A nifty little profile of the man for whom the Caldecott Medal is named, featuring plenty of his artwork in addition Barbara McClintock's fine work. Fun and educational. ( )

Cadecott contender

Saw Michelle Markel and Barbara McClintock at the Carle Museum to launch Tomfoolery - a fascinating look inside the research process for both author and illustrator.

See also: Balderdash! ( )

First sentence: Come on in. A whole world lives and breathes inside these pages.

Premise/plot: A nonfiction picture book biography of illustrator Randolph Caldecott. While young readers may not have heard of Randolph Caldecott, there is a good chance they've heard the words "Caldecott."

The book focuses in on how Caldecott revolutionized the world of children's books, of children's publishing, changing what books printed and published for children actually literally look like.

My thoughts: I took a graduate course in the history of children's books. This book was a mini-refresher; it was a good reminder of how things were.

I think this one could be enjoyed by elementary age readers. But I also think it has the potential for older readers including adults.

I enjoyed the narrative text. I wanted to absolutely love the illustrations--since Randolph Caldecott was an illustrator himself. But I "merely" liked them. Not a big deal--personally. It isn't unusual for me to prefer text over illustrations OR illustrations over text.

So far this one has received FIVE starred reviews. This matters. Perhaps a little more than it should, it matters. It definitely raises expectations. It makes readers second guess themselves at times. Why didn't I absolute ( )