BUNTING, Eve. The Cart That Carried Martin. illus. by Don Tate. Charlesbridge. 2013. ISBN 9781580893879. JLG Level: I+ : Independent Readers (Grades 2–4).

“The cart was old. Its paint had faded. It was for sale outside Cook’s Antiques and Stuff. Nobody wanted it.” That was before it carried something heavier than the burden it bore. The wagon that no one wanted was borrowed for use in a funeral procession. Two mules led it through the streets while thousands of people sang, cried, and grieved. It was the funeral cart that carried Martin Luther King, Jr. whose spirit could not be contained in the coffin that bound him. Reading a newspaper article inspired Bunting’s latest picture book―a powerful tale of the modest artifact that now motivates men to remove their hats.

HOPKINS, H. Joseph. The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever. illus. by Jill McElmurry. S & S/Beach Lane. 2013. ISBN 9781442414020. JLG Level: BE : Biography Elementary (Grades 2–6).

When Kate Sessions first saw San Diego’s City Park (as it was then called), it looked like the rest of the desert town―there was very little green. She became a tree hunter, asking for seeds from gardeners all over the world. Soon Kate’s seedlings were growing all over the city. In 1909, city planners met to discuss the upcoming Panama-California Exposition. Kate was hired to plant thousands of trees in what was now called Balboa Park before the visitors arrived in 1915. Could the young gardener (the first woman to graduate with a science degree from UC) prepare a treeless city park in such a short time? Hopkins’ first picture book explores the powerful impact of a woman who changed the landscape of San Diego.

MARCUS, Leonard S. Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing. illus. by author. Farrar/Frances Foster. 2013. ISBN  9780374310257. JLG Level: BE : Biography Elementary (Grades 2–6).

Seventy-five years ago, a new award was established to celebrate the most distinguished work by an American children’s book illustrator. Seventy-seven years earlier, the man for whom the award was named took his first job at age fifteen. He was hired as a clerk in a British bank. Though the job was stable, especially for a young man who had experienced health issues, banking was not his heart’s desire. More than anything he loved to draw. Whenever he could, he doodled ―even on his banking papers. He knew that he would have to move to London where editorial cartoons could give him the break he needed. Armed with a small portfolio, Caldecott took the opportunity to share his work with important editors. One of them liked his art, publishing the first of many illustrations in London Society. As his popularity rose, the artist was approached to take over the work of retiring illustrator, Walter Crane. His new job would be to create the drawings for children’s toybooks. Completely changing the format, style, and design, his first book immediately sold the first printing’s 10,000 copies. From doodles as a young boy, he became the most sought-after illustrator of his time. Today, his name is recognized by children and librarians all over the country. His name was Randolph Caldecott.

McCARTHY, Meghan. Daredevil: The Daring Life of Betty Skelton. illus. by author. S & S/Paula Wiseman. 2013. JLG Level: BE : Biography Elementary (Grades 2–6).

In 1942 women weren’t allowed to be commercial pilots, but Betty Skelton was determined to fly. She became a stunt pilot, calling it “aerobatic flying.” Turning her plane upside down, she became known for her daring ribbon cuts, using her propeller to slice the banner. She flew barefoot and took her dog, Little Tinker. In 1951, Skelton broke an altitude record, soaring an amazing height of 29,050 feet―higher than the top of Mount Everest. From there she drove racecars, continuing her need for speed and record-setting daredevil deeds. McCarthy’s fascinating account includes quotes, a time line, and an extensive bibliography of a woman who became “The First Lady of Firsts.”

For audio/video versions of these booktalks, please visit JLG’s Shelf Life Blog.

Junior Library Guild is a collection development service that helps school and public libraries acquire the best new children’s and young adult books. Season after season, year after year, Junior Library Guild book selections go on to win awards, collect starred or favorable reviews, and earn industry honors. Visit us at www.JuniorLibraryGuild.com.

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Caldecott Medal, the prestigious award bestowed annually by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), to the “artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children.” First presented in 1938, the medal is named in honor of the 19th-century English illustrator Randolph J. Caldecott and features a scene that encapsulates the humor, vitality, and charm of his ground-breaking artwork (based on 1878’s The Diverting History of John Gilpin, the image shows the title character clinging to a runaway horse as flapping geese, yapping dogs, and gaping bystanders look on).

