Discuss a Caldecott winning picture book mainly in terms of its artistic elements.

Caldecott Book Essay

After you’ve gotten my approval for your book choice, study carefully the “Terms and Conditions” (Criteria) for winning the Caldecott Medal here: http://bit.ly/1yb8KF0 (Links to an external site.).

Write an essay to discuss a Caldecott winning picture book mainly in terms of its artistic elements. You don’t need to be an expert on art to discuss it!

Your essay must include the following:

An introduction in which you include
the full title of the book (in italics),
the full name(s) of the author and illustrator if they are different
the year the book won the Caldecott Medal
a brief summary of the book’s story, including the genre it fits into
a brief biography of the illustrator, including artistic training, if any
In the body of the essay, a discussion of the artistic elements of the book. Use the document attached in Module 6 called “Art of Children’s Literature to figure out how to describe the artistic elements.
The link below is a nice example of the type of essay I’m looking for:

https://gabidunn.wordpress.com/2012/08/11/visual-elements-in-childrens-literature/ (Links to an external site.)

You should try to include photos of a few of the book’s pictures IF YOU KNOW HOW. It’s not required, but it is very helpful (I don’t know all the books chosen, so I’ll need a reference to see what you’re discussing. Amazon often has a few pages available for viewing, or you can use your smartphone to take a photo of the 2-3 pages you want to refer to, in paste them into your document.

A conclusion in which you discuss how the illustrations reflect the story. To use a silly example, a frightening book probably won’t be illustrated with hearts and flowers, but how has the artist built the right mood for the story?
A Works Cited page in MLA format that includes:
the book itself
the pdf document “Art of Children’s Literature”
any other outside work you refer to.

Note: your introduction may be more than a paragraph long, and the body of the essay may be more than three paragraphs. Don’t get trapped by the five-paragraph essay structucixre (and it is a trap!).

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