The criteria for a Caldecott winning book is evidence enough that illustrators of children’s picture books put time and effort into creating art that matches the mood, theme, characters and story. I am now on my third day of explaining the Caldecott criteria. At first I could not find the words that best help my classes understand the relationship between art and story telling. For many of my students they wanted to ooh and ahh over the cool pictures but not think about how they tell a story. Fortunately, we still have two weeks to work through these ideas. I am confident the students will be able to effectively evaluate how well the illustrations represent the story in a way that increases your understanding and appreciation of the story. As well as evaluate how well the illustrations match the story, theme or mood and determine if the type of art used is effective. As we continue on this Mock Caldecott journey I found this video from artist Aaron Becker very helpful in understanding the process of illustrating a children’s book. In the video he describes his “journey” in creating his first children’s book titled Journey. This is one of the 26 books on our Mock Caldecott list as well as many other lists across the country.
The Falcon's Fables 