Coretta Scott King Illustrator Winners

Alexander, K. (2017). Out of wonder: Poems celebrating poets. Somerville: Candlewick.

This book is a series of poems written by Kwame Alexander, Chris Colderley, and Margery Wentworth. Some honor the style of the poet, some reflect their words, and others honor the poet themselves. Poets honored include e.e. cummings, Maya Angelou, Sandra Cisneros, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Rumi.

First I need to focus on the poetry in this book. The Maya Angelou poem resonated with me. In 1995 I was blessed to have dinner with her before a speaking engagement at a local college. I had just finished a class on biographies where we had read "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" and several of her poems. That night was magical. Her voice just made you want to listen to her forever. Every one of Kwame's words made me hear her voice in my head. That is just amazing!

The illustrations in this book are gorgeous and are part of the reason I bought it at the Scholastic Warehouse. Each picture reflects the poet and the content of the poems. Robert Frost's snowy page with the stone wall and the woods is just perfect. Emily Dickinson has a page from her biography, and you can hear the jazz music on Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks' pages. The mixed media collages are a wonderful way to illustrate and honor these great poets. As I reflected on the two previous books, these are the type of illustrations that I associate with a Caldecott book. I'm so glad it was honored by the Coretta Scott King committee.



Cline-Ransome, L. (2017). Before she was Harriet. New York: Holiday House.

Before she was Harriet, she was a slave named Araminta who fled to freedom in the north. While she is remembered as Moses who lead her people to the north, she was so much more. She was a nurse and spy in the Civil War. She also fought for the rights of women. This book shows the reader that she was so much more than what we often remember her for.

The illustrations in this book were done with watercolors and are lovely. Watercolor pictures are usually soft and for lack of a better word, watery. But Ransome was able to create shading that gave Harriet wrinkles on one page, and lit her face on another. The use of the color yellow in some way on most of the pages connects the story. It is the light of her lantern, the burning of the plantation, the reflection of the moon on her shirt, and the setting sun. I would not only use this book to teach her story, but I would suggest that the art teacher use it also to show what can be done with this medium.