Four Feet Travels the Globe

One of the Cybils fiction picture book titles that made the shortlist was Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed. A recent article in Publisher's Weekly talks about how Khadra Mohammed took the book back to a refugee camp in Pakistan where the book is set. The children in the camp were able to read the book (it had been translated for them). Read this amazing story here.

My review of Four Feet, Two Sandals

And the winner is...

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice N. Harrington. It won the best book in the Cybils fiction picture book category. Yippee! A phenomenal book. Check out the other Cybils winners over at the Cybils blog.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being a part of this contest. I have made new blogger friends and fallen in love with a whole slew of books because of this opportunity. Many thanks to the organizers.

Another Cybils illustrator

For another featured illustrator, I direct you to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast where Jules interviews and features the Go to Bed, Monster illustrator Sylvie Kantorovitz. Go to Bed, Monster was one of the Cybils fiction picture book finalists.

My review of Go to Bed, Monster is here.

By the way, the winners will be announced on Valentine's Day (that's right, this week).

Janice Harrington Interview

As most of you know, The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice Harrington was a Cybils fiction picture book finalist. There is a wonderful interview with Ms. Harrington over at 28 Days Later.

Cybils Fiction Picture Book Finalist: The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County

The Chicken Chasing Queen of Lamar County
Written by Janice N. Harrington
Illustrated by Shelley Jackson
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2007

You know, my list of favorite books of 2007 just keeps growing and growing. And yes, it’s 2008. That’s the problem. I’m still reading and rereading some of my very favorite books from 2007 and trying to do reviews on them.

This book begs to be read aloud. Right now I’m reading, using and LOVING Linda Hoyt’s Interactive Read-Aloud lessons with my students. I love using picture books with fourth graders and I love how Linda Hoyt incorporates the books into meaningful, fun, sustaining, read-alouds. Of course Chicken Chasing Queen was just published this year, so it’s not in Linda Hoyt’s recommendations, but oh my goodness, I’m going to be using it very soon.

The main character, a young African-American girl, loves to chase chickens and she is the best Chicken Chaser. In fact, she’s the queen of chicken-chasing. She loves fretting the chickens. Her grandmother has warned her about it, but she loves the mischievousness of chasing the chickens. Then one day she finds the hen has gone. She finally finds her sitting on her eggs. And she has a change of heart. She doesn’t chase the hen anymore because she knows she’s busy being a mamma.

What makes me want to jump and shout about this book:
The language…it’s perfect and poetic and onomatopoeic and all of those good literary devices.
The voice…I could jump into this character and become her, it’s written so well.
The illustrations…Lots of collage and paintings, it fits the style of the story perfectly.
The awards…What awards you might ask? It is a Cybils fiction picture book finalist. It would have been wonderful if ALA adorned it with a sticker, but they didn’t.

The True Meaning of Smekday

The True Meaning of Smekday
By Adam Rex

Hyperion 2007

Once again, this is another Rex title that I just couldn’t resist. The man can come up with some titles! I was intrigued.

The True Meaning of Smekday begins with a girl writing about the invasion of aliens on Earth. Gratuity Tucci’s whole life is different since the Boov (name of the weird looking aliens) came to America. First, they took her mom, then they sent everyone in America to Florida. Gratuity is on her own. Gratuity is looking back on the recent events and writes them down in an essay for school. The government is looking for essays from kids on the Smekday holiday to be placed in a time capsule. Smekday is the day that the aliens landed and took over the United States. Gratuity befriends a Boov and makes a cross-country journey with him.

I’m not big on science fiction, but this one definitely has kid-appeal. It has the occasional picture, a few elements of a graphic novel thrown in, and has funny talking aliens.

My only problem with this book was the length. And I think the length wouldn’t have bothered me if the story was broken up into chapters. There are no chapter breaks, just three different sections of the story. Since the book is over 400 pages, it makes a lengthy read without chapter breaks. I hope that Adam Rex tries a graphic novel.

This book was a finalist for the Cybils science fiction/fantasy category for Elementary and Middle Grade.

Read 7-Imps Interview with Adam Rex.

Jeremy Tankard--author interview

Have you read Jeremy Tankard's Grumpy Bird? If you haven't, you must! It was nominated for the Cybil fiction picture book category.

One of my cohorts in the fiction picture book nominating committee, Cheryl Reinfield, has an interview with Jeremy Tankard over at her blog. Check it out! It features a wonderful Q&A and some of his artwork, and the story behind the book.

