Welcome to Part 1 of my 2021 mock-Caldecott!

In advance of the January 22-26 ALA awards, where the Caldecott honor books will be announced, I will be posting nomination essays for three of the many exemplary picture books of 2020. While not every book can win, I hope to show how several might qualify for excellence under the terms & criteria of the Caldecott Medal. And most of all, I hope to introduce to you several of my favorite picture books of 2020.

Read on to discover the incredible SWASHBY AND THE SEA, written by Beth Ferry and illustrated by Caldecott Honor-recipient Juana Martinez-Neal!

Swashby and the Sea, written by Beth Ferry and illustrated by Juana Martinez-Neal, exemplifies excellence of pictorial presentation for children through both its story and its artwork, with a text full of seafaring puns that align with the sandy seas of the spreads. Martinez-Neal consistently shows a mastery of the artistic techniques employed throughout the story, best exemplified in how she juxtaposes hand-textured papers with splashes of acrylic paint to delineate the sand and sea. Consequently, I am nominating Swashby and the Sea for the Caldecott Medal.

Martinez-Neal creates a sense of place through her color palette, full of sandy beiges and aqua blues reminiscent of the beach in acrylics, colored pencils, and graphite. Dashes of pale yellows, whites, and shades of blue to delineate the toys and other items strewn on the beach complement the sunny, ocean-filled days within. Martinez-Neal’s use of hand-textured papers elevates the gorgeous full-bleed spreads beyond a tale of the seashore and on towards the seashore itself by adding a coarse, scratchy look to each page, reminiscent of sand. The textured papers also add depth to each spread, creating an almost three-dimensional element to the fore and background. Graphite renderings provide intricate details among the textured spreads, from individual grains of sand to individual hairs in Swashby’s bushy grey beard, in addition to the outlines of seashells, sand castles, and seabirds.

Swashby himself slouches in a scratchy blue sweater, while the girl’s active body language alludes to her constant movement. The tensions between the curmudgeonly Swashby and the playful girl are echoed in the contrasts between not only the coarse sand and the fiddling sea of the story, but in the medium of the artwork, between the juxtaposing hand-textured papers and the splashes of acrylic paint that delineate the ocean waves. Additionally, Martinez-Neal’s use of acrylic paints for the sea allows the textured papers to show through from underneath the shades of aqua. The splashes of aqua acrylic paints, along with dabs of white, create the illusion of animation, with tumbling waves and sloshing sea foam where the sea meets the shore. The overall effect is a dynamic story that moves smoothly from one page to the next, carrying through each page turn as the sea ebbs and flows.

Swashby’s messages in the sand, hand-lettered in all-caps by Martinez-Neal, recognize the child audience through their easy readability. Like the girl in the story, the child might try to sound out the words etched in the sand, but unlike the girl, the child has the opportunity to sound out the words both before and after the sea fiddles with them, letting the child audience in behind the curtain. The delightful play between the sea and the shore underscores the delight of the reader in this excellent display of recognition of a child audience.

Similarly, the promise of Swashby’s bashful smile on the cover leads to curiosity as he grouches throughout the story. The promise is fulfilled in the final spreads, with Swashby diving into the sea to rescue the girl, suddenly as spry as the sea and girl themselves, which softens him into accepting gratitude and friendship from the girl and her grandma and delivers finally a smile of surpassing sweetness on Swashby’s bearded face.

Ultimately, Martinez-Neal’s use of acrylic paints that splash like the sea on her hand-textured papers highlights the tensions of the story between the curmudgeonly Swashby and playful girl, and their coming together in the end fulfills the promise of the cover. Swirling aqua endpapers lead the audience into the aqua of the sea, and the preprinted dual cover showing Swashby’s rowboat rounds out the overall book design that, as a whole, deserves this year’s Caldecott Medal.