1948 - White Snow Bright Snow

The eleventh book to be awarded the Caldecott Medal was White Snow, Bright Snow, written by Alvin Tresselt and illustrated by Roger Duviosin, published in 1947 by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Books, now a part of HarperCollins.

White Snow, Bright Snow is a poem full of nostalgia.  In the back of the book, Alvin Tresselt is quoted as explaining how this book came to be: "White Snow, Bright Snow had its beginning as I walked down the street in New York City in a snowy winter night.  The poem came first, and the verses all but wrote themselves in my head as I walked along."

I will be honest, the book feels dated, but in a sweet nostalgic way.  The illustrations are not my favorite, I don't particularly care for how people are portrayed, but I do like the brightly colored houses and cars and I think the snowman is the best one I've ever seen.

Who was Roger Duvoisin?

Roger Duvoisin was born on August 28, 1900 in Geneva, Switzerland into a family of art lovers.  At a young age he took an interest in music, but it was his father, an architect, who steered him towards art and design.  He worked on designing and painting murals, posters, and theater scenery.  Duvoisin moved to Paris where he studied art at a public university before finding a job with American silk goods manufacturer, HR Mallinson & Co.  

In 1925, Duvoisin and his wife, Louise Fatio, moved from France to America.  When the Depression hit, HR Mallinson & Co. went bankrupt and Duvoisin turned to children's books and illustrations.

His first book, A Little Boy Drawing, was published in 1932, but failed to catch on.  His second book, Donkey-Donkey, proved to be very popular.

Duvoisin moved his family to Gladstone, New Jersey where he could be close to New York City and still have room to be surrounded by the animals he loved in a more country setting.  He authored and illustrated several books including the very popular Petunia and Veronica series.

In 1947, Duvoisin teamed up with author Alvin Tresselt for the first time to work on White Snow, Bright Snow.  They would go on to collaborate on thirteen other children's books, including: Hide and Seek Fog (Mulberry Books)  (a 1966 Caldecott Honor Book), Autumn Harvest, and The Beaver Pond.

Duvoisin also illustrated the The Happy Lion (Read to a Child!: Level 2) series, written by his wife, Louise Fatio.

Duvoisin passed away in June of 1980.

The Illustrations

This is my favorite illustration in the entire book.

White Snow, Bright Snow follows a postman, a farmer, a policeman, and the policeman's wife as a big snow storm rolls in.

The postman said it looked like snow; the farmer said it smelled like snow; the policeman said it felt like snow; the policeman's wife said her big toe hurt.

According to Tresselt: "I recalled my mother saying that her big toe always hurt whenever it was going to snow.  This brought to mind the ways other people could tell it was going to snow, and I applied these to my cast of characters: the farmer, the postman, the policeman, and of course his practical-minded wife."

I really liked Duvoisin's use of color, but I am not really a fan of how the people looked.  This is personal preferance, but their bright red faces struck me as odd, not rosy-cheeked.

I really like the colors in the quilt.

I love the bright primary colors of the homes against the white of the blanket of snow.

And I felt the line "Automobiles looked like big fat raisins buried in the snowdrifts" painted a perfect picture of a car in the snow.

Of course, there were images of children at play in brightly colored coats.

As Tresselt said: "What would snow be without children to enjoy it!"

White Snow, Bright Snow is a sweet, nostalgic story with colorful illustrations.  Does it stand the test of time? Meh.  I think I'm old enough to find it sweet, but would I go out and buy for a kid today?  Probably not.  

But I would love a poster sized image of the completed snowman.

1948 Caldecott Honor Books

Stone Soup (Aladdin Picture Books) by Marcia Brown  McElligot's Pool (Classic Seuss) by Dr. Seuss
Bambino the Clown by Georges Schreiber
Roger and the Fox illustrated by Hildegard Woodward, written by Lavinia R. Davis
The Song of Robin Hood illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton, written by Anne Malcolmson

1947 - The Little Island

The tenth book to be awarded the Caldecott Medal was The Little Island, written by Golden MacDonald and illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, published in 1946 by Doubleday.

This sweet little book begins by showing the arrival of spring and summer to a tiny island that is happily sitting in the middle of the ocean, enjoying the changing seasons.  One day, a kitten comes to the island on a small sailboat with his people, for a picnic.  The kitten and the island have a conversation, where the kitten learns the meaning of faith.

While researching this title I learned that Golden MacDonald is a pseudonym for Margaret Wise Brown.  Yup, Margaret "Goodnight Moon" Wise Brown.  Besides using her real name, Brown wrote under four pen names: Golden MacDonald, Timothy Hay, Juniper Sage, and Kaintuck Brown.

Besides The Little Island, Brown wrote four other books under the name Golden MacDonald, all five were collaborations with Leonard Weisburg: Red Light, Green Light (1944), Little Lost Lamb (1945) - a 1946 Caldecott Honor book, Little frightened tiger (1953), and Whistle for the train (1956).

