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Ah, one of my favorite subjects: picture books for the very young. This year some of my most-loved books fall into that category, including several we’re talking about on Calling Caldecott this fall. We all know that these books face an uphill battle when it comes to Caldecott recognition. But that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve it! So brace yourself for an impassioned plea for Byron Barton’s My Bike, the latest entry in his transportation series (which includes My Car and My Bus).

This book has everything a book for preschoolers needs: a kid-friendly topic; a clear trajectory from beginning to end; propulsive page turns; repetition in pattern and/or language; a close congruency between pictures and text; art that captures attention and that limits its details to those of interest to kids.

My Bike could not begin more directly or succinctly, or lead more efficiently into the action. First Barton introduces Tom with the simplest of three-word texts — “I am Tom” —  on the left hand page and a forefronted portrait of Tom himself on the right side: blue eyes, striped green and yellow shirt, purple pants. On the next spread, the four-word text says, “This is my bicycle,” and the picture shows Tom pointing at the bike (brilliant!). The next page turn shows the whole bike with all its parts labeled (a genius preamble, for vehicle-loving kids). And then we’re off — “I ride my bicycle to work” — into this clever, beautifully foreshadowed, predictable-then-not-so, kid-pleasing story.

Here are just a few of the things I appreciate about this book:

• The bright neon rainbow palette is entirely appropriate for the subject, and varying the colors of the pages and the typeface (from yellow to purple to blue to red, etc) adds an enormous amount of energy and vibrancy.
• Young readers are constantly propelled forward through the book, with Tom riding from left to right on every spread. Also, his presence on every spread — riding his bike, often waving to the people and animals he passes — anchors the events.
• The rounded typeface echoes and reinforces the wheels on Tom’s bike and other vehicles, the round heads of the human characters, the balloons, the balls, and on and on.
• The population of this book is diverse to the max. There is a spectacular mix of skin hues and genders and even species (in Barton’s transportation books, even cats and dogs ride the bus and go to the circus). And just FYI, Barton has been including brown faces and women in nontraditional gender roles in his books for 30 years. He’s no newcomer to a commitment to diversity.
• Barton displays respect for his child audience through the foreshadowing — the unicycle handle just visible sticking out of his backpack; the slow unfolding of his eventual destination, with first the sight of the circus truck, then a glimpse of circus tents in the far distance, etc.
• The humor (in the twist at the end) is matched perfectly to the audience. And I think kids will find the last view of Tom riding his bicycle while still WEARING HIS CLOWN’S NOSE hilarious.

Will others love My Bike as much as I do? Will the members of the Caldecott committee (and other committees as well — I’m looking at you, Geisel people) jump on the bandwagon…er, bandbike?

The post My Bike appeared first on The Horn Book.

In my opinion, My Bus (a companion book to Byron Barton’s My Car) is a perfect preschool book. But is it too simple to get a Caldecott award?

First we meet Joe, the bus driver. “I am Joe. This is my car. This is my bus.” As he drives his bus into town, five dogs and five cats board the bus one, two, three, and four at a time. Then they get off in threes (one dog and two cats, two dogs and one cat) to board other vehicles until just one dog is left. “I drive one dog home. My dog! Bow wow.” The solidly built characters and settings invite pointing and participating. Each animal is a different color for easy identification, and each is visible enough to count, whether on or off the bus. There’s no need to even mention the words “addition” and “subtraction.” The only lesson here is to understand what happens when something is taken away from a group.

Now about the art.

When My Car came out back in 2001, I was dismayed at first to see visible pixels around the edges of some of the computer-drawn shapes. Later, I decided that I was being a digital artist snob. We all think visible brushstrokes add character in analog art, so why smooth out the digital medium with super-high resolutions and pretend it’s something else?

Medium aside, there’s plenty more to look at in this art. Barton could have given his characters smiling faces, but he smartly chose not to. The bus driver and each animal looks serious, and the cats look just a little scared — as well they might riding around with all those dogs. And anyway, who smiles while riding a bus? No one outside of ads and children’s illustrations. These animals are all busy going about their days, just as the child being read to is busy counting and naming animals and vehicles.

Barton has such a fine-tuned feel for his audience. He knows how much detail is enough to keep interest and how much might be too much. This kind of book is all about composition and color choices. The bus, however simply drawn, works. It sits on its wheels in just the right way to give it real mass, and the perspective changes accurately in each scene. The colors are bright and cheerful without crossing the line into garish. This is so difficult to accomplish. Give it a try and you’ll see.

So. Do I think this has a chance at the Caldecott Medal? Not really, but I would stand up and applaud the committee if they gave it an honor. It begs the question: can a book’s art be too simple to win the award? The year I served on the committee we gave the medal to Kitten’s First Full Moon, Kevin Henkes’s first foray into preschool books. In some ways, that book was simpler than this one, but it also had a bit more going on, including some thematic nods to a more mature audience, such as a recurring circle motif.

I fear My Bus will appear too simple for the Caldecott, but I think it has a strong chance at a Geisel. What do you think?

The post My Bus appeared first on The Horn Book.