More Caldecott books

I've got more Caldecott winners and honors.  I was originally trying to get all ten in one blog, but it seemed too much for blogger to handle...

Brown, M. (1947). Stone Soup. New York, NY: Atheneum Books

Three soldiers are making their way home from the war.  They are tired and hungry, and hope the next village will offer some respite from their journey.  The townspeople however, see them ahead of time and decide they do not want to share.   Finding no friendly faces, the soldiers then decide to make stone soup.  Intrigued, the villagers begin to bring every ingredient slyly suggested by the soldiers.  By the end of it, there is a feast for all.

Stone soup is very reminiscent of Grimm’s Fairy tales, using the motif of the soldier going home and having to trick people into helping him.  In a way, the book even gives a small history lesson in showing how soldiers were once treated.  The pictures take up most of the page, and show the action of the story.  The text often moves as not to interfere with the flow of the pictures.  There are often two page spreads, but on those pages some of the art does get lost in the gutter. The book also provides a nice lesson in that the soldiers, a person known for fighting, don’t use any violence to get what they want.  Instead they use their cleverness to achieve a full belly.  

Chodos-Irvine, M. (2003). Ella Sarah Gets Dressed. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

                Ellah Sarah wakes one morning and decides very firmly on an eclectic outfit.  All her family tries to dissuade her from wearing those clothes, but she refuses to accommodate them.  Ultimately, she wears what she wants and shows off her outfit to the people who matter, her friends.

                Ellah Sarah Gets Dressed is a book full of bright color and patterns.  There isn’t a black outline to be seen anywhere in the book.  The illustrations focus on what is important to Ellah Sarah; the colors, her actions, and her friends.   Reading this book made me instantly think of my own daughters, and my own attempted reasoning with them on their outfits.  Their stories ended the same.