SCHOOLS: And the winner is…

Students give out mock award for book illustrations.

By: Sarah Winkelman
   For many young children, the illustrations in books are what make reading so much fun. The bright colors, attention to details and larger-than-life pictures are all things that help draw children in and make them readers for life.
   That’s why Shari Repka, a librarian at Indian Fields School, decided to make illustrations the focus of a lesson on reading for second-graders. During their library period, Ms. Repka taught the students about the Caldecott Award for the children’s book with the best illustrations. Then the students created their own mock award — the Fieldsecott Award — for the best picture book.
   "I read an article about making a mock award with students in order to foster a love of reading and thought it was a great idea to get kids excited about books," Ms. Repka said.
   She said the students worked in groups to look at and evaluate the pictures in past Caldecott winners. Then they brainstormed a list of different media techniques and criteria that make a book’s illustrations notable.
   "We do a whole unit on books where we talk about the illustrations," she said. "I went over with them the different mediums used in illustrations as well."
   The students then looked at all the new books the library acquired over the summer and narrowed the choices down to six books. Each student voted for their favorite and a winner and honorary mention were chosen. The winner was "Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook," written and illustrated by Michael Garland. The honorable mention award went to "Painting the Wind," written by Patricia and Emily MacLachlan and illustrated by Katy Schneider.
   This is the first year for the Fieldsecott Award, but Ms. Repka said she hopes to continue holding these mock elections every year with each new crop of second- graders.
   "The kids really seemed to enjoy the whole process," she said. "We even had a kindergartner check out this year’s winner because he enjoyed the pictures so much."
   On Monday, second-graders in Aline Galvano’s class spent their library time listening to Ms. Repka read "Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook." Ms. Repka asked the students questions about what makes the illustrations fun to look at and the students pointed out all the details in the pictures that corresponded to the text.
   Second-grader Kiran Borkar explained that the designs, shapes, colors and materials used in the pictures were some of the criteria for choosing the book that would win the Fieldsecott Award.
   "The pictures also had to go with the words," Aravind Ramakrishnan said.
   Sarah Shaffer, Kiran and Kevin Chen said they all liked "Painting the Wind" better, but did think "Miss Smith’s Incredible Storybook" had nice pictures.
   Aravind and Kiran said they both liked the bright colors in "Miss Smith’s" but they really liked the realistic quality of the pictures in "Painting the Wind."
   "I really liked them both," Kevin said.