Caldecott Medal 2006 Caldecott Medal Winner The Hello, Goodbye Window Norton Juster    A young girl takes us to her Nanna and Poppy's house to see a very special window. Most of the time her Nanna and Poppy are there in the kitchen so she can tap on the window, then hide, or they can wave at her when she arrives. We share her joy in the fun she has with Poppy's harmonica playing, watching reflections in the window at supper, saying goodnight to the stars with Nanna, looking through the window at the garden, playing outside. Sometimes through the window she sees people; sometimes her imagination fills it with other more amazing sights. Saying goodbye through the window when Mommy and Daddy pick her up is sad, but she looks forward to having her own "Hello, Goodbye Window" some day. Raschka turns the pages into scenes of innocent joy. His paints barely suggest objects as he applies intuitive areas of color, he then uses black lines here and there to define a face, a bicycle, a spouting hose. The personalities of the grandparents and their loving interactions with the narrator make this an engaging tale, while the artist's imagination forms something special from a bit of childhood. 2005, Michael Di Capua Books/Hyperion Books for Children, $15.95. Ages 3 to 6. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature)    A small child brings us along on a visit to Nanna and Poppy's house that begins with the wonder of the hello, goodbye window. Imagine a window where you can see Nanna and Poppy before they even see you! Everything about their house is intriguing to our narrator and her view of the world is at the heart of this tale. It is so deliciously typical of a three-year old to offer a line such as this: "When I get tired I come in and take my nap and nothing happens until I get up." The story ends with our heroine waving goodbye to her grandparents through the window. Just as the window is for hellos and goodbyes, her feelings run the gamut, too, from happy to sad. Raschka's illustrations are busy just as the child is and his depiction of the characters as bi-racial is so welcome. What a lovely message embedded in this child-visits-grandparents romp! 2005, Hyperion, $15.95. Ages 4 to 7. Reviewer: Joan Kindig, Ph.D. (Children's Literature). Best Books: Best Children's Books, 2005; Publishers Weekly; United States Booklist Book Review Stars , Mar. 15, 2005; United States Children's Editor's Choice, 2005; Kirkus Reviews; Top 10; United States Kirkus Book Review Stars, March 1, 2005; United States Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, February 21, 2005; Cahners; United States School Library Journal Book Review Stars, March 2005; Cahners; United States SLJ Best Books, 2005; Cahners; United States Awards, Honors, Prizes: Boston Globe--Horn Book Awards Honor Book 2005 Picture Book United States New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year Winner 2005 United States ISBN: 0-7868-0914-0 Caldecott Honor Books Rosa Nikki Giovanni Illustrated by Bryan Collier    What would happen if you were made to give up your seat on a bus simply because of the color of your skin? That is what happened to Rosa Parks, a black woman in the southern town of Montgomery, Alabama, on December 1, 1955. When she refused to give up a seat that was supposed to be neutral--for blacks or whites--the bus driver called the police. The police arrested Mrs. Parks and took her to jail. When Jo Ann Robinson, a member of the Women's Political Council, heard of the arrest, she formed a committee that put up posters all over the town, urging black people to walk instead of riding the bus. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to them as part of a large group that had joined together in the fight for equality. This was a country that was founded by a diverse group of people, and every citizen deserved equal treatment and Dr. King urged all blacks to stay off the buses. People from all over the country sent them shoes, coats, and money so they could continue to walk for almost a year--until the United States Supreme Court ruled on November 13, 1956, that segregation in any form was illegal. This would be a good book for an elementary social-studies class. The author explains the situation in simple terms for young children. The illustrator has emphasized the strength of Rosa Parks in his use of dark and light images. 