a witch. The tribe disappear over the river when Abikanile discovers a path across and when the slaver come they determine there is no one to take and the tribe is saved.


3. Critical Analysis
For the most part the book has small writing on the bottom of the pages with very vivid pictures covering the majority of the pages. Nelson's illustrations are striking and follow the story quite literally. The clothing, hair and features of the people are very detailed. Nelson exagerates the pigment of the tribes' skin by drawing a criss-cross pattern over the figures. Kadir Nelson also includes subtleties throughout the pictues, for instance on pages four and five where Abikanile is holding her mother's hand, the clouds behind them are i the shape of the slavers riding on horses with their weapons.

The story is told by a memer of the Yao tribe, in the oral tradition, to some children of the tribe. Grifalconi offers a good deal of dialog to tell the story. The reader can follow the progression of the book simply from the pictures and the conversations between characters. The language she uses, aside from the names of the characters, can be read easily by children. With the picture fitting the story so well, even struggling readers could follow along adn comprehend the story. There is a wisdom in the tone of Chimwala as she addresses the tribe and convinces them that shis is better off staying behind, she states, "I will stay here with the ancestors and we will greet you togethe when you return."(Grifalconi 15) Naturally, the story ends with the Yao narrator explaining to the children how they are here today because of Chimwala and Abikanile.

4. Review Exerpt
Reviewed by: Ned Alpers, Department of History, UCLA
"Kadir Nelson's beautiful illustrations successfully capture the fabular aspects of the story while also revealing some detailed sense of what a small African village might well have looked like in the past."


5. Connections
-Great story time book for read alouds.
-The pictures could be shown on their own and the students could write the story.