2021 Mock-Caldecott Part 2: PRAIRIE DAYS
Welcome to Part 2 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 wonderful PRAIRIE DAYS, written by Patricia MacLachlan and illustrated by Micha Archer!
Prairie Days, written by Patricia MacLachlan and illustrated by Micha Archer, best exemplifies excellence of pictorial presentation for children through its hints of nostalgia that look towards the future and the textured landscapes of the collaged illustrations, all pictured in full-bleed, double-paged spreads. The excellence of Prairie Days begins with the book jacket and ends with the endpapers, the overall book design enhancing the story within and ultimately working together to create an exceptionally distinguished picturebook for children. Consequently, I am nominating Prairie Days for this year’s Caldecott Medal.
The front cover presents the child narrator in the bottom left corner, looking out over the landscape from the same perspective as the reader, which effectively places the reader alongside the child narrator in a way that excellently recognizes the child audience, carried through as we follow the narrator through a day in a life on the prairie. The flaps of the book jacket are designed to match the endpapers, with the front endpapers a bright golden yellow as if signifying dawn and the beginning of a brand new day. In contrast, the back endpapers are a deep royal blue, as if signifying dusk and the ending of the same day, so that both endpapers echo the opening and closing of the physical book itself, effectively bookending the story. The first and final spreads add to this effect, with the title page a layered blue and orange morning sky and a rooster announcing the new day just before the first spread delineates the child reading in bed as the sun rises. Similarly, the penultimate spread depicts the child reading under the covers with a flashlight as the moon rises, and the final a landscape of the night sky itself.
Archer’s illustrations are mixed-media collages, a combination of tissue papers, handmade stamps, acrylics, and inks that create a texture to the spreads, adding a sense of realism to an otherwise non-photorealistic technique. Archer’s mastery of intricate collage as an artistic technique adds not only texture but depth to the fields and landscapes she layers here, with apparent hundreds of pieces collaged together for each spread. The lyrical nostalgia of the text lingers in the intricate collage illustrations, the content matching the form in a perfect pictorial interpretation of the story, and Archer’s occasional use of fabric for curtains and vintage catalog cut-outs for items in the general store add a sense of legitimacy to the nostalgia within. The collages are so intricately detailed as to invite a second and even third look at each spread, and the vivid, rich colors create a warm and inviting atmosphere, presenting the absolute majesty of the prairie to readers who might be unfamiliar with it.
This presentation of the majesty of the prairie is aided by the wide-angled spreads, which work to create the illusion of the landscapes going on forever. Additionally, the large landscape trim size of the closed book reveals, when opened, such a vast horizontal landscape in which to delineate the illustrations, reminiscent of the prairie the book depicts and presenting another example of how form follows function here.
Ultimately, the rich nostalgia of the collage illustrations in Prairie Days, intricate and detailed in revealing the landscapes of the prairie, not only aligns with the nostalgia of the text but also exemplifies utter excellence of a pictorial presentation for children. From the overall book design to the full-bleed, double-paged spreads within, Prairie Days is a work for children marked by such eminence and distinction as to absolutely deserve the honor of this year’s Caldecott Medal.