Encompassing an eye-tempting array of artistic styles and beautifully wrought images, the books adorned with the familiar gold Caldecott seal (or silver for honor books) present a treasure trove of tales ready to be discovered and enjoyed by enthusiastic young readers. For older students, the decades-spanning assemblage offers a rich opportunity for examination and discussion, providing a glimpse at the evolution of the picture book and children’s literature in the United States, an avenue for exploring the influence of historical events and cultural trends on bookmaking, and means for tracing changes and innovations in illustrative techniques and tools.

The award’s diamond anniversary is also the perfect occasion for launching a mock Caldecott election in the classroom, an endeavor that will engage youngsters in a wide range of grade levels. In addition to providing the impetus for lively debate, such a project can improve listening skills, help students to develop the vocabulary and thought processes needed to evaluate and discuss literature and art, encourage active participation, and engender a of love of reading. Visit the ALA website for a list of medal winners and honor books. A dedicated 75th Anniversary page includes a free-to-download bookmark featuring a special commerative logo created by 2008 Caldecott medalist Brian Selznick starring characters from past winners along with clues to their identities.

Why Should Kids Have All the Fun?

Indulge your own love of picture books by perusing some lovely coffee-table compendiums that treat renowned illustrators and their work. In addition to being a pleasure to read and browse, these books can inform classroom author and literature studies and provide insight into the amazing process of creating art.

Meet the Founding Father

In Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (FSG, 2013), Leonard S. Marcus provides a vividly written portrait of the father of the modern picture book. Born in Chester, England, in 1846, the “tall, lanky, and good-looking” young man with “light brown hair that occasionally stood on end” left behind a boyhood spent sketching and wandering the countryside for a position as a bank clerk, eventually striking out for Manchester to take a similar post as “quill-driver” while testing the waters of a possible career in art.

Identifying mentors while always honing his craft, Caldecott sold numerous drawings to newspapers and magazines—now a burgeoning nationwide industry due to the invention of steam-engine-powered presses—before settling in London and making a name for himself as a book illustrator (critical acclaim and fame came with his work in 1875 on Washington Irving’s Old Christmas). When he finally turned his drawing pen to making books for children, his vivacious filled-with-motion style, irrepressible sense of humor, and innovative ideas about layout and design would forever change the genre.

Marcus’s articulate narrative incorporates keystone details and events to evoke the backdrop of Caldecott’s life—cherished pastimes, his penchant for poking fun at himself, and the invigorating spirit of change ignited by the Industrial Revolution—while pinpointing the enduring essence of his artwork. Handsome reproductions of Caldecott’s illustrations, unpublished drawings from his sketchbooks, and other works appear throughout, along with other 19th-century images that set time and place and make for easy comparison.

A Sendak Gallery

Elegant, oversized, and packed to the brim with gorgeous images, Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work (Abrams, 2013) is a delight to both browse and delve into.  Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Society of Illustrators in New York City, the book coincides with the 50th anniversary of Sendak’s game-changing Caldecott-winner, Where the Wild Things Are (Harper, 1963), as well as what would have been his 85th birthday (Sendak passed away in May of 2012). More than 200 reproductions are presented, many from private collections and never before published, representing the amazing scope and breathtaking spectrum of Sendak’s career.

In addition to studies, preliminary sketches, and variant illustrations made for well-known picture books, the volume also includes his advertising and commercial art (e.g., Bell Atlantic’s 1997 “Wild Things Are Happening” campaign), posters, storyboards for animation sequences, designs for stage productions (of his own work as well as operas and ballets), illustrations for magazines (a 1976 Rolling Stone cover showing the “Moishe” Wild Thing decked out as a Christmas tree), and more, each given context with thoughtfully written captions. Twelve essays penned by individuals with whom Sendak’s life intersected range from Leonard Marcus’s piece on Sendak’s seminal picture book trilogy to author/illustrator Paul O. Zelinsky’s reminiscence of taking Sendak’s picture book course at Yale. This stunning visual compendium is part critical exploration, part personal remembrance, and all-out tribute to a remarkable artist and his outstanding body of work.