Doug Chayka, Cybils Shortlist Illustrator

One of my favorite books from the Cybils fiction picture book nominations was Four Feet, Two Sandals by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed. It made our fiction picture book shortlist, and I reviewed it here.

Today the illustrator of this book, Doug Chayka, is the featured illustrator over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Head over there to see more of Chayka's illustrations and read Jules' interview with him.

In the News

I think the next couple of weeks are going to be full of news in the kidlitosphere with several big award winners to be announced next week. In the news this week:

The Cybils shortlists for Young Adult Fiction, Nonfiction Picture Books, Graphic Novels, and Middle Grade and YA Nonfiction. For a list of all finalists, go here. I can't wait to read them!

Also, in book award news, the Sydney Taylor Book Award winners and honor award winners have been announced. This award is given to books for children that "outstanding books that authentically portray the Jewish experience".

The winners are....
Young Readers: The Bedtime Sh'ma: A Good Night Book by Sarah Gershman and illustrated by Kristina Swarner

Older Readers: The Entertainer and the Dybbuk by Sid Fleischman

Teen Readers: Strange Relations by Sonia Levitin

For the complete list of all award and honor winners, check this out.

Thanks to Barbara Bietz for the heads up about this one.

And last, but not least... Kidlitosphere's own, Jen Robinson, is posting over at PBS Parents. Go visit her here.

Cybils hits the big time!

The annoucement of the Cybils' shortlists has made news in some pretty cool places.

Mo Willems called us "those wacky bloggers" on his blog. I think he was pleased that KB2 make our shortlist.

IRA announced the Cybils on their blog (and happened to mention that KB2 also was shortlisted). Thanks to Anastasia Suen for this link.

Drum roll please...

The Cybils finalists have been announced. At least they have been for fiction picture books, poetry, science fiction and fantasy, and middle grade fiction.

I felt so privileged to be on the fiction picture book committee this year and really felt like I learned a lot from Jules, our fearless leader (7-Imp), Pam (MotherReader), Annie (Crazy for Kids' Books), and Cheryl Rainfield (her blog). These ladies are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about children's books.

I loved so many of these books. It was fun to read titles that I might not have otherwise found (because many of them were not in my library or local bookstore)--so thanks to the generous publishers who made some of the review titles available. It made me realize the importance of bloggers and the Cybils awards. Hopefully people are being exposed to and encouraged to read books that are FABULOUS books, but are not necessarily in every bookstore or library. We hope you will go out and try to find these books and read them.

There were so many books that were hits with me. We picked seven for the shortlist, but I think we would all agree we had so many favorites. I have reviewed many on this blog.

And without further ado, here are the titles chosen for the shortlist for fiction picture books:

Psst!

Written and illustrated by Adam Rex

Harcourt, 2007

My review here

Go to Bed Monster!

by Natasha Wing

illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz

Harcourt, 2007

My review here

The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County

by Janice N. Harrington

Illustrated by Shelley Jackson

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007

Leaves

Written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein

Putnam Juvenile, 2007

My review here

Four Feet, Two Sandals

by Karen Williams and Khadra Mohammed

Illustrated by Doug Chayka

Eerdmans Books for Young Readers, 2007

My review here

Knuffle Bunny Too

Written and illustrated by Mo Willems

Hyperion, 2007

The Incredible Book Eating Boy

Written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers

Philomel, 2007

My review here

Laugh Out Loud Funny Books

Two of my favorite picture books this year were funny ones. My daughter and I cracked up everytime we read them. Both are perfect toddler books.

Penguin
Written and illustrated by Polly Dunbar
Candlewick, 2007

One of my favorite things about this book is the cover. It’s simple—lots of white space. But Penguin is simply portrayed and the title of the book is cleverly designed with the letters cut out of other materials.

Ben receives a stuffed penguin for a present. Ben talks constantly to the penguin and wants him to talk back. Ben does everything—tickles him, makes a funny face, sings, dances, but nothing will make Penguin talk. Ben even shoots him into outer space. When Penguin comes back, he still doesn’t talk. Ben tries to feed the Penguin to a blue lion. Lion doesn’t want to eat Penguin. Finally Ben has had it. He lets loose and yells. The lion gobbles him up. Penguin finally does SOMETHING. He bites Lion on the nose and out pops Ben. Finally a speech bubble appears, but instead of words appear pictures of all the things Penguin and Ben have done together. And Ben understands what Penguin is saying.

One of my favorite funny books of the year! And kids who love their stuffed animals and believe they are real will LOVE this book.

