Caldecott 2004
Tuesday, January 13th, 2004I watched the ALA site eagerly yesterday to see who would be named royalty for the children’s book world for the year. Mordecai Gerstein’s The Man Who Walked Between the Towers won 2004’s Caldecott Medal. Having recently met 2003’s Caldecott Medal winner, Eric Rohmann, I felt closer to the subject than I ever have in the past. I don’t really ever expect to earn a Caldecott of my own, but it is something to shoot for.
Among the books honored by the Caldecott committee, I have to confess I have only read one of them: Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems. It is a fun, fast-paced little story with simple illustrations done in a limited pallette of tastefully muted colors. I read it a while ago, but in my memory it plays a lot like a book-length joke. It makes the reader feel as if he/she is in on something. Very mischievious.
I have seen What Do You Do with a Tail Like This? at the bookstore, but I haven’t picked it up. I haven’t even heard of Ella Sarah Gets Dressed. I guess it is time to go to the bookstore! (My favorite!)
One of my more favorite books that I picked up this year was MacMurtrey’s Wall, by Marc Sutherland, but it appears to have been published in 2001, and I am just behind the times. It didn’t win a Caldecott in 2001 either.
