Pin 4: Award Winning Picture Books

"The Snowy Day," by Ezra Jack Keats was a winner of The Caldecott Medal in 1963. This book's artistic style is primitive/ folk art. It's artistic media is made up of paper construction and water color. I believe this book won an award for being one of the only African American books of its time to be universal. Race and ethnicity did not matter in this book. Moreover, this book was about a child who enjoyed playing in the snow.

"The Adventures of Beekle The Unimaginary Friend," by Dan Santat won The Caldecott Medal in 2015. The artistic style is surrealistic. It looks strange and dreamlike. Mostly the illustrations are fantasy images. The artistic media is computer generated water color and pencil drawings. I believe this book won an award because of it's universal story-line about friendship and it's illustrations. It is a myth or fantasy which really shares the importance of feeling wanted and being open to having a friend.

"My People," by Charles R. Smith Jr. won a Coretta Scott King Award winner in 2010. The artistic style is realistic. The artistic media of this book is made up of photos. I believe this book won an award because it took a popular Langston Hughes poem and turned it into a beautiful picture book with realistic images. All of the characters in the story are African American and all of their poses artistically captures the essence of having confidence and pride. What is interesting about this book is it never defines the individuals as black. It has a general poem that can be positively used to describe any group of people.  The pictures tell a story. In a way it is almost universal, which is why I think this book received an award.

"Feathers Not Just For Flying," by Melissa Stewart won the Teacher's Choice in 2015. The artistic style is abstract.The artistic media of this book is oil painting or water color. I believe this book won an award because it was very informative. This book is full of comparisons and similes. It shares how humans live in comparison to birds and their feathers. This is why I think the book won an award.

"Knuffle Bunny Too," by Drew Daywalt won a Children's Choice in 2008. The artistic Style of this book is realistic and surrealistic.This book's artistic media is made up of pencil, computer generated watercolor, and photos are used. I believe this book won an award because of its appealing to children. It has cartoon characters with realistic photo backgrounds. The story-line is very universal to what children go through when a problem occurs. This story captures realistic emotions of what happens when you lose something important. Overall, this is probably why it won an award.


*Pinterest Blog for this week: https://www.pinterest.com/jamie_lipp/week-four-award-winning-picture-books/