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A Caldecott Celebration
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Marcus, Leonard S. 1998. A CALDECOTT CELEBRATION. New York: Walker and Company. ISBN: 0-8027-8656-1.

A Caldecott Celebration is a cross-section of six artists who have won the Caldecott Medal.  The author chooses to use one artist from each decade from the 1940's to the 1990's.  Each artist also wrote the text for his/her award-winning book.  Mr. Marcus first introduces Randolph Caldecott, a British children's book artist.  He explains that the Caldecott Medal is awarded "to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published in the United States during the preceding year."

As the reader follows the path of these six artists, the tone of the text is conversational and easy to read.  One feels that they are meeting the artists and not merely reading about them. We learn about the trials and tribulations of the earlier artists in their struggle to work within the restraints of the technology to get their work published as they created it.  Earlier publishing techniques made this a struggle that these artists rose to meet.
 
The reader comes to have an idea of the magnitude of the work and effort put into the making of these books.  We see dummies, sketches, compositional studies, outlines, and more.  Those of us not blessed with an artistic mind marvel at the complexities of each drawing.  After reading this book, no illustrations in a picture book will ever be skimmed-over again.
 

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Leonard S. Marcus
 

How many a man has dated a new era in his life from the reading of a book. -Henry David Thoreau