I’m the Biggest Thing in the Ocean
Written and illustrated by Kevin Sherry
Dial Books, 2007

The first thing I noticed about this picture book is the size. It is oversized. It’s a big book to hold. It is the perfect book for three year olds, but it almost too big for them to hold themselves.

A giant squid, up close and personal, appears on the cover. The endpapers are a fascinating two-color conglomeration of different animals in the ocean.

The whole books is told from the point of view of the giant squid, who brags about all of the animals that he can swallow because he’s the biggest thing in the ocean. The text is very simple and it repeats the same phrase over and over again, “I’m bigger than these ___________” Fill in the blank with various sea creatures that he eats.

Toddlers will love this book for several reasons: 1) It captures the way they think. They like to compare size of things, especially how they are bigger than _______ (fill in the blank).

2) Toddlers will love the oversize pictures that really make you feel like the giant squid is larger-than-life.

3) Toddlers will be able to “read” this book to themselves because the phrases repeat themselves and they can identify the pictures to fill in the blanks.

In the end, the giant squid gets eaten by a whale. For a short moment he realizes it’s possible he’s not so big after all. Then he gets a bright idea. He looks around at the contents of the whale’s stomach and realizes that, “I’m thing biggest thing in this whale!” It’s a laugh out loud funny book!

Both of these books were nominated in the Cybils fiction picture book category.

Books about Books

I’m really into common themes in books, as you can see from my recent posts on the Cybils books. This set of reviews is all about books.

The Incredible Book Eating Boy
Written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers
Philomel, 2007

Henry is a book-loving fanatic. He loves books so much he eats them. It started out with just a few words, then a few pages. But soon it became a bad habit and he was eating books, mostly red books, left and right.

Henry finds that his book eating habit makes him very smart. He eats books and his body absorbs the knowledge. But soon, book-eating, as one might imagine, makes him very sick. Everyone encourages him to quit. But it's hard.

Finally, he decides to stop his book-eating binge and READ them instead.

The paper on which the illustrations are done makes this book all about books. The illustrations are done on pages of old books which the author/illustrator Jeffers found were being thrown out. Egads! Well, these pages shine once again—recycled into a new book. This book’s illustrations make it hilarious! The author writes words to caption some of the pictures in addition to the actual text of the book. My favorite touch is the bite mark on the back cover corner.

A great book for book-lovers. And I’ve put in a request at my local library for more of Irish author/illustrator Mr. Jeffers’ other books.


The Boy Who Was Raised By Librarians
Written by Carla Morris
Illustrated by Brad Sneed
Peachtree, 2007

If you are a librarian, you will probably like this book because you probably know a kid like this main character. If you are a kid who spends a lot of time in the library, you will probably like this book because you know what it’s like to love the place so much you want to hang out there.

Melvin is a curious little kid. In fact, curiosity is what brings him to the library. He wants to know about everything so he goes to the local library and the local librarians to find out more about everything. These little ladies help him find books to satisfy his own interests, to help him with research for school projects, and they even feed him a steady supply of books for the summer reading programs.

The librarians love helping Melvin. “They couldn’t help it. That’s how librarians are.” And these librarians make such an impression on Melvin with their books that Melvin becomes a librarian himself.

A Celebration of Seasons

Several books nominated in the Cybils fiction picture book category were about seasonal changes and how things in nature change over the course of the year. It’s interesting to see how three different books and their creators can take the same concept and celebrate it completely different.

When the Shadbush Blooms
By Carla Messinger, with Susan Katz
Illustrated by David Kanietakeron Fadden
Tricycle Press, 2007

This book celebrates the Lenape Indians and the cycle of life in one year’s time. Each spread eloquently tells what goes on during this time of the year.
“When the air hums with the wings of bees, my brother and I chase the crows from our garden. Together we gather honey. My brother ducks when a bee buzzes too close. I lick from one finger a drop as sweet as summer.”

On the left side of each page the traditional Lenape family is shown performing the task of the season. In the top left corner the name of the moon is written in traditional language. On the right side of the spread a contemporary Lenape child is shown with her family performing the same tasks in modern day. In the top right hand corner the name of the moon is written in English.

This book does not go through spring, summer, fall, and winter alone, but rather through each moon. Each season is mentioned in the text, but there are more than four stages that they go through. The moons include When the Shadfish Return Moon, Grass and Geese Moon, Planting Moon, Heartberry Moon, and more.

The Illustrations in this book are done in acrylic paintings and have a tremendous amount of detail.

The back of the book has information about Lenni Lenape people, the Lenape Seasons, and more about the Lenape culture.


