by Sam Juliano
Elaine Magliaro’s interpretation of the essential activities facing both living and inanimate objects is governed by a subjective point of view. Though her intended readers can assume the role of each one of her subjects before and after she applies her delightful free verse to a diverse array of what we encounter on a typical day, it is best to submit to the sensory allure of a book fully committed towards erasing the pangs of ennui by way of a spirited tour chronicling the expected manner each chosen article plays in a scene-specific situation. Magliaro sets a desired tone by instructing her gifted illustrator Catia Chien to enlarge and color code key words in her verse, which are not restricted to any single part of speech. Appropriately enough the book launches with the responsibilities of dawn, which “shoos away night” and “wakes up the sleeping sun” while simultaneously inducing songbirds to do their thing and letting “dreams drift away.” A young girl and dog are first seen in an impressionist spread documenting the arrival of a new days as light filters through an open window in a living room dominated by delicate rendered purple hues.
Birds know well the consequence of missed opportunities and the likelihood of a second chance not availing itself anytime soon. Magliaro implores our feathered friends to take full advantage of the unfaltering mantra, “Fist come, first served” by descending down to a lawn where feed has been offered up. A delay will undoubtably result in other birds “seizing the day.” When breakfast has been negotiated the poet advocates airborne tenacity: Stretch out your wings on the brightening sky. Morning’s upon us. Get ready to fly! Chien’s overhead capture is an impressionist gem, featuring the metaphorical image of a bird sporting the wing span and tail of an airplane in a now busy sky of many other airborne creatures evoking Richard Bach’s line from his famed 1970 novella: “and the word for breakfast flock flashed through the air, till a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food.” The artist makes lush use of saturated acrylic red and green projecting out from the flicked brown and tan cross strokes in a scene witness by the intrepid young girl and her inveterate canine.
Much lighter and buoyant color washes are offered up to pictorially realize Magliaro’s framing of what a honeybee might do: Flit among flowers. Sip nectar for hours. Be yellow and fuzzy. Stay busy. Be buzzy. While these major players in the life cycle work to maintain the ecological status the girl with white fedora chases her shoe-swiping dog across the field. The mise en scene for the canvas depicted what an acorn should do, or more aptly how it should “grow” and “ripen” and do what all of its kind invariably do unless squirrels intervene, is shown via an observational chain: girl on swing in wooded hamlet eyes hanging acorn, dog watched girl. Chien exquisitely delivers the spread with darker green and brown hues and shadows. The thrust of the unexpected continuation canvas, where the girl flies off her swing (Magliaro announces this in exclamatory terms- …And off you go!) falling to the forest floor is markedly ethereal, as the particularly brilliant verse suggests a merging with nature: Tempt a scavenging squirrel. Let him bury you in a bed of earth between a blanket of moldering leaves. Dream the winter away. Then, in spring, sprout. Let a little oak out! An adult reader may also derive the philosophy of reincarnation from this proposition, but for target readers the connotation is celebratory. Chien’s equally masterful contribution equates to Thing to Do’s most ebullient tapestry, as this manageress of all things with vigorous implications dives through the air, losing her fedora en route, though under the watchful eye of her omnipresent pooch. The impressionist design exhibits a golden hue.
The chalky saturated foliage of the snail spread could well present those engaging with the biggest challenge in spotting girl and dog, but that was the precise idea in the verse which advises a leisurely pace to enable a real and lasting appreciation of the wonderment one derives from an immersion with nature. Magliaro describes the source of our energy in radiant terms, and Chien responds with one of her most magnificent paintings, a scorched, saturated sun drenched orange that allows identification only by shape and silhouette, but it is clear when the sun is the center all else is rendered insignificant, pictorially or otherwise. The illustrator stunningly evokes kite-flying bliss in wind-swept, swirling blue that will have some humming those beloved Sherman brothers lyrics from decades back, while the author splendidly encapsulates the sky’s temperament by suggesting that when it is “grumpy, gray and frowning” the day will be rainy and/or overcast, as opposed to the times when things are “blue” and “clear,” allowing the sun to sport its most appealing capabilities. Magliaro also petitions the sky not to “scramble storm clouds” and not to “stab the ground with lightning” but above all not to rain.
Almost as if to telegraph the encroachment of precipitation two pages later, the poet thoughtfully moves indoors to evaluate the worth of two invaluable accessories for children in arts and craft mode. The eraser, forever “pink and pliable” should unfailingly eradicate errors made by unthinking protagonists, and never worry about wearing itself out as a obliterator with a singular purpose. The silver-jawed scissors are also commanded not to divert from their one reason for existence: Snip, snap, snip. Cut! Those dog watchers will have a grand old times solving the mystery of the canine’s whereabouts, while grown up movie lovers might conjure up the image of Hitch’s trademark cameo on a newspaper pulled from the ocean in 1944’s Lifeboat. Chien’s kid-friendly canvas is sublimely forged. Magliaro evokes a beloved nursery rhyme and a 1962 song by Bobby Vinton when she urges those falling raindrops to abate, but not before they do what she chronicles in wonderfully descriptive terms: Polka dot sidewalks. Freckle windowpanes. Whoosh down gutter spouts. Gurgle into drains. Patter round the porch in slippers of gray. Tap dance on the roof. Chien’s melancholic color mix is purple dominant and in tune with the poet’s windowpane accounting in a tapestry of homebound necessity.
