Children's Books discussion

I didn't realize, until I read this article, that Dr. Seuss never won a Caldecott or a Newbery. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...

It's a fabulous article. And it made me wonder ... are there any other children's book authors or illustrators whom we now consider great, but who also never won a Caldecott or a Newbery? Who do you think were overlooked, and why?

And if you could go back in time, would you have chosen The Cat in the Hat for a Caldecott in 1958, instead of Time of Wonder which is the book that actually won that year?

Would you have given Green Eggs and Ham the Caldecott instead of Baboushka and the Three Kings?

I think by 1958, Seuss was old hat. The Cat is a change in that it targets a younger reader, using a very simplified vocabulary, but remember that the Caldecott is about the illustrations. There's nothing particularly special about those later books. I think his best work was something like Bartholomew Cubbins two decades before. So much of his output in terms of illustrations is just reruns.

That article starts with a faulty premise, btw. "For those of us who were early adopters of Dr. Seuss books, i.e., kids growing up in the ’50s and ’60s..." No, you weren't early adopters. The kids growing up in the late 1930s were.

I certainly think Dr. Seuss should have won a Caldecott for Green Eggs and Ham. I never really liked the illustrations for Babushka and the Three Kings all that much. And sorry, Michael, Dr. Seuss has never been old hat, at least for me. You might not agree with that, but that is my opinion. You might not think the later books are all that special, but I certainly do so.

That being said, while I like both the Cat in the Hat and A Time of Wonder, the latter I like just a wee bit more, so I would likely have given A Time of Wonder the Caldecott.

Certainly, anyone who published as many books as Seuss published, some will be better than others. Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish are fun, but I don't think they're Caldecott-worthy. The Lorax is too didactic for my taste. But How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is an *amazing* picture book. So is the older, and less well known McElligot's Pool. Either of those would have been Caldecott-worthy. Likewise Green Eggs and Ham.

I think that, in some literary circles, there's a tendency to see fun books as somehow less worthy, less deserving, than serious books. That's not just children's books, either. Some people consider Shakespeare's comedies "fluff" that's not as worthy of serious study as the tragedies.

I think Seuss may have been a victim of that philosophy. But he's earned the love and respect of generations of readers, and perhaps that's as much as a writer can ask.

Charlotte wrote: "Certainly, anyone who published as many books as Seuss published, some will be better than others. Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! and [book:One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish,..."

I agree with the Lorax being too didactic, same with Yurtle the Turtle, not much nuance at all. But then again, there have also been rather overtly didactic winners of the Caldecott Medal, especially some of the earlier books.

Did Garth Williams ever win a Caldecott? What would be a handy way to check. as different names occur to us? I do want to add to the list, perhaps to see if we can discern a pattern....

Cheryl wrote: "Did Garth Williams ever win a Caldecott? What would be a handy way to check. as different names occur to us? I do want to add to the list, perhaps to see if we can discern a pattern...."
Williams's bio on Wikipedia doesn't mention a Caldecott. That's not definitive, of course. But unless my google fu has gone haywire, I don't think he ever won a Caldecott -- although he did illustrate books that won Newbery awards.

Though he did plenty of picture books (Little Golden ones and some others), I think Garth Williams really excelled at illustrating children's novels that feature distinct characters. One picture book of his where I get that is Bedtime for Frances. But it could be that the other (non-Williams illustrated) Frances books have helped develop the character of Frances in my mind.

Also, I'm sure most here know that his illustrations were not the ones included in those five Little House books when they were Newbery runners-up. He had the good fortune to become illustrator on the new versions in the 1950s.

As for a definitive Caldecott resource, this is it:

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

And those "honor" titles from before 1971 (listed non-alphabetically) are when the books were true runners-up. They are listed in descending order of votes.

Lastly, here's a very nice tribute to Williams's illustrations: http://librarianbooksforchildren.blogspot.com/2012/05/art-of-garth-williams.html.

Charlotte wrote: "Certainly, anyone who published as many books as Seuss published, some will be better than others. Dr. Seuss's ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book! and [book:One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish,..."

Charlotte, the first book I remember absolutely adoring was McElligot's Pool. This was in 1949 or 1950.

The two illustrators I would like see win a Caldecott medal are Ruth Sanderson and Jan Brett. Jan puts so much detail and information in her illustrations; and the illustrations of both ladies are stunning, in my opinion.

I'm not as familiar with Sanderson, but Brett's work is just incredible. I love the way she works the borders of the pages, she's telling a second wordless story, or telling more details about the main story. It's brilliant and inspired. And the stories themselves are delightful.

Trouble with Trolls was the first of her books that I got, and The Easter Egg is the most recent. For the most part, I don't care for Easter books that are about rabbits and eggs, but The Easter Egg is an exception. It's sweet without being saccharine -- something that few writer/illustrators seem to be able to pull off.

(The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes is another exception -- it's as sweet as you expect an Easter picture book to be, but it's subtly subversive. But Marjorie Flack, the illustrator, won a Caldecott for The Boats on the River -- although she was the author and not the illustrator of that book.)

But to be accurate, only the illustrator gets the award. (The current criteria state, "The Medal shall be awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year.")

So only Jay Hyde Barnum won for The Boats on the River. I think Flack was a very fine illustrator, so to me, it's odd that she didn't do that job for all her books - Kurt Wiese did Ping. And yet, she illustrated Country Bunny for Dubose Heyward. Who knows.

My personal favorite of hers, Walter the Lazy Mouse, was published in 1937 so I guess that would have been eligible for the very first Caldecott in 1938. Her wonderful Angus books were pre-Caldecott.

Good point. I always think of the Caldecott as going to the book, so both the writer and illustrator would bask in the glory. But of course that's not quite right.

Are there more people like Marjorie Flack, who sometimes wrote books that others illustrated, and sometimes illustrated books that others wrote, and sometimes did both the writing and the illustrating?

Early in her career, Elizabeth Enright illustrated the books of others, including The Crystal Locket by Dorothy Rowe and two Kees books by Marian King. Enright did some of her own books (Thimble Summer and The Saturdays) but then other books of hers used outside illustrators like Beth and Joe Krush for Gone Away Lake. I don't know if it was a case of where after she was established, she didn't need to take every job offered.

Another of my favorites, too: Hilda van Stockum illustrated most of her own books, but her later books used others (Mogo's Flute used Robin Jacques; Rufus Round and Round used Joanna Worth; and her daughter Brigid illustrated her 1957 book King Oberon's Forest). She illustrated several books she did not write, including editions of classics like Little Women and Hans Brinker, but also new works such as Catherine Cate Coblentz's The Beggar's Penny from 1943. She gets translator credits on some other books too.

I thought maybe the marvelous author/illustrator Kate Seredy would be another in this little club, as she did many illustrations for the books of others as well as her own, but a quick look doesn't show any books of hers that used outside illustrators. I guess it's just covers that have been redone over the years.

Ann Grifalconi wrote and illustrated several books including The Village of Round and Square Houses, but she also illustrated The Jazz Man written by Mary Hays Weik, and wrote Ain't Nobody a Stranger to Me which was illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.

The Jazz Man is an excellent book. I hadn't realized that Grifalconi was Weik's daughter. They did one other book together (A House on Liberty Street) that I'll have to investigate.