The Growing Story
By Ruth Krauss
Illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

This book also celebrates the seasons and the growth of things in nature, but the focus is on a little boy. The little boy has small chicks and a puppy. He watches the seasons change as he helps his mother with the yard work. He watches the chicks and his puppy grow and he wonders if he is growing too.

“The days grew longer. The nights grew shorter. The grass grew faster. The flowers grew higher.” The reader knows what season it is from the clues in the text and the pictures. The pictures show the animals and the plants as they go through changes.

The little boy wants to know if he is growing like everything else. He stores his warm clothes for next winter. As the seasons change the chicks and puppy he is raising grow up. He doesn’t realize he too has grown until he tries to put on his clothes from the previous winter. He celebrates as he realizes that he has grown too.

In this story the focus is the little boy, but the seasonal changes are central to the story as that is how the little boy marks time. It also is a celebration of all the things that are important about each season—picking pears at the end of the summer, watching the leaves turn colors, and feeling the air turn cooler.

This book was first published in 1947, but it has been rereleased with new illustrations.

Leaves
Written and illustrated by David Ezra Stein
G.P. Putnam, 2007

This celebration of the seasons focuses on a baby bear. He doesn’t know what to do when the leaves begin to fall off the trees. In fact, he is so worried that he tries to put them back on. But he can’t. He doesn’t understand. But he knows he must hibernate, so he does. The winter has arrived and bear is safe in his hole. But soon the spring arrives and so do the new leaves. The bear crawls out from his hole and celebrates the new leaves.

This is a simple, short book, but so much is celebrated in the few words that are in the book. The bear has the excitement of a young child discovering something for the first time.

David Ezra Stein’s illustrations are playful, simple, and perfect for this story.

Little Artists

Several picture books nominated for the Cybils fiction picture book category would appeal to young artist because they celebrate painting, drawing, and the artist’s process.

Lily Brown’s Paintings
By Angela Johnson
Illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Orchard Books, 2007

Lily Brown loves to paint. When she paints, her world transforms. Lily Brown goes from the security of her loving family to a free spirit flying through the air. The subjects of her paintings speak to her and she responds by painting them. Lily even becomes part of her paintings. The text is written with Angela Johnson’s poetic words.

“In Lily Brown’s paintings,
the colors of people,
places, and things
change with her heart.”

The illustrations are all done in watercolor, but E.B. Lewis changes the style with each painting to celebrate favorite artists. Some paintings are in exquisite detail, others look very much a young child created them. The book is a celebration of an artist’s world and how an artist goes into another world to create masterpieces.

Hugo and Miles in I’ve Painted Everything
Written and illustrated by Scott Magoon
Houghton Mifflin, 2007

Roadblocks, artist’s block, writer’s block. We’ve probably all experienced these in our lives. Kids say, “I don’t know what to draw” or “I don’t know what to write.” What do you do when you experience a roadblock? Why, you go to Paris, of course!

Hugo is an elephant who is an artist. He thinks he has painted everything there is in the world to paint and feels like he has run out of ideas. He goes to his friend Miles for help. Miles suggests that Hugo go with him to Paris on a business trip to get some inspiration.

In Paris they see the famous sites, go to museums and look at paintings by famous artists, and have a picnic. It isn’t until he goes to the top of the Eiffel Tower that he gets his inspiration. He feels like he immediately need s to go home and get to work. He realizes it’s not what he paints, but how he paints it. It’s all about perspective. When he climbed to the top of the Eiffel Tower he realized that he saw the city in a whole different way than he’d seen it the last few days.

Magoon plays with the name Hugo too. Hugo realizes he can paint a really large picture: “Hugomongus”, paint only in different shades of the same color: “Hue-go”, paint something in the style of another artist like Van Gogh: “Van Hugo.”

This book is a fun way to look at perspective and how it affects the creative side.


Go to Bed, Monster!
By Natasha Wing
Illustrated by Sylvie Kantorovitz
Harcourt, 2007

Lucy couldn’t go to sleep, so she decided to draw—and she drew a monster. The monster wanted to play. Lucy drew everything they would need. Soon Lucy was tired, but the monster wanted to stay awake. In order to get the monster to go to bed, she drew him a bed, blankets, pajamas, a teddy bear, and even a book.

This book is about imagination—what a young artist can do with her drawing and where the drawings can take her. Lucy realizes that her imagination keeps her up at night—the monster will not go to bed. Then Lucy finally gets her rest when her monster drawing finally gets sleepy.

