The Glorious Flight: Across the Channel with Louis Bleriot by Alice and Martin Provensen

The Glorious Flight tells of Louis Bleriot who persevered through the invention of several different airplanes to find one that would fly well. After 8 years, he successfully flies over the English Channel from France to England. The book won a Caldecott Medal for the illustrations.

Honestly, I found the text of this book bothersome. Sentences were choppy, many sentences included paranthetical sidenotes that broke up the flow, and too many sentences were fragments. At times, I think the style would have been appropriate. During the dangerous parts, like when he is flying over the channel or getting ready to crash yet another plane, I think it would set the mood, like with Paulsen's choppy sentences in Woodsong. But, almost all of the text was written in that style. As a result, it just seemed too choppy and disjointed. I think children would have difficulty reading this book because the sentence structure is so strange, but I don't think it would be appropriate for a read aloud either, for the exact same reason.

I find it interesting that I could dislike the text of a picturebook so much when the illustrations have been celebrated.

The Wreck of the Zephyr written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg

Chris Van Allsburg is one of those writer/illustrators that you could pick out from a line up. From the illustrations alone I feel confident that I could name his books. What I find so interesting about that though, is that the illustrations in his different books can be different in many ways. Color is used in The Wreck of the Zephyr but sepia rules the illustrations in The Witch's Broom. Other books are different as well. However, his stye is distinctive. Like his other books, Zephyr is formatted so that each illustration is framed and text is on the left page.

In Wreck of the Zephyr, a man encounters a wrecked sailboat far from land. Another man tells him the story of a boy who thought himself the best sailor. He learns to sail his boat through the sky. But, he is so intent on showing others his ability that he foolishly tries to sail over land. As a result, his sailboat crashes. I think the storyteller was the young boy. Never is it stated in the text, but I think he remained near the boat to remind himself of his foolishness. Van Allsburg effectively foreshadowed the boy's mistake when the sailor who taught the boy to sail through the air sang a folksong about the dangers of sailing over land. At that point, I realized how it was the boy would wreck his sailboat.

The illustrations of The Wreck of the Zephyr were beautiful and the text was well written allowing me to infer and draw conclusions along the way.

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats

This Caldecott winning picturebook, The Snowy Day, chronicles the adventures of a young boy as he explores on a snowy day. I thought that the book really captured the curiousity and wonderment of a young child. How often I forget to look around and enjoy the things I see! Peter explores his footprints, discovers another track in the snow, notices how the snow is piled up by the buildings, and saves a snowball in his pocket-- for tomorrow.

The illustrations are simple but capture the "essence"of each object. Buildings are rectangular but lack detail, Peter's snow suit is simply red, the snowman is a lump of snow with a face on top. Peter's snowsuit is perfect for illustrating how young Peter really is. It has a pointy top and makes him look very round. He looks like the bundled up kid who can barely move for all the layers he has on.

I know there are other stories about Peter by Ezra Jack Keats. I'm curious to see if the illustrations are similar to The Snowy Day.