Caldecott Medal Contender: A Place to Land

by Sam Juliano

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!   -Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963

One of the most moving and sublime biographical children’s books was released in 2001.  Written by Doreen Rappaport and illustrated by the multi-award winner Bryan Collier the work, Martin’s Big Words, inspired the book community at large and had many calling on the American Library Association to anoint it with the most prestigious medal a picture book could receive:  the Caldecott Medal.  In what this writer thought was a careless decision by the normally competent librarians that year, the gold medal was handed over to David Wiesner an extraordinary talented author-artist who holds a record-tying three Caldecott Medals to his name and just as many honors.  But his win that year for the The Three Pigs, the rather discordant sequel to his award winning Tuesday left more than a few librarians and teachers shaking their heads.  Sure the Rappaport-Collier collaboration still won an Honor, but there are multiple reasons it should have been the other way around, not the least of which that few biographical works resonated with such a fusion of soaring lyrical prose and frame-worthy art from one of the best in the business.   In any event, the catalog of worthy primary and middle school books on King is exceptional, and this past year an entry by Barry Wittenstein and six-time Caldecott Medal and Honor winning legend Jerry Pinkney has risen to the top-tier with a profound investigation into the famous speech that moved the proverbial mountains and set off a chain of events -some tragic, some revamping a system maligned by long-held bias and hatred – that permanently altered the sociological and political landscape.

A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation is a scene-specific account of the advent of one of the most famous speeches in American history.  The cornerstone of any study of how oratory rallied a cause and by expansion a nation scarred by violence and bloodshed, King’s most emblematic and beloved rhetorical missive was the result of huddling at the Willard Hotel the night before the 1963 March on Washington.  The “I Have a Dream” oration wasn’t like Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” quickly scribbled down on a napkin with only the eventual speaker as the sole author, but a veritable melting pot of opinions, largely from ministers but also of public figures and those Wittenstein powerfully evokes via “their faces forever seared into his (King’s) memory.”  The speech that follows the soulful deliberation and some well-timed coaxing at the podium by a Gospel singer is wholly electrifying, and reliant not only on the profound content but also on measured delivery, rhetorical emphasis and vocal reverberation from the audience to rival Mark Antony’s famous “I come to bury Caesar” monologue in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, though devoid of manipulation.  To be sure the crafting of the speech was subject to painstaking revisions lasting through the night and even then a reluctance on the part of King to put on any kind of final seal of approval without further tweaking.

Read Full Post »

PGA, SAG, Caldecott news, and repeat viewings on Monday Morning Diary (January 20)

by Sam Juliano

Lucille and I will be driving down to Philadelphia early Sunday morning to spend a full day at the American Library Association’s annual mid-winter event where the Newbery and Caldecott winners will be officially announced bright and early on Monday the 27th.  We are not quite sure we will stay over for that announcement (we are currently 50-50 on that proposition) but we will avail ourselves on Sunday for many hours the various teacher’s exhibits in the vast convention hall where the event is being staged.  In all the years I have been involved in the children’s book awards including the long run of the Caldecott series here at WitD, I’ve never attended this celebrated event, so I am certainly excited.  I am also thrilled at the amazing response from the book community at large to this year’s series, especially since it is shorter than previous years because of the sadness and some health procedures to my family we’ve endured over the past months which necessitated my pullback.  Yet, the numbers at the site have been higher than any previous year, with this week’s review of Going Down Home with Daddy accumulating an astounding 700 plus page views, which hearkens back to the old days at the site.  Other reviews have done extremely well on that front as well (Vamos, When Aidan Became My Brother, etc.) but it has been a very long time since the site has seen that high a number for a single post.  The FB sharing by the authors and artists has never been as impassioned and again the number there is well higher than any other year.  I’d like to thank Jim Clark, Ricky Chinigo, Kimbrak, Karen R., John Grant, Frank Gallo,  Peter M., Celeste Fenster, Wendy W., Tim McCoy and others for their remarkable support and insights.  The series is not yet over as I expect at least four more essays before Sunday, maybe one or two more than that even.

The Producer’s Guild close 1917 as best picture of the year this past week and last night in a modest surprise the Korean film Parasite copped the Screen Actor’s Guild ensemble award.  Many theories as to who or what will win have now been dashed sending some confident soothsayers back to the drawing board.  This coming Saturday’s Director’s Guild will seemingly clarify thing s a bit more.  Most are saying that Sam Mendes (1917) will win, with Bong Ho (Parasite) a real possibility as well.

Read Full Post »