Who was Leonard Weisgard?

Leonard Weisgard was the only child of Samuel and Fanny Weisgard, born on December 13, 1916 in New Haven, Connecticut.  He spent much of his young life in England, where his father was from, before the family moved back to the U.S. when he was 8 years old. 

After returning to America, Weisgard was disappointed with the books given to him at school.  He didn't like the illustrations and found them dull.  That was when his interest in illustrations began.

He studied art at the Pratt Institute and the New School For Social Research, both in New York City.  Weisgard then went on to study dance with Martha Graham before finding work as a window dresser at Macy's.  

His first illustrations appeared in such magazines as Good Housekeeping,  The New Yorker, and Harper's Bazaar.  

Weisgard  used many different techniques and colors in his illustrations, including poster paint, crayon, chalk, pen and ink, and stenciling.  Among his influences were primitive cave paintings, Gothic and Renaissance art, and avant-garde French illustrators of children's books of the 1920s.

His first book, Suki, the Siamese Pussy, was published in 1937, followed by an adaptation of Cinderella.

Weisgard went on to illustrate over 200 hundred books, including 23 titles he wrote himself and several collaborations with Margaret Wise Brown.  Besides the books I listed early, they also worked together on the popular The Noisy Book series: The Noisy Book Treasury (Dover Children's Classics).  For his complete bibliography, please check out Leonard Weisgard's website.

In 1951, Weisgard married Phyllis Mennot.  The Weisgards worked together often, creating set and costume designs, Leonard drew sketches while Phyllis made patterns.  They did several for the San Francisco Ballet, including The Nutcracker.

In 1969, the Weisgards and their three children moved to Denmark.  This was where he lived until his death on January 14, 2000.

The Illustrations

The Little Island is the story of, well, a little island.  This island sits in the ocean, seemingly all by itself.  Wind blows around it, birds fly over, fish swim past as tides rise and fall, and fog rolls in.  Spring arrives with spiders building webs and small flowers of white and blue and violet blooming.  Lobsters crawl in from the sea and seals lie on the sunny rocks with their babies.

This is my favorite illustration, I love the *pop* of white with the young seal pup in the middle of all the browns and greens.

 Kingfishers building their nests, gulls laying their eggs, and wild strawberries popping up mark the beginning of summer.

The illustration of the kingfishers is the brightest illustration in the book.

Then one sunny day, a little black cat comes to the island with his people for a picnic and the kitten is surprised by how small the island is.

The island, in return, points out how tiny the kitten is.  The kitten responds that he is part of the big world, but when the island tries to say he is too, the kitten disagrees, pointing out that the island is cut off from the land.  The island tells the kitten to ask any fish, which the kitten does.

"Answer me this or I'll eat you up," said the kitten.

The fish explains that "all land is one land under the sea" and that if the kitten would go into the water with him, he would show him.  The kitten explains he can't swim, so the fish says he must take it on faith that he is right.  When the kitten asked what faith was, the fish defined it as "To believe what I tell you about what you don't know."

The cat believed the fish and let him go before returning to his boat and sailing away.

Once again, the little island was alone with his seven big trees, seventeen small bushes, and one big rock.  And night came, bringing seven fireflies and a bat, waking the owl.

A storm blew in as days turned from summer to autumn to winter.  And the little island sat alone in the ocean.

The Little Island was laid out with color illustrations on the right hand page and the text on the left.  Several pages had black and white illustrations surrounding the text.

The Little Island is a sweet, though not necessarily memorable, book. I love how the fish explains faith to the kitten and I really enjoy how Weisgard uses pops of color to show a baby seal among adult seals or a wild strawberry, bright red in a field of green.

One final note: Leonard Weisgard won the 1947 Caldecott Medal and one of his other books was a 1947 Honor book as well.

1947 Caldcott Honor Books
Rain Drop Splash illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, written by Alvin Tresselt The Boats on the River illustrated by Jay Hyde Barnum, written by Marjorie Flack Timothy Turtle. illustrated by Tony Palazzo, written by Al Graham Pedro: The Angel of Olvera Street by Leo Politi Sing in Praise: A Collection of the Best Loved Hymns illustrated by Marjorie Torrey, text selected by Opal Wheeler

1946 - The Rooster Crows

The ninth book to be awarded the Caldecott Medal was The Rooster Crows: A Book of American Rhymes and Jingles by Maud and Miska Petersham, published in 1945 by Macmillan, now a part of Simon and Schuster.

The title says it all.  This book contains many classic nursery rhymes, finger games, and skipping rope songs that we will all remember from childhood, and some that have been lost to more recent generations.

Who were Maud and Miska Petersham?

