Mock Caldecott 2027 discussion

The Sweetest of Lemons by Daniel Nayeri and illustrated by Rahele Jomepour Bell - Illustrator.

by Christian Robinson.



What do you think of these publications?

I love Dad, but don't see it as a Caldecott hopeful. I will check out Nayeri's book. It looks lovely on the cover.

The Sweetest of Lemons:
I always enjoy Nayeri's writing, and this had his signature wandering, conversational feel to it. The illustrations are animated and richly-colored (the artist explains the colors were chosen to honor historic Persian art, and their natural-dye hues went well with the folkloric feel of the story); but I feel like they would have been more successful in a larger-format book.

I know Caldecott folks need to pay attention to pages that don't work, even in handsome books, and one stood out to me. The page where the young man and the princess jump on the sheep is confusingly laid-out: it's not clearly signaled whether to read the panels and text boxes across the gutter or not.

This is a very good book, but I don't think it reaches Caldecott standards.

Goodbye, Koi (Jack Wong) is a delight. He so captures the child's perspective regarding significant events occurring.

Dad
With its brief text and large paint and collage illustrations, this would be an excellent story time book for Father's Day, or any story time about fathers. I personally am underwhelmed by the artistic style as I prefer depictions of animals and people to be much more realistic than these stylized representations. I wouldn't vote for it if I were on the committee, but others do like this style of artwork.

The Sweetest of Lemons
I enjoyed this story within a story very much. I thought the Persian-inspired artwork worked well with both the contemporary story and the folktale. I found it interesting that the young boy heard the story from the man at the refueling station, rather than from his own grandfather. The folktale was very interesting as I have never heard of sweet lemons, only very sour ones. I liked that the illustrator used slightly different artwork to differentiate between the contemporary people and the folklore people. I'm not sure if it's Caldecott worthy or not, but it is a very good book for youngsters who like folklore.

I read the sweetest lemons once several months back and the art work of the story within the story and all the details impressed me then and continues to hold well in my memory.

Christie wrote: "Goodbye, Koi (Jack Wong) is a delight. He so captures the child's perspective regarding significant events occurring."

Goodbye, Koi has wonderful illustrations! From the book's flap copy, it appears that the author-illustrator lives in Nova Scotia, which would make him ineligible for the Caldecott.