The Caldecott Medal is awarded to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States during the preceding year". We equate this seal of approval with excellence. But not all Caldecott medals that glitter on the covers of picture books are golden!
Eric Rohmann won the most recent Caldecott for his book, My Friend Rabbit (Roaring Book Press, $15.95; ages 3-6). You can pretty much guess the story from the first page. The narrator, a small brown mouse, tells us that his friend Rabbit, "means well. But whatever he does, wherever he goes, trouble follows." After Rabbit launches mouse's airplane into a tree, he drags a cast of creatures ten times his size into a ridiculous pile. Then he mounts the animal mountain to retrieve mouse's plane.
When the award was announced, I didn't know a bookseller, or librarian. I hoped this was because the book was released by a small press and it's hard for an underdog publisher to gain notice with all the megacorporations snagging attention. On viewing the book, I found it less than remarkable.
Not that there's anything wrong with this book. In fact, there's a lot that recommends it. Unlike many Caldecotts, this year's award honors a book for young children. And Rohmann got it right in terms of this audience. Rabbit has the silly slapstick humor young listeners find sublime. A three-year-old will giggle when rabbit hauls the huge elephant, or hoists the fat purple hippo. In this book of few words, the "trouble follows" line is repeated three times, giving young children a place to participate.
In terms of illustration, the colored wood-block prints are simple, the backgrounds clear, and page layouts dramatize the story with interesting perspectives and compositions. You have to turn the book to view the climax, a vertical rendering of the pile of precariously balanced animals. The animals' faces lend a strong feeling tone.
Thankfully messages are buried in this book which accents humor instead of moral. But the pictures and words provide comfort for children viewed as troublesome, and offer a strong argument for sticking with colorful, unique playmates.
My Friend Rabbit satisfies Caldecott criteria and will please young readers. But will it endure? I shared it with two bookseller, several librarians, and a book-buying grandmother and I got the same reaction. "It's cute!" Should a Caldecott go to a "cute" book?
This is only one of a number of recent Caldecotts awarded to thinly-plotted books that serve primarily as a vehicle for great pictures. I want more in my Caldecotts. I want them to exemplify excellent literary-visual marriages. Children deserve the best in both story and illustration.
But this doesn't always happen. David Wiesner has won two Caldecott awards; The Three Pigs (Houghton, $16.00, ages 5-8 ) won last year and Tuesday (Clarion, $17.00, ages 5-8) won in 1992. Both books find success primarily from a basic premise and pictures which support it. In The Three Pigs, the porcine heroes fold a book's pages into a paper airplane, fly out of their story, romp through other tales, and mount a hostile book-takeover, choosing a cast that's more to their liking. In Wiesner's nearly wordless Tuesday, frogs take off on flying lily pads for a some enchanted nighttime fun.
Three of my favorite Caldecott winners are models of exquisite story-picture blending. Skip back to the 1997 Caldecott won by David Wisniewski's Golem (Clarion,$17.00 ; ages 8 and up). The artist-author used a monochromatic palette and intricate cut papers to retell the legend of a monster made of clay to defend the Jews of Prague in 1580 from the slanderous "Blood Lie" which claimed they were murdering children. Colors, layered collages, and scale changes unite to describe the darkness and complexity of this dramatic story and the monstrousness of the fight between good and evil.
Peggy Rathmann's 1996 Caldecott winner is Officer Buckle and Gloria (Putnam, $16.99, ages 5-9). Don't be misled by the almost cartoonish pictures. It's Rathmann's clever blending of humor and simplicity that allows her to tell a story of friendship, betrayal and the struggle to recover relationship and make these complicated ideas accessible, touching, and entertaining. Officer Buckle gives deadly dull safety presentations which fail miserably until he's joined by his police dog, Gloria, a natural actress. Without his knowledge, he stands behind him and mimes his points with slapstick and irreverence that brings the pair fame. But when Officer Buckle sees their program on television and learns the truth about what Gloria's been doing. He's depressed and can't go on with his show. However, Gloria can't pull it off alone. The two reunite and come up with the best safety lesson of all: "Always stick with your buddy!" Depth and sophistication come in the contrast of story and illustrations. The illustrations have a sense of movement and the vivid colors well-describe the vibrant Gloria. Like the two characters, neither book, nor illustrations would find such successful if they operated solo.
Allen Say's Grandfather's Journey (Houghton Mifflin,$16.95, ages 5 and up) won the Caldecott in 1994. The book is a spare recounting of a man who feels at home in both California and in Japan, his country of origin, just as his grandfather once did. Say expresses each man's dramatic struggle through understated prose and simple, soft watercolors. Both art and words contrast with the aching theme of longing that is never stated. It lies just below the surface and colors the entire story.
Noteworthy picture books are those that come from the complex fitting together of rich story and powerful pictures which compliment each other perfectly and blend seamlessly. It would make sense for the Caldecott to honor both these forms and if both were required it might inspire superior books.
We live in a visual world. Consumers are more likely to be lured by illustration than story. Those are two good reasons to keep stories, as well as pictures, alive and flourishing.