![]() ![]() Look at the contrast between the softness and texture of the art with the sparseness of the compositions and the clean edges of the white space/tunnel. Look at how Klassen makes the earthen landscape so varied and textured and interesting without necessarily drawing our eye to it. Look at how the considerable white space (well, actually, soft creamy space) at the beginning is gradually encroached upon as the horizon rises and the hole gets deeper. Look how the palette gradually changes from soft and pale and airy in the beginning to dark and stark at the climax/nadir of the boys' adventure and then back to soft and pale at the end. ![]() The art is certainly distinguished - excellent in execution and pictorial interpretation, appropriate in style for the story and mood, with plenty of child appeal. I don't think the quality of the art will be in dispute here. What will the Caldecott committee be talking about when it turns its scrutiny to Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen's Sam & Dave Dig a Hole? Maybe the question should be, What WON'T the committee be talking about? Like Yuyi Morales's Viva Frida, this is one discussable book. ![]()
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