2005, Henry Holt and Company, $16.95. Ages 7 to 10. Reviewer: Debbie West (Children's Literature). Best Books: Booklist Book Review Stars , Jun. 1, 2005; United States Kirkus Book Review Stars, July 15, 2005; United States Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, August 29, 2005; Cahners; United States ISBN: 978-0-8050-7106-1 ISBN: 0-8050-7106-7 Zen Shorts Jon J. Muth    Three stories told by Stillwater, a giant panda, to Addy, Michael, and Karl, introduce concepts of Zen Buddhism to the children as they visit him one at a time. The charming, unusually wise, sometimes kimono-clad panda is found by the children in unusual places doing odd things, but offering his wisdom in response to each child's personality. His first tale concerns his poor uncle who, having nothing else, gives his only tattered robe to a robber, while wishing he could have given him the beautiful moon as well. The second story is a good news/bad news demonstration to Michael that "you never know what will happen next." Karl is told the third tale when he comes to visit, still angry with Michael. Stillwater shows him the futility of holding on to his anger. Each tale offers much to ponder. Muth's full-page watercolor and ink scenes of the children and their mentor have the simplicity associated with many Japanese pictures but are stylistically clearly naturalistic and Western. He uses only black ink and brush to visualize the Zen stories within the story, an effective way to present the visual narrative. There is a greater vitality to these drawings than to the gentler, more sophisticated watercolors, making their pairing particularly insightful. Note the paintings of our Zen instructor as he takes off under his parasol clad in shorts on the front and back of the jacket and cover, the subtle difference between jacket and cover, and the delicately colored end-papers. 2005, Scholastic Press, $16.95. Ages 4 to 9. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature). Best Books: Booklist Book Review Stars , Mar. 1, 2005; United States Children's Editor's Choice, 2005; Kirkus Reviews; United States Kirkus Book Review Stars, February 1, 2005; United States Top 10 Religion Books for Youth, 2005; American Library Association-Booklist; United States Awards, Honors, Prizes: Parent's Choice Award Gold 2005 Picture Books United States The Quill Awards Nominee 2005 Children's Illustrated Book United States State and Provincial Reading Lists: Arizona Young Reader Award, 2007; Nominee; Picture Book; United States ISBN: 0-439-33911-1 Hot Air: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Hot-Air Balloon Ride Marjorie Priceman    Caldecott Honor illustrator Marjorie Priceman takes on the world's first successful balloon flight engineered by the Montgolfier brothers at Versailles in September of 1783. Manned--make that "animaled"--by a duck, a sheep, and a rooster, the balloon has a grand sendoff before a crowd of notables including Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, and Benjamin Franklin. But, as Priceman so succinctly notes, "enough about them." Thus begins her animals' point of view adventure. Wordless save for a few dramatic quacks, baaas and mmmooos the bright, witty illustrations imagine what might have happened before crash down and the rescue of the brave passengers. Priceman's prefatory and concluding texts are as droll as her images, and she completes her wonderful little history lesson with endpapers outlining the history of the Montgolfiers' experiments. The book will be a joy for kids, parents, and balloon aficionados alike. 2005, An Anne Schwartz Book/Atheneum, $16.95. Ages 4 to 8. Reviewer: Kathleen Karr (Children's Literature) (An Anne Schwartz Book from Atheneum Books for Young Readers, Simon & Schuster) Best Books: Kirkus Book Review Stars, June 15, 2005; United States Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, May 30, 2005; Cahners; United States ISBN: 0-689-82642-7 Song of the Water Boatman and Other Pond Poems Joyce Sidman Illustrated by Beckie Prange,    Poems rich with imagery and a celebration of the beauty of language open our eyes to the activity at a pond from spring to winter. Almost all of the eleven, mainly- rhyming verses discuss a creature, plant or other aspect. That is on one side of an imaginatively-designed spread, while detailed factual information is in a paragraph on the other side. A few of the poems speak in the first person, like that of the spring peepers, "Listen for Me," or the Diving Beetle, or the Water Boatman and Backswimmer, while others simply bring to life what happens, like "In the Depths of the Summer Pond." Large pages offer considerable space for the dramatic colored woodblock illustrations of the creatures. Some, like the dragonfly, are particularly striking; others, like the heron, are more complex. All are appropriate visual partners for the poems, which are a pleasure to read aloud. A glossary adds information about the pond life vocabulary used. 2005, Houghton Mifflin Company, $16.00. Ages 5 to 10. Reviewer: Ken Marantz and Sylvia Marantz (Children's Literature). Best Books: Best Children's Books, 2005; Publishers Weekly; United States Booklist Book Review Stars , Mar. 15, 2005; United States Children's Editor's Choice, 2005; Kirkus Reviews; United States Kirkus Book Review Stars, April 1, 2005; United States Publishers Weekly Book Review Stars, March 28, 2005; Cahners; United States School Library Journal Book Review Stars, July 2005; Cahners; United States SLJ Best Books, 2005; Cahners; United States Top 10 Sci-Tech Books for Youth, 2005; Booklist; United States ISBN: 0-618-13547-2 To stay up to date on new books by these authors, consider subscribing to The Children's Literature Comprehensive Database. For your free trial, click here.