Wonder Walkers
Our Caldecott Breakdown Series is back for 2022! Each year, our founders give an in-depth analysis of the winning books. We examine the illustrations, analyze the text, and discuss how they combine to create an award-winning picture book. Over the next five weeks, we’ll dive deep into each of this year’s amazing books and share insights into the illustrators and their processes. Most importantly, we hope these talks will give you a new perspective as you work on your own manuscripts.
First off, congratulations to the 2022 Caldecott Medal Winner: WATERCRESS written by Andrea Wang and illustrated by Jason Chin! This book is a thing of beauty and we can’t wait to share it with you in the coming weeks.
This year the Caldecott Committee recognized four books as 2022 Caldecott Honor Books:
- WONDER WALKERS written and illustrated by Micha Archer
- HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FLOWER? written and illustrated by Shawn Harris
- UNSPEAKABLE written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Floyd Cooper
- MEL FELL written and illustrated by Corey R. Tabor
The Caldecott Medal is awarded by the American Library Association each year at its winter conference. The Caldecott Medal was named after Randolph Caldecott, an influential children’s illustrator working in England in the 19th century. According to ALA.org, “his illustrations for children were unique to their time in both their humor, and their ability to create a sense of movement, vitality, and action that complemented the stories they accompanied.” So, how are the Caldecott winners chosen? Emma Walton Hamilton gives us a primer on the criteria used by the Caldecott committee to choose the winning picture books:
Caldecott Criteria
Now, it’s time to start our 2022 Caldecott Breakdown with the 2022 Caldecott Honor Book WONDER WALKERS written and illustrated by Micha Archer.
Here’s a brief description of this sweet book:
When two curious kids embark on a wonder walk, they let their imaginations soar as they look at the world in a whole new light. They have thought-provoking questions for everything they see: Is the sun the world’s light bulb? Is dirt the world’s skin? Are rivers the earth’s veins? Is the wind the world breathing? I wonder . . . Young readers will wonder too, as they ponder these gorgeous pages and make all kinds of new connections. What a wonderful world indeed!
Come listen in as Emma and the team break down this beautiful book!
WONDER WALKERS
Join us right back here next Tuesday for our breakdown of the 2022 Caldecott Honor Book: HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A FLOWER?
Enjoy!
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Peter Taylor
April 5, 2022 at 3:43 pmThank you so much for this. It’s a book children will enjoy on many levels. There are too many wonderful books published worldwide that we don’t see in our individal countries. I hope I will soon find this and all the other Caldecott Honor books in Australia.
The book-art a child sees influences their creativity. They are naturally creative, eager to experiment and discover how the world works. When reading the pictures, the child is often considering how the art was produced, and how they can produce their own book. At the age of five, my son regularly tried to make a copy of his favourite book borrowed from the library, or interpret a page or two from it in his own way. I’d love to see more publishers recognise the ‘activity stimulation potential’ of artwork when they select illustrators and book styles. This cut and torn paper collage, stamping and ‘potato prints’, finger prints, coloured pencils, chalk, line drawn with a stick, paint applied with a brush, actual mud used a colour—all encourage children to respond in their own way and say ‘I can use that!’, and adapt the technique in their own art and visual storytelling.
Best wishes from DownUnder.
Lauri Fortino
April 7, 2022 at 3:11 pmI am so glad you do these breakdowns. I look forward to them every year! They’re a great reminder to picture book creators on how to see picture books in a whole new way. So helpful! Thank you!