Ashanti to Zulu: African Traditions
By: Margaret Musgrove
Illustrated by: Leo & Diane Dillon
Medal Winner
NOT REVIEWED
It would take volumes to describe the cultures of all the African tribes, but here are insights about twenty-six of them, from the Ashanti to the Zulu. Margaret Musgrove has described ceremonies, celebrations, and day-to-day customs. Some of them are shared by many peoples, others are unique, but all are fascinating.
Leo and Dianne Dillon have outdone themselves in illustrating Ashanti to Zulu. Their magnificent full-color paintings, prepared in pastels, watercolors, and acrylics, glow with warmth and drama. Their research has been exhaustive, covering the thousands of details they have shown in their paintings. In order to show as much about the different tribes as possible, in most paintings the Dillons have included a man, a woman, a child, their living quarters, an artifact, and a local animal. They have drawn these elements together with the remarkable artistic insight which has become their hallmark, capturing in their artwork the beauty and dignity of each of the twenty-six peoples described.
From the dust jacket of a later printing
The Amazing Bone
By: William Steig
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
It's a bright and beautiful spring day, and Pearl, a pig, is dawdling on her way home from school. Most unexpectedly, she strikes up an acquaintance with a small bone. "You talk?" says Pearl. "In any language," says the bone. "And I can imitate any sound there is." (Its former owner was a witch.) Pearl and the bone immediately take a liking to each other, and before you know it she is on her way home with the bone in her purse, left open so they can continue their conversation. Won't her parents be surprised when she introduces her talking bone!
But before that happy moment comes, the resourceful bone must deal with a band of highway robbers in Halloween masks and, worse, a fox who decides that Pearl will be his main course at dinner that night. And deal it does, with gambits droll and thrilling.
William Steig, incomparable master of the contemporary picture book, has never been better than in The Amazing Bone.
From the dust jacket
The Contest: An Armenian Folktale
By: Nonny Hogrogian
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Two robbers, Hmayag and Hrahad, meet by accident under a pomegranate tree, each having decided it was time for lunch. To their amazement, they find their bokhjahs contain identical lunches. It does not take long before they discover that they are engaged to the same girl, Ehleezah, who, of course, prepared the food for each of them.
Since neither robber is willing to give her up, they agree to hold a contest with Ehleezah as the prize. The one who proves himself the cleverer at his trade will be the winner. The resulting trials are truly a test of thieves. But the outcome is not what the robbers had intended, nor does the story end as the reader might expect.
Nonny Hogrogian has used the intricate, highly decorative motifs of Oriental rugs to frame her pictures, and has placed brilliant black and white drawings among her gem-like illustrations to create a dazzling stage set for Hmayag's and Hrahad's good-natured rivalry and skillful sleight of hand.
From the dust jacket
Fish for Supper
By: M.B. Goffstein
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Grandmother has a very special routine, one that she follows every day: She goes fishing. With great warmth, M.B. Goffstein describes the details on one day, from the time Grandmother gets up in the morning to the time she goes to bed at night. Her words and pictures are masterful in their simplicity and will be cherished by young and old alike for their intimacy and grace. As The New York Times has said about her picture books, "It's good to have a Goffstein! She unearths the treasure of simplicity."
From the dust jacket
The Golem: A Jewish Legend
By: Beverly Brodsky McDermott
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Rabbi Lev used the magic spells of an ancient and mysterious tradition to create the Golem. He took a lump of clay and shaped it into the form of a man and gave it life. The Rabbi was a good man who wanted only to protect his people from those who would do them harm. But the Golem became a power unto himself, more terrible than the evil he had been summoned to dispel.
Beverly Brodsky McDermott's retelling of this story evokes centuries of hope for a better world—hope that must in the end be tempered with the reality of man's limitations. Her breathtaking full-color paintings are a masterful recreation of the life force that is the legend of the Golem.
From the dust jacket
Hawk, I'm Your Brother
By: Byrd Baylor
Illustrated by: Peter Parnall
Honor
NOT REVIEWED
Rudy Soto—here's a boy who wants more than anything to fly.
His father says: "You run. You climb over rocks. You jump around like a crazy whirlwind. Why do you need to fly?"
"I just do. I need to fly," says Rudy Soto.
Rudy Soto—here's a boy who could be you. It could be you who steals a baby hawk, thinking that somehow you'll fly, if a hawk becomes your brother. And it could be you who learns you almost can, when you let the hawk go free.
Everybody is part of everybody else in Byrd Baylor's books. Maybe that's the way life is, too. Peter Parnall's beautiful drawings help make you think it might be so.
From the dust jacket