Rain gear’s most emblematic article are a pair of boots, and our fun-loving girl in a panel recalling several in the picture book gem Float by Daniel Miyares knows just what to do in puddles (along with her daring accomplice) striving to cull audible sounds from the crashing raindrops. The illustrator submits one of her most striking tapestries, one with a sensory allure and superlative splashes of flourescent yellow-green, especially for the reflective imagery. Chien’s Orb-Spider canvas is one of the book’s highlights. Pastel blue enhances the bold configuration of E.B. White’s most beloved creation weaving a “web of silken strands with spinners; a silver net…a sticky snare…a clever trap that’s light as air. The next stage of this infamous dinner cycle will have many young readers remembering Tony di Terlizzi’s The Spider and the Fly, a Caldecott Honor book about a spider’s unique method of obtaining sustenance. The enlarged image of the girl is painted behind the web watching the process in seeming revulsion. The white dotted web string highlight a stunning pictorial tapestry. Then the crickets come in to “bid this balmy day good-bye” with their own measure of a wing-rubbing lullaby, on a darkened canvas depicting the girl looking up to a starry night.
One can practically hear the sublime Czechoslovakian lyrics to Dvorak’s seductive “Hymn to the Moon” from the opera Rusalka, which when translated as follows:
Moon, high and deep in the sky
Your light sees far,
You travel around the wide world,
and see into people’s homes,
when eyeing Things to Do’s final canvas of a silvery moon that has a penchant to “wax and wane in your starry terrain” and “hide in the shadows and vanish from sight.” The moon in all its nocturnal illuminative splendor recalls the lunar visage in Ida Perle’s 2015 The Moon is Going to Addy’s House, but adult readers will be sufficiently galvanized to envision the most unforgettable image from Lars von Trier’s Melancholia. Either way it is the perfect good night choice in a day depicting the activities of a lifetime.
A lovely floral old fashioned design of the girl in repetitive mode comprised the end papers, and its a wonderful counterpoint for the new age look defining most of the book. Enormously popular in classroom readings, Things To Do, on the strength of its sumptuous art in service of demiurgic verse well deserves Caldecott committee scrutiny. Remarkably, this is Magliaro’s maiden picture book venture, though Chien has done some fabulous work prior to this sublime book.
Note: This is the fourteenth entry in the 2017 Caldecott Medal Contender series. The annual venture 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 in the neighborhood of around 30 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 in mid-February, hence the reviews will continue until around the end of January or through the first week of February.
Marvelous idea for a picture book. The art exhibited in the review probably looks Caldecott worthy too. The second page capture with the birds is gorgeous as is the book’s cover. Another stupendous essay Sam. You are on the proverbial roll.
Frank, I concur with your summary assessment and also love the airborne spread! Thank you so much for the exceedingly kind words.
A delightful surprise choice for the series. I’ve seen the book and used it. Beautiful and smart.
Karen, happy to hear it was so effective with your classes! I also quite agree with your assessment!
I love your choice, here, Sam!
The various tempering of the girl and her dog amounts to a thrill of a lifetime, couched in breathtaking artistry! Such a necessary theme to reveal, that the “awesome” is not about us and yet thrives upon daring from us.
Jim, thanks again for such an inspired and insightful response!!!! You captured the film’s spirit and artistry, when you note these activities represent the “thrill of a lifetime” and it is hard to argue the breathtaking artistry on these pages!
Sam, I just entered a loan request for this book. I love what I see, and of course what I just read. Fantastic review with all those fascinating references.
Ricky, I’m looking forward to your report. I am sure you’ll be quite impressed. Thank you so much.
The illustrations are alluring!
They are indeed John! That’s a great word to frame them! Thank you!
Sam — I love the wide and varying perspectives that author Elaine Magliaro uses in her storyline: dawn, birds, honeybees, and snails. And the supporting illustrations by Catia Chien are superb!
Laurie, as ever you quickly and comprehensively assess the atrtistry of a book with amazing brevity. I concur on every last point you make here!! Thank you so much my friend!
Thanks so much, Sammy, for writing this glowing review of THINGS TO DO! I am indeed a fortunate author to have had a talented artist like Catia Chien create such beautiful illustrations for my text!
I’m leaving links to some of the teacher resource guides that I developed for using THINGS TO DO in an elementary classroom. I taught for more than three decades. My students wrote their own wonderful “things to do” poems in my classroom.
Things to Do in the Classroom with a Picture Poetry Book
http://www.booksourcebanter.com/2017/04/11/things-to-do-picture-poetry-book/
Writing “Things to Do” Poems: It’s All about the Action Words
Things to Do Poetry Picture Book Teacher Guide
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BFHwsMmK1rV8OCIN9l4w-yU-TDAdRV4I99EkZ3MGXJc/edit
I am so so honored to receive these fabulous resourse materials Elaine!! I will make good use of them presently and hope other educators who visit these halls will do the same. I’ve always seen THINGS TO DO as an example of superbly realized teamwork, a book that works as well as it does because both components were inspired and complemented each other. I had as much joy in writing about this particular book as I had in any other in this year’s Caldecott series. Thrilled as well to be in complete agreement with the esteemed librarians who voted it one of the best books of the year at the New York Public Library! Thanks again for these wonderful materials!!!