School Library Journal, which has already given Green Bay children’s author Miranda Paul’s Water is Water a starred review, has a blogger including it on a list of ten children’s books she predicts is likely to win the 2016 Caldecott Medal. Granted, the Caldecott is awarded for book illustration, not the text, but the author creates the text from which an illustrator works to create illustrations. So fingers crossed for Miranda and Water is Water illustrator Jason Chin. Here’s a cover of the book and the SLJ blogger’s comments:
Water Is Water by Miranda Paul. Illustrated by Jason Chin
One might rightly ask, why this Chin of all Chins? After all, it’s not as though Jason hasn’t been making similarly stunning books for years. The fact that he’s never gotten award love (at least in the Caldecott area of things) is a problem. I find that sometimes award committees have difficulty rewarding realism that isn’t surrealism (Wiesner wins awards but James Ransome, for example, does not). Here, Chin brings to life this infinitely simple, but incredibly clever, explanation for very young children of the water cycle in its different forms. And he does so with his customary beauty and skill. It’s worth considering at the very least.