BevK February 15th, 2007
If you haven’t yet read the 2007 Caldecott Medal winning picture book, Flotsam, you’re in for a treat when you do. This wordless book will have your youngsters hoping some magical bit of flotsam will wash up in their life much as I always hoped to find a note in a bottle even though I lived in the heart of the country about as far away as you could get from any ocean. With digital cameras widely available the notion of creating pictures within pictures should also take off.
Flotsam
by David Wiesner
A bright, science minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam–anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there’s no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share… and to keep.
2007 Caldecott Winner (Caldecott Medal Book)
Gone Wild
by David McLimans
Feast your eyes on these amazing creatures before they disappear. This stampede of wild animals, from Chinese Alligator to Grevy’s Zebra, are so rare, they’re all endangered. David McLiman’s bold and playful illustrations transform each letter into a work of art, graphically rendered with animal characteristics. Scales, horns, even insect wings transform the alphabet into animated life.
Once you take this eye-opening safari, you’ll never look at letters or animals with the same way again. A striking work of art and a zoological adventure, Gone Wild is sure to be loved by children and adults alike.
Caldecott Honor Book
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
by Carole Boston Weatherford (Author), Kadir Nelson (Illustrator)
“I set the North Star in the heavens and I mean for you to be free. . . .”
Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman hears these words from God one summer night and decides to leave her husband and family behind and escape. Taking with her only her faith, she must creep through woods with hounds at her heels, sleep for days in a potato hole, and trust people who could have easily turned her in.
But she was never alone.
In lyrical text, Carole Boston Weatherford describes Tubman’s spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her North to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman, courageous and compassionate, and deeply religious, would take nineteen subsequent trips back South, never being caught, but none as profound as this first. Harriet Tubman’s bravery and relentless pursuit of freedom are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
This is a unique and moving portrait of one of the most inspiring figures of the Underground Railroad. Kadir Nelson’s emotionally charged paintings embody strength, healing, and hope.
Caldecott Honor Book