The Power of the Doodle

Young fans of Knuffle Bunny, that beloved and beleaguered pigeon, and the “Elephant and Piggie” series (all Hyperion) know that Mo Willems is a funny guy, and in Don’t Pigeonhole Me!  (Disney, 2013), he proves that he can illicit just as many laughs from adults. For 20 years, this three-time Caldecott Honor recipient has been compiling an annual sketchbook intended to be distributed as “a calling card for clients and/or holiday card for friends.” Though the format has evolved since the stapled-together mini zine of his “starving artist” days, these booklets still serve as a “continuing experiment,” a place where Willems holds complete creative carte blanche and freedom “from any restrictions.” This cartooning crock pot has helped him cook up ideas for at least three of his picture books, including Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (2003).

‘Don’t Pigeonhole Me! ‘(Disney)  © Mo Willems

Twenty sketchbooks are reproduced, each set in the context of Willems’s career and life with a funny introduction. Earlier editions showcase adult-pitched New Yorker-style vignettes and sequences that treat relationship woes, offer wry glimpses of city life, and present droll perceptions of art and artists. Later volumes reveal Willems’s experimentation with a longer narrative form, design elements, and storytelling rhythms, including a tale about an “unaccomplished baddie” wolf would later inspire 2005’s Leonardo, the Terrible Monster; an early—and definitely not-for-kids—version of 2012’s Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs; and a “hard reader” starring an inebriated bunny who spouts a “drunken diatribe of words that merely sound like what they mean.”The final installment collects together doodles originally drawn on the butcher block paper that adorns the Willems family dinner table (characters that may, or may not, someday appear in a picture book). Great fun to browse and unabashedly hilarious, this book also reminds readers of the importance of experimentation and taking chances, of allowing one’s self the space to daydream, and of the awesome power of the doodle.

Why Picture Books?

Compiled and edited by Marcus, Show Me a Story!: Why Picture Books Matter (Candlewick, 2012) presents conversations with 21 renowned illustrators. Whether interviewing longtime picture book mavens such as Robert McCloskey, Eric Carle, Maurice Sendak, Ashley Bryan, and Tana Hoban, or relative newcomers including Yumi Heo and Chris Raschka, philosophical thinkers like Mitsumasa Anno or humorous tale-tellers like James Marshall, Marcus focuses on teasing out the “vital thread that links an artist’s life story to the stories and images for which he or she is known.”

Why does a child grow up to become an artist? Who encouraged or mentored these individuals? What experiences inspired them? Why did they choose to make picture books? The lively interviews, each introduced with an insightful recounting of the artist’s career and important innovations, convey much about each individual’s personality as well as revealing truths about the creative process and the role picture books play in the lives of children.

The illustrators reflect on wide-ranging themes, touching upon the impact of historical and political events on one’s life, the realities of racial discrimination, milestones such as becoming a parent, the origins of their beloved characters, or the evolution of the art form. An inset of full-color reproductions showcases a selection of sketches, studies, dummies, and other pre-production work that sheds light on each artist’s illustrative process. An interesting read for anyone who loves picture books, this volume can be used to expand author studies and is s gem worth sharing with older students considering a career in the arts.

Photo by Elena Seibert.

Leonard Marcus might just be the busiest man in the world of kid lit. In June, the children’s literature historian and scholar launched a critically acclaimed exhibition at the New York Public Library (which he curated) and had a book published that celebrates the life and work of Maurice Sendak (which he edited). This summer, he will also publish his latest biography, a book on Randolph Caldecott, while his introduction for the 75^th anniversary edition of Kenneth Grahame’s The Reluctant Dragon (Holiday, 1938) comes to print. Does he ever sleep? Says Marcus, “I just love what I’m doing so I kind of can’t wait to get started in the morning.”

Over coffee in a café in New York City’s West Village, Marcus—who is as soft spoken as a kindergarten teacher trying to soothe a rowdy classroom—shared with School Library Journal some of the details of his many recent projects, some insider knowledge of children’s literature history and icons and his belief that picture books might be the solution to saving all physical books.