Photo of Miska and Maud Petersham taken sometime in the 1950s

Maud Fuller was born in Kingston, New York on August 5, 1890.  She was the third of four daughters and her father, a baptist minister, was a direct descendant of the physician on the Mayflower.  Maud graduated from Vassar College in 1912 and went on to study at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, now known as Parsons The New School of Design, and, from there, went to work at the International Art Service, a graphic design firm in New York City.

Miska was born Petrezselyem Mihaly on September 20, 1888 in Torokszentmiklos, Hungary.  After studying at the Royal National School of Applied Arts in Budapest, in 1911 Miska moved first to London and then six months later traveled to New York City and came through Ellis Island in 1912.  He quickly found work at the International Art Service, where he met Maud Fuller.  They married in 1917.

Maud and Miska moved to Greenwich Village and with the help of their friend, Willy Pogany, a Hungarian illustrator, they found their first work in children's book illustrations which then led to steady commissions.  In 1923, they bought a house in Woodstock, New York.

From the 1920's through the 1950's, the Petershams were considered pioneers in the world of children's book illustrations.

Maud is quoted in Books Are By People: Interviews With 104 Authors and Illustrators of Books for Young Children  as saying "At first we illustrated books written by others, but often we found no place in the text that lent itself to illustration, so we decided to plan a book of our own with both pictures and text." And they published their first book, Miki: The Book of Maud and Miska Petersham, a story about their young son, in 1929.

The Petershams went on to write and illustrate nearly 50 other books including: Auntie and Celia Jane and Miki, The Box with Red Wheels (written for their grandchildren), and Story of the Presidents of the United States of America.  Unfortunately, it appears that nearly all their books are out of print, but they could be found at used bookstores, online, or in your local library.

Miska passed away on May 15, 1960 and Maud on November 29, 1971.

In 2012, WoodstockArts published Under the North Light: The Life and Work of Maud and Miska Petersham by Lawrence Webster.  Webster grew up in Woodstock and played with the Petersham's granddaughter, Mary.  According to Webster, the Petershams complimented each other perfectly.  Maud drew on the left page while Miska drew on the right; Maud did the research while Miska took care of all the criticism.  To learn more about what Webster had to say about the Petershams, check out this review of a presentation she gave at the New York Public Library.

What surprised me, was that according to Webster, The Rooster Crows  was not considered to be the Petersham's best work, even though they won the Caldecott.

The Illustrations

I suppose I was surprised by Webster's statement about The Rooster's Crow not being the Petersham's best work because I just assume when a book wins the Caldecott, it is.  Just because this book was chosen to win means it was the most "distinguished American picture book for children" of that particular year, not necessarily the best illustrations ever done by the illustrator.  But then all art is subjective and when each person looks at a work of art they are all seeing something a little different.

There is no plot in The Rooster Crows to discuss, it contains a collection of rhymes and jingles, finger games, rope skipping rhymes, counting-out rhymes, and games, ending with the full length version of Yankee Doodle.

There are plenty of old standbys that we're all familiar with including: How Much Wood Would A Woodchuck Chuck, This Little Piggy, A Bear Went Over The Mountain, and Little Jack Horner.

There were some I had never heard of like:

Bat, bat, come under my hat,

And I'll give you a slice of bacon.

And when I bake, I'll give you some cake,

That is, if I'm not mistaken

and

Black cat sat on the sewing machine

Looking fine and handsome,

Ran ninety-nine stitches in his tail

Ad then he ran some.

And then there were some sayings that I didn't know were a part of a rhyme:

Two's a couple,

Three's a crowd.

Four on the sidewalk

Is never allowed.

I have the feeling that depending on your age and where you live, you may know some of these and others may be new to you.  But the illustrations are quite beautiful.  They're soft and lovely.

 I loved the animals they drew and it appears to me the Petershams excelled in showing emotion, not just on human faces, but animals as well.

"Yankee Doodle"
Look at the expression on the boy's face.

Plucking daisy petals for "One I Love"

"Little Sally Waters"

Illustration for the full version of "Yankee Doodle"

And when it came to the finger games, the Petershams included illustrations on how to play the game:

When I was a child, I loved poetry and this was definitely the kind of book I would have loved reading through.  This book would be a lot of fun to read with a young child, the nursery rhymes and games are just plain silly enough to keep them entertained.

If this is considered by critics to not be the Petersham's best work, this definitely makes me want to look up their other books to see what tops the illustrations in The Rooster Crows.

1946 Caldecott Honor Books
Little Lost Lamb, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard, written by Margaret Wise Brown (using the pseudonym Golden MacDonald  Sing Mother Goose, illustrated by Marjorie Torrey, music by Opal Wheeler My Mother Is the Most Beautiful Woman in the World: A Russian Folk Tale, illustrated by Ruth Gannett, written by Becky Reyher You Can Write Chinese by Kurt Wiese