Nikki Grimes is mad at me and my 2009 Caldecott Committee. She cannot understand why we did not choose Kadir Nelson for his marvelous book, We Are The Ship. To make matters worse, I cannot even use my own blog to explain anything about Kadir or our process or our contenders because that information is confidential.
What I can do is ask some questions. Kadir won a Coretta Scott King medal for We Are the Ship, which will not surprise anyone. It does, however, surprise me because he did not win the medal for illustration. He won the author award. We Are The Ship was an honor book for illustration. So doesn’t Nikki Grimes feel even madder at us for shunning Floyd Cooper, who does some of the very best portrait art in the business? In her article, she states that when We Are The Ship and Kadir Nelson did not win the Caldecott medal, it pushed her over the edge. He did not win the King Illustration award either. I kind of feel bad for Mr. Cooper! Floyd Cooper won the King illustration award for The Blacker the Berry and he could also have won for Willie and the All-Stars. I’ve reviewed his artwork for many books, including the illustrations he did for Tough Boy Sonatas (which add richness to this marvelous collection of poetry by Curtis Crisler).
The Caldecott Award is given by fifteen very independent, very bright people. Each one of us would have selected different books as winners. Together as a committee, however, we followed the manual. We looked at how the art works with the text to tell a bigger story. We argued! We argued some more. While I respect the disappointment and the disagreement, I am not at all sorry about our consensus driven choices (nor the process).
I am also, like Nikki Grimes, waiting for that day when a Black illustrator captures the Caldecott. I think her questions are absolutely essential, except that as Zetta Elliott points out, Grimes only mentions Black men as potential winners. At the end of this post, I will provide readers with a linked list of Black women illustrators. Maybe publishers will investigate some of these folks for future book projects. I loved Shadra Strickland’s illustrations in Bird and Shadra is this year’s Steptoe winner (well deserved and she started the King breakfast off on the perfect note--she is one big-hearted woman!). Shadra also has illustrations in Our Children Can Soar (as does Charlotte Riley-Webb, Cozbi Cabrera, and Pat Cummings). In looking at the websites and other information about these women, I can’t wait to see Charlotte Riley-Webb get a book to illustrate that takes full advantage of her figurative acrylic painting talent, which I can easily see in the place of some of the books I read this year with great texts and horrible illustrations.
In the meantime, this year’s Caldecott winner could very well be Jerry Pinkney. Grimes is absolutely correct in stating that Jerry could have won for any of his fabulous books including last year’s The Moon Over Star, a book that I predicted would win the King award in several presentations last summer.
The African story telling tradition receives props in The Lion and the Mouse published by Little, Brown (a publishing company that may still be grieving over the fact that Wabi Sabi did not win the Caldecott--we get to make a lot of people angry). In this mostly wordless book, Pinkney has such exquisite, layered illustrations that add such depth AND the illustrations force even those young children unfamiliar with this Aesop classic to see, understand, and tell this story. Words do not do this book justice. Go out and buy it. See for yourself. If I were on the Caldecott Committee this year, I would be bleeding on the table for this one to win (of all the books I have seen so far this year). I am pulling for this book not because Pinkney is Black, not because Pinkney is male like me, but because it is a significant achievement in the field of children’s art--so far the most significant one I have seen this year!
Black Women Illustrators
shadra strickland illustration
Yvonne Buchanan | Eclectic by Design Yvonne Buchanan
Lee & Low Books (many published books with Black Women illustrators)