Marcus has curated many exhibits, but “The ABC of It: Why Children’s Books Matter,” an exhibition at the main branch of the New York Public Library featuring nearly 250 books and artifacts, is his most ambitious undertaking to date. The New York Times calls the show, “remarkably rich,” and Monica Edinger, children’s book author, teacher, and blogger, describes it as, “wonderful—witty in design and delightful in the actual objects on display” on her blog, Educating Alice.

Working with a full-time assistant and a design team, Marcus spent a year meeting with library special collection curators, researching and selecting objects for the exhibit. He specifically wanted to avoid showing the “greatest hits of [the] New York Public Library” or a “march through history,” he explained. “Those are the two traditional ways of exhibiting children’s books,” Marcus said. “And they don’t really let people into the story. They tell people that you’ve got to follow along. I wanted this to be much more immersive and to allow people to start with what they knew, the familiar books that were their favorites for personal reasons, and then to be surprised by finding that those books belong to a much bigger story that can be sorted out and told.”

Listening to Marcus speak about the objects, elements, and scenes in the show—which include an 1826 edition of the Grimm’s fairy tales, a recording of E.B. White reading Charlotte’s Web (Harper, 1952), and a gallery that focuses on challenged books—his enthusiasm for his life’s work is palpable. He said that the invitation to curate the show was, “basically being given the keys to the kingdom of all these great collections of art, manuscripts, photographs, prints, and, of course, the children’s books.”

Marcus has a history degree from Yale and a degree in poetry from the University of Iowa Graduate Writers’ Workshop. He is as comfortable talking about Tocqueville and Whitman as he is about Margaret Wise Brown, about whom he wrote a landmark biography, Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon (Beacon Pr, 1992). And when it came to discussing the late children’s book author and illustrator Maurice Sendak, Marcus was able to draw on his friendship with the famously guarded man to inform his scholarship—a source of knowledge that guided him as he edited the catalogue, Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Work (Abrams, 2013), for a current exhibition of Sendak’s art for the Society of Illustrators in New York City.

Author Paul O. Zelinsky, who contributed an essay to the catalogue, told SLJ, “Leonard has always impressed me with his knack for seeing how things fit together. And with the way he follows through on his curiosity, with these fascinating books and shows as the result.” Other authors and contributors include Sendak authorities Justin G. Schiller and Dennis M. V. David, whose collection is also showcased in the exhibit and catalogue.

Marcus’s enthusiasm for research is evident in his many books and, most recently, in his introduction for The Reluctant Dragon: 75th Anniversary Edition (Holiday, 2013). The vice president and editor-in-chief of Holiday House, Mary Cash, says that “Leonard’s requests for catalogues, advertisements, and other related materials lead several of us on a delightful scavenger hunt around the office….We copied a hefty pile of letters and documents for Leonard, which he packed up and took home. Several months later we received a witty and eloquent introduction that put the book in the context of its time while making a persuasive case for its continued relevance.”

To research his biography of Randolph Caldecott, Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing (Farrar, Aug. 2013), Marcus traveled to England and dug through the archives at Harvard University’s Houghton Library.

When asked about the future of picture books, Marcus drew on his many years of knowledge as well as his experience curating the “The ABC of It” to provide a ready answer about the future of print books as a whole. “I describe in the text for the show [how] the picture book and the artist book are really the laboratory in which the future of the book will be decided because these are the most experimental formats within the realm of the physical book,” he said. “And so there plenty of great ideas there to be had, from which everyone can learn.”

Picture books are always pushing limits and exploring new possibilities that are only possible with print, he says; therefore, they make a case for print books to continue to exist alongside digital.

In the immediate future, Marcus, whose research and lecture invitations have taken him to locals as far flung as Singapore, is excited to be staying put in Brooklyn, where he lives with his wife, the picture-book artist Amy Schwartz. But he’s already working on his next projects: an exhibition for the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art of the late Bernard Waber’s art and a book of interviews with graphic novel creators for Candlewick Press.

And after that? He’d like to do more exhibitions and keep staying busy doing the work he loves.