Caldecott Medal Contender: A Letter For Leo

by Sam Juliano

If the 120 odd first graders of Fairview, New Jersey had their way, author-illustrator Sergio Ruzzier would be getting a call from the American Library Association early in February with the coveted news that he won the 2014 Caldecott Medal for his wholly endearing A Letter For Leo.  The book was the final winner of 70 plus Caldedott worthy works that were read and presented to four primary classes over the last few weeks.  Ruzzier’s book about that one event that can bring lasting joy to a life of aching solitude, to be sure packs an emotional wallop no matter what the age of the reader, but the bonding of its two needy characters hits a special chord with the young ones.  In the grand tradition of children’s literature icons Leo Politi and Tomie DePaola, Brooklyn artist extraordinaire Ruzzier, born and raised in Italy, brings striking European sensibilities to his art, forging tapestries that echo his two compatriots, while bringing an entirely new measure of exultation to his spare and often arresting vignettes.  Ruzzier is a classicist.  Each of his cells sport a retro look, and the watercolors are finely modulated to achieve that rarity of book illustration that both appeals to young kids because of its uncluttered visual scheme, while presenting serious art that stands out magnificently on its own.

Leo is a kind of nondescript weasel who leads a humdrum life as a mail carrier in a small Italian village.  As first seen on the cover he seems affable enough, wearing a pastel blue and red cap (with a red strapped hand bag) while placing a letter in a an old-fashioned mailbox anchored by a wooden stump.  In captivating minimalism a thatched roof and a three bud wilting flower frame the panel horizontally, while a bird sneaks a peak from behind the stump, the same bird that is conspicuously missing from the otherwise exact copy of the inside cover.  But that’s a nice thematic touch.  Ruzzier doesn’t waste anytime ravishing his readers, treating them to one of the most breathtaking copyright pages of the year, one that features small-scale village architecture, rocky formations and curling cactus plants.  At the forefront is the ever-dependable Leo with his box of deliveries.  As Ruzzier describes: “He carries all kinds of mail: big boxes, small packets, envelopes of every size, catalogs, love letters and birthday cards.  One of the finniest vignettes shows Leo delivering a large bone all wrapped up in paper that fails to conceal the shape of the bone to a running, overjoyed dog.  The opposite page reveals Leo making a boxed food delivery to fish in a stream.  But even the mailman gets a break, and Leo get a chance to play bocce (a European game especially popular in Italy and Slovak countries that involves positioning and knocking around large stone balls) and have a snack courtesy of a hospitable hen (you gotta love that red maned rooster on the wall portrait!) who’d be completely at home in a William Steig picture book.

But alas, poor Leo.  He is missing that spark of adventure, indeed that one small acknowledgement that a single letter would bring.  Soon enough he is startled to hear a loud CHEEP! from the ornate, vertical mailbox he is preparing to open.  A small bird emerges (you gotta love Ruzzier’s almost human abstract depiction of the airborne creature!) and Leo quickly regales him with questions about his identity and origin.   The answers are always the same.  CHEEP!  CHEEP!  Movie fans will no doubt recollect the repeated “I Am Groot” from the stoic superhero in this past year’s Guardians of the Galaxy, but this bird is anything but detached, and much like the unfortunate baby title character in Marla Frazee’s The Farmer and the Clown it has become  dislodged from its flock.  While pondering what to do with his new social windfall Leo gives the bird some stored away sun-dried crickets and then brings him home, where he constructs a small bed.  They live together, they spend time and eat together, they bond.  “Cheep” even gets to help build a snowman during the winter months (ya really gotta love the busy snowscape painting with a pig falling off a sled, a woodpecker taking off on skis and “Cheep” and Leo having loads of fun building a snowman.  Ruzzier’s use of red on the tree and for the snowman’s eyes is sublime).  Then, in what is arguably the artist’s most exhilarating illustration of all the birds quit their warm winter homes to fly north as per annual migration.  Surely the specter of Song of the Swallows is hanging in the air with the galvanic watercolor sweep of cotton clouds overlooking a mountainous terrain, a curving stream, and sprouting flowers.

Then comes the big emotional catharsis when Cheep has to join them and leave his tearful friend.  One circular vignette captures this precious moment in uncompromising terms.  Another breathtaking spread documents their wing space goodbye, leaving the forlorn Leo to resume his normal activities, as they were before happiness intruded.  In short order comes what he had been waiting for his entire life, and the result gives Ruzzier his well-earned tour de force of  exhilaration, and the moment that cements the already smitten kids.  Nine words, all the same, rushing in to lift Leo to the proverbial stars.  There isn’t a dry eye in the house after the final vignette, which brings the relationship full circle.

A Letter For Leo is a rare hybrid that brings together elements of humor, pathos and celebration, seamlessly woven in a book of exceeding craftsmanship and deep feeling set in a place of alluring beauty.  For adults it is one of the very best picture books of the year, for kids it crosses the finish line repeatedly.  Ruzzier was a major contender last year for his beloved Have You Seen My New Blue Socks, and this time appears to have raised the ante even more.  Caldecott recognition could well be imminent.

Note:  This is the fourteenth entry in the 2014 Caldecott Medal Contender series.  The series does not purport to predict what the committee will choose, rather it attempts to gauge what the writer feels should be in the running.  In most instances the books that are featured in the series have been touted as contenders in various online round-ups, but for the ones that are not, the inclusions are a humble plea to the committee for consideration.  It is anticipated the series will include between 20 and 25 titles; the order which they are being presented in is arbitrary, as every book in this series is a contender.  Some of my top favorites of the lot will be done near the end.  The awards will be announced on February 2nd, hence the reviews will continue to the end of January.