The illustrations in this book are playful, fun, and very child-like. This is a great book for young artists and young monster-lovers everywhere.

Scribble
Written and illustrated by Deborah Freedman
Knopf, 2007

This is another art-related book with kids drawing. I recently wrote a more extensive review of it here.

It was while you were sleeping...

Have you ever wondered what happens when you sleep? When you go to sleep at night, do you dream? Or do other things happen…

Three of the Cybils fiction picture book nominations tell about the things that happen when all are asleep.

Angels Watching Over Me by Julia Durango and illustrated by Elisa Kleven (Simon and Schuster, 2007) is a book I reviewed earlier, but it really fits in this category. Even though it is based on a song that says “all night, all day angels watching over me” it emphasizes the guardian angels that watch over the child no matter where he goes. The nighttime scenes are especially beautiful.

Perhaps you wake up in the morning with wild hair, tangled hair, a mess of hair. Perhaps it’s not angels that are watching over you, but a pesky Knot Fairy that visits you each night. In The Knot Fairy by Bobbie Hinman and illustrated by Kristi Bridgeman (Best Fairy Books, 2007), it’s the Knot Fairy’s job to go from house to house and check off her list of boys and girls that she has visited. When she arrives, in the dead of night, she ties each child’s hair in little bitty knots. So if you wake up in the morning and your head is a tangled mess, chances are the Knot Fairy has paid a visit.

If it’s nightmares you have, perhaps you need a visit from Engelbert Sneem and His Dream Vacuum Machine, written and illustrated by Mr. Daniel Postgate (North South, 2007). Engelbert Sneem starts off his career as a dream stealer. He sneaks into bedrooms in the middle of the night and sucks the dreams right out of children’s heads. This part of the book is quite sinister and spooky. Engelbert puts all of the dreams in jugs that he stores in his Dungeon of Dreams. Soon he realizes that he has become a NIGHTMARE! He turns from his bad ways and uses his vacuum for good. He only takes away nightmares from little children.

So, who visits you at night while you are sleeping?

The End

The End
By David LaRochelle
Illustrated by Richard Egielski
Arthur A. Levine (Scholastic), 2007

Have you ever wanted to read a story from ending to beginning? Well, here’s your book. This story starts with the end and works its way to once upon a time. The story tells how the prince and the princess fell in love and then tells the reason for all of the things that come before it. The story is a chain of events—some events hilariously ludicrous, as many fairy tales are. For example, a group of bunnies in the story are running away because a large tomato is rolling down the hill after them. The illustrations make the story even funnier. There are flying blue pigs in the illustrations and trees with expressions.

This would be a fun book to study cause and effect—this happened because of this. The whole story is set up this way. And what a romp of crazy events it ends. The book, of course, ends with the title page.

This book was nominated for the Cybils fiction picture book category.

Chester

Chester
Written and illustrated by Melanie Watt
Kids Can Press, 2007

Chester the cat wants his own book so badly, he takes a big red marker and marks up the original book that Melanie Watt wrote about a mouse. He plays a big of a game of “cat and mouse” (ha!ha!) with the author’s story. He draws all over her pictures with his red marker. He keeps interrupting her story with his red marker. They fight back and forth until the author finally agrees to give Chester his own story. But she makes it up HER way, which doesn’t make Chester very happy—but at least he gets his own story.

This story really does look like a regular book with red marker all over it. Chester even crosses out the author’s name on the front of the book and writes his own, crosses out her dedication and dedicates the book to himself, and doodles on the author’s picture at the back of the book. From cover to endpapers, Chester leaves no part of the book untouched. It’s a laugh-out-loud funny book because a character tries to tell the author what to do, instead of the other way around. Young children will get a kick out of this cat!

This book was nominated for the Cybils fiction picture book category.

Scribble

Scribble
Written and illustrated by Deborah Freedman
Knopf, 2007

This book starts out with two little girls drawing. Emma, the older sister, draws a beautiful princess asleep. Lucie, the young sister, draws a cat. Her big sister says it looks like a Scribble. Well, Lucie retaliates and really does draw a scribble all over Emma’s drawing. A fight ensues. When Lucie finally draws ears on her cat, the cat begins to take over the book. He wonders what the princess from the other drawing is up to. The cat drawing leaps from his picture to the princess’s picture. Finally, the princess and the cat connect and fall in love, much to the astonishment of their creators.

