For the picture book assignment, I chose the 1982 Caldecott winner, Jumanji. I always enjoyed the film adaptation as a child and was not even aware that it was first a children’s book. I am excited to be able to explore this book in detail and also get a chance to see how it compares to its film counterpart.
A Couple of Boys have the Best Week Ever
I chose this story because I originally liked the title and adorable illustration but I soon loved it, entirely. It’s about two boys and the exhilarating feelings they must have felt being away from their parents for entire week. Who couldn’t relate to that? Two young boys fulfilling every young boys fantasy of no rules and childhood fun only a kid can understand.
Picture Book
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he book that I am choosing is, Where The Wild Things Are. Maurice Sendak is the author and illustrator of this book. I have read this book several times. It may not be as popular as it was when I was a child, but is still being read by children today. I would like to familiarize people with the challenges the author faced. When the book was published in the 60s the author took a lot of raft for writing this book and it joined several other books on the challenged list. Overall, the book is still loved because it is about monsters and exploring the unknown.
The Funny Little Woman
After much searching, in the end I’ve decided to write on one of my own favorite books growing up. The Funny Little Woman won the Caldecott medal in 1973. In addition to owning a copy of this book, I chose it for its stunning ink and watercolor illustrations and for its retelling of an offbeat story about a little old lady who just wants to find her precious dumpling, but winds up meeting an actual demon. I’m really excited to revisit this book after so long and hopefully get a better sense of not only what its appeal was for me in the past, but also what made it a contender for the award to begin with.
In my mind, Where the Wild Things Are is easily one of the greatest picture books ever published, and it meant a lot to me as a kid. The book had a special kind of understanding of children that other books just didn’t have, and it was willing to treat its readers as actual human beings, flaws and raw emotion included. Where the Wild Things Are saw a great deal of difficulty in initial publication due to its content, and I’m almost surprised it won the Caldecott when it did. I’m curious to see how well it fits the criteria put forth at the time.
Picture Book Assignment
For my picture book project, of course I chose the classic 1955 Medal Winner, the Cinderella Story, or the Little Glass Slipper by Marcia Brown, merely because it’s my favorite childhood book that seems to never get old, no matter how many times it’s rewritten. Furthermore, after assessing the requirements of the Caldecott Award, it’s evident that this book exceeds those requirements. This picture book does a fantastic job of demonstrating a story through visuals that allows an easy connection for all children. I look forward to researching further on this classic story.
First Reading I Remember
The first book that I can recall being read to me was Alice Nizzy Nazzy when I was around three or four years old. It is a children’s book about a witch who lives in Santa Fe who likes to eat children. A girl named Manuela goes looking for her lost sheep and ends up at the witch’s house having to escape or be eaten. There were some pretty spooky images in this book, especially as I was so young while looking at the pictures and what I remember most about hearing this book for the first time was being a little scared. Manuela eventually manages an escape from the evil witch as she was a model child which I remember alleviated much of my fright (and maybe even behaved a bit better after realizing that bad children get eaten by witches).
As for the first book I can remember reading, and really loving as well, was The BFG by Roald Dahl. An odd coincidence is that this book, like Alice Nizzy Nazzy, also focuses on people who eat children. The BFG, and Roald Dahl’s works in general, were some of the early texts that really sparked my interest in reading as youngster. I went on to read essentially every Roald Dahl book two or three time at least, The Twits and Fantastic Mr. Fox being my other two favorites. The way that Quentin Blake’s playful watercolor sketches were included made these books all the better to read at a young age. After looking back upon some of my first reading experiences, I would have to say that my first memories of reading, as opposed to being read to, are a bit more fond and one of the main reasons I have enjoyed reading my whole life.
Jasmine Childhood Memory
First Memory of Children’s Book
The first memory of a book that was read to me would be Dr. Seuss “Green Eggs and Ham”. This book was very popular in my pre-k class especially during story time. I remember this book having a red hardcover back. My teacher would read it to us and pass it around so everyone could touch it. The colors in this book made it interesting to see as a child. Also, the words made it hard for me to imagine someone actually eating green eggs. Then, one day when my teacher was reading the book my classmates and I had the opportunity of trying green eggs. There were so many students against the idea of eating something green. My teacher explained to us that the flavor of the eggs would still be the same. So, I tried them and went home telling my mom that they were so delicious.
Another memory of reading this book was exploring more of Dr. Seuss books. My pre-k class read other books by him as well. I really enjoyed “Oh the Places You’ll Go” and “One fish two fish red fish blue fish” these two books were exciting and colorful as well. My mother worked at a daycare and would babysit a lot of my younger cousins and I always remembered her reading Dr. Seuss books. I feel like Dr. Seuss books made me enjoy reading books. His stories were so unique and adventurous that I wanted to read them over and over again. The memory of these books lead me and my siblings to making up fantasy games for us to play outside. It also made reading fun and we took several trips to the library. Overall, reading was entertaining and memorable because of Dr. Seuss books for me as a child.
Julia White Picture Book Choice
The book that I have chosen for the picture book essay is Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg. I chose this book partially due to familiarity. I can recall the Robin Williams movie from the ’90s, so when I saw this on the list of Caldecott winners, it peaked my interest. While I am somewhat familiar with the storyline, I am interested in seeing how the author will use visuals to draw in the reader and strengthen the overall story.
Picture book project: 1982 honor book…
…”Outside Over There” by Maurice Sendak.
I mostly chose it because it was one of my favorites–not when I was first reading picture books, but when I started to read them to my little brothers. In addition, looking over the Caldecott terms & requirements, I think there’s a lot to say about it.
(Also, I haven’t re-read it in years, and this gives me an excuse to order a copy.)