Caldecott awards for illustrations

This year the Caldecott medal was awarded to the illustrator of Finding Winnie: the true story of the world’s most famous bear.  Sophie Blackall did the illustrations for Lindsay Mattick’s story.

Image of itemOnce upon a time, there was a veterinarian in Winnipeg, Canada who joined the army in World War I to take care of the horses.  This is the amazing story of how Harry Colebourn found a bear cub, took it to England with the army and ultimately found a home for the bear at the London Zoo.  He named the bear Winnie after his hometown.
A little boy named Christopher Robin Milne visited the London Zoo often, became friends with Winnie and decided to name his stuffed bear Winnie-the-Pooh.  A. A. Milne then wrote many stories about his son Christopher Robin’s adventures with Pooh.

The author of Finding Winnie is the great-granddaughter of Harry Colebourn.  She tells the story in this book the way she would tell a bedtime story to her son Cole.  She and her son become characters in the book, asking and answering many questions.

There is a terrific description of the beauty of this book in a blog written by Lolly Robinson.  The details she discusses could easily be overlooked, but now you’ll now how to look more carefully at the choices artists make when illustrating a story.   You can also get a pretty good idea of the behind-the-scenes workings of the committees that choose the winning books.

The following books were given Caldecott honor awards:

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This book also received the Newbery medal for the text.  (see yesterday’s post)

 

 

~Maureen