PICTURE BOOK EXCELLENCE

Assignment:

 In a one- to two-page essay list and explain the qualities you think important in a picture book and whether or not I Want My Hat Back meets your criteria for a great children’s picture book.

Helpful tips:

There are a number of significant awards for children’s books with excellent illustrations.  You’ve already read two of the Caldecott winners, Goodnight Moon and Make Way for Ducklings in our anthology. A later volume of the Madeline books was also a recipient. The anthology also includes several more recent Caldecott winners:  The Snowy Day, Millions of Cats, and Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.   Read more about the Caldecott Award and the criteria books must meet to win it.  

A more recent award is the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award that recognizes the author(s) and illustrator(s) of the best books for beginning readers. (You can find a copy of one of his books, The Sneetches, in our anthology.)  One of the books you purchased for this class is a Theodor Seuss Geisel winner: I Want my Hat Back by Jon Klassen.  Review the criteria for the Theodore Seuss Geisel Award and consider the following questions:

1)  Describe the style and tone of the drawings in the book you chose.  (For example, consider some of the following traits:

• Are they realistic or imaginative drawings;

• Brightly colored, pastel, or black and white;

• Is the perspective that of a character within the story or of the reader/viewer of the story; 

• Are they humorous or serious;

• Are they detailed with a wide focus on a large scene, or simply drawn and focused on a small scene;

• Are they meant to be examined before or after reading the text?)

2)  Describe how the illustrations interact with the story. 

• Do they show just what’s shown in the text,

• Do they add information to the written text,

• Do they show action that is not described in the text,

• Do they contradict the written text? 

     Provide an example of the text and a description of the accompanying picture to support your conclusion.

3)  How do the pictures affect the reader? 

4)  Try covering the pictures and reading the story without the pictures.  Would the story be just as good?  Why or why not? 

     Try covering the words and just following the story through the pictures.  Would the story be just as good?  Why or why not?

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottwinners/caldecottmedal

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/geiselaward