The illustrations begin in a comic strip fashion with several small boxes of action on each page. Even speech bubbles show the children’s conversation. Once the cat decides to let his curiosity take him to the princess, illustrations become a mass of pink and yellow. The cat was drawn on large yellow paper and the princess was drawn on pink. The scribbles that were once drawn in anger by Lucie, become a rope she swings on through the picture trying to catch up with the cat. In many ways this book reminds me of Wiesner’s Three Little Pigs because the illustrations take over the pages in such strange angles and the pigs wander in and out of the different stories, just like Lucie flies through the drawings as the cat wanders off.

This book is so entertaining. The story line just takes a typical moment of two sisters who get mad at each other, but this story has a unique twist in that the drawings take on a mind of their own. The illustrations clearly separate the girls’ story from the drawings’ story, so it makes it a feast for the eyes.

This book was nominated for the Cybils fiction picture book category.

Possible Caldecott Contenders?

I’ve been reading a lot of picture books lately. My daughter is a picture book fanatic (she’s three), and I’ve been reading for the Cybils fiction picture book category. I have come across some beautiful pictures from all of my reading.

One of the things I noticed the other day is that some of my favorite illustrations in picture books are books that do not necessarily have original text. In other words, the illustrator has taken a song or poem and illustrated it. In other cases, the text is an adaptation of another work.
I love the illustrations in Angels Watching Over Me adapted by Julia Durango and illustrated by Elisa Kleven (Simon & Schuster, 2007). In this case, Durango has taken the African American spiritual “Angels Watching Over Me” and used it interspersed between original text. The text compliments the beautiful illustrations that make me want to fly. There is watercolor, collage, and more. It’s stunning.

Ashley Bryan’s Let it Shine (Atheneum, 2007) illustrates three African American spirituals, “This Little Light of Mine”, “Oh, When the Saints Go Marching In”, and “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands”. He illustrates using construction paper cut-out. The colors are bright and hopeful. The people in the book are all colors, but the only detail on the people is silhouette. The animals, flowers, and buildings all have more detail done by cut paper. The music and words are all printed in the back of the book along with an author’s note about the songs. Truly a beauty to hold!

Another favorite of mine is an adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood (Little, Brown, 2007) retold and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, which I reviewed here. The illustrations are done in pencil, watercolor, gouache, and ink. Every picture is so painstakingly detailed that I could spend an enormous of amount of time taking in all of the details on each and every page. The entire story is told in a winter setting, so Pinkney’s beautiful snow scenes add to my amazement of his illustrations.

Another book which I reviewed recently is Glass Slipper, Gold Sandal (Henry Holt, 2007) by Paul Fleischman, illustrated by Julie Paschkis. This one is a retelling of several versions of Cinderella, but Fleischman really made all of those versions come together and "sing". Paschkis' illustrations are phenomenal, and just as beautifully as Fleischman weaved the stories together, Paschkis was able to seamlessly illustrate the same story, with many different versions. GORGEOUS!

Last, but certainly not least, is Christopher Myers reimagined and illustrated version of Jabberwocky (Hyperion, 2007). I have always been a big fan of the poem Jabberwocky, and I read it to my 4th graders every year. I have a version illustrated by Graeme Base that I usually show them, then I read the “meaning” of the words out of Through the Looking Glass. This year, I’m adding Myers’ version to my repertoire. This is a basketball “version” of Jabberwocky. But what I find so fascinating is that Myers just didn’t decide to do a basketball illustration on his own. During his research for the book he thought he was writing, he was reading Carroll’s (Dodgson’s) journals. Carroll had written a word that referred to an ancient game that was very similar to basketball. All of this is explained in detail in the author’s note. So, the basketball “version” is rather symbolic of Carroll’s studies and original meanings of some of the words used in the poem. Even more interesting are Myers’ larger-than-life illustrations that go with one of my favorite poems.

When I noticed the pattern of my favorite illustrations of 2007 all being pictures for adapted or previously written text, I wondered how much chance they had of winning the Caldecott Medal or Honor. It is given to the artist of “the most distinguished American picture book for children” (according to the ALSC website). So I looked at previous winners in the last few years to see if any book was ever honored that had an older text (such as a song or poem) that was illustrated.

In 2003, The Spider and the Fly, illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi was given a Caldecott Honor.

In 2001, Casey at the Bat, illustrated by Christopher Bing also won a Caldecott Honor.

There are numerous retellings of fairy tales that have won, including Jerry Pinkney, who won a Caldecott Honor for his retelling and illustration of The Ugly Duckling in 2000.

All of this to say, I hope my faves have a shot at the big-time. Since I’m not the judge, I wish them all the best of luck.