Caldecott Medal and Honor Books

Through my explorations, I have not found a distinct difference between the Caldecott Honor and Medal books. I have found that all have extraordinary pictures and are completely different from one another. The mediums of the pictures are not alike which makes it hard for me to compare one against another. The honor and medal books, all have illustrations that compliment the text and help portray the story in a supplemental way. I enjoyed the illustrations of all of the books I have explored for this project but here are a few of my favorites.

Philip A. Stead's A Sick Day for Amos McGee illustrated by Erin E. Stead.

I love the medium and texture that the illustrations display throughout the book. The use of color greatly impacts the reader's experience of the story. They images, are composed of very soft colors with a strategic use of white space of specific pages. My favorite is the spread pictured below. The background, except for the trees are shown as open white space, which draws the reader's eye to the characters and trees. The following page, shows the animals on the bus heading towards Amos McGee's house. The animals however no longer maintain the same color they did before. Stead uses blue, gray and white shading to tell the story and show the animals inside the vehicle. It's as if the windows of the bus impact the color of the animals and all the reader can see are the shadows and outlines of the characters. The green of the trees are even downplayed in this image. This draws the attention once again to the animals.

With a limited art background, I was curious how the artist was able to create such powerful images for this text.  The most effective way to learn about this process I had found is from the author herself. Check out this video of Stead explaining the process.

A second favorite of mine is the Ken Henkes, Kitten's First Moon. It shares the same simplicity as Stead's illustrations but in a completely different way. The illustrations in this text, are entirely black and white, giving the reader the sense of the night in which the book takes place. 

These pictures , shows an example of the black and white sketch like illustrations created by Henkes. The character of the cat, contrasts with the grays of the night sky and grass. The use of white is also used to represent the brightness of the moon and fireflies in the background. 

The kitten is continually represented as a bright, white creature against the a dark background. This gives the reader a sense of innocence that the little kitten displays as she tries to get the "little bowl of milk in the sky" which is also represented by the brightness of the white.

A third favorite of mine is Lane Smith's Grandpa Green. I have always admired the outline style illustrations that she typically produces within other pictures books, but with this particular text, the texture of the topiaries are what stuck out to me. The background and characters were minimalized in pencil like black lines while the greenery seemed to pop off of the pages with their 3D like affect. In these particular pages from the book below, the surrounding trees are drawn with whimsical, curvy lines. By doing this, Smith creates an archway leading down the path to the main focus of the garden; the topiaries.

A main feature of this book, that is evident to the reader is the strong interdependency of the pictures with the text. While reading the text, I found myself studying the pictures in order to fully interpret the message and story. If there were no text, this book would still effectively tell the story of Grandpa Green and his life. This is why I believe this book was selected for the Caldecott Honor. The illustrations are what make the book. The text aids in the story telling, but the quality of the pictures are what tell the story.