A Sick Day For Amos McGee Written by Philip Stead and Illustrated by Erin Stead
2011 Caldecott Winner: “A Sick Day for Amos McGee” Illustrated by Erin Stead and written by Philip Stead
Beginning in 1937, the Caldecott Medal, named after illustrator Randolph Caldecott, is awarded annually to an American based illustrator for distinguished work within a children’s picture book[1]. In 2011, the Caldecott Medal was awarded to Erin Stead for her illustration of the 32-page “A Sick Day for Amos McGee”, authored by her husband Philip Stead in 2010.
“A Sick Day foe Amos McGee” is a simple story about a zoo keeper who faithfully spends times with his animal friends until one day he is too ill to make it to work. The animals decide to take the bus to Amos’s house where they repay his consistent kindness by helping him feel better.
It really is Erin Stead’s meticulous patience and attention to detail throughout her illustration that reveals the caliber of her talents and vitally enriches the some-what sparse plot of “A Sick Day for Amos McGee”[2]. Classically trained as a painter, Stead employed a combination of woodblock prints overlaid with pencil to create the enduring older gentleman named Amos and the motley assortment of animal characters[3]. Each color splash within the pages (such as the striped yellow walls, the beige of the elephant, the greens and oranges of the trees) is a painted imprint of her hand-carved woodblocks; after these dried, she steadfastly penciled in details and facial features to her creations. She focused on using quiet minimalistic palettes to evoke a type of intimate feeling for the reader. The illustration process was laborious, but evidently a loving one, and took her over a year to execute[4]. Not bad for a first time illustrator!
Her husband Philip authored the book specifically with Erin’s talents in mind; he wrote about animals and settings that he intuitively felt she would be able to embody richly with her illustrations. Their close collaboration and Philip’s sense of his wife’s capabilities produce an friendly world that is inviting to young readers and adults alike. As one review said of Erin Stead’s crafts: “the effect is a sense of being enveloped, or better yet, being hugged.”[5]
I really adore Erin Stead’s work. I recently used “A Sick Day For Amos McGee” with my 3-and-4 year olds art class. We looked at Stead’s pencil use, particularly how she drew her trees and her use of shading. From Stead’s work, we were able to discuss why some places looked darker than others and how we could mimic those shadings with our own pencils (by pressing harder or softer). This is a simple activity that really just touches the surface of illustration techniques but I found having Stead’s illustrations accessible for these young kids really gave them a chance to connect with the book in a new way. I also really do appreciate the amount of consideration that went into Stead’s effort; she had to plan and execute her creative decisions in well in advance. I feel that if I ever worked with older children in an artistic setting, this would be a good book to show them about how art can be viewed as a series of layers. Often times I think young children can’t really conceptualize how an artist tackles a very big piece with a lot of elements. I think Stead’s use of woodblock print and pencil could be really good springboard to explain the small steps that go into the bigger piece.
Websites:
Caldecott Winner Erin E. Stead on ‘A Sick Day for Amos McGee’ By Alexandra Cheney
A Sick Day for Amos McGee Posted on July 25, 2010by Kiera Parrott
Short Video of Erin Stead Explaining her illustration technique:
Did ‘A Sick Day for Amos McGee’ Deserve the 2011 Caldecott Medal? By Janice Harayda
Very Detailed interview with Erin Stead about her illustration process for “A Sick Day for Amos McGee”
http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1723
[1] http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecottterms/caldecottterms
[2] http://oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/did-%E2%80%98a-sick-day-for-amos-mcgee%E2%80%99-deserve-the-2011-caldecott-medal/ This review in particular points to Philip Stead’s somewhat bland story-telling, and while I do not think his writing is truly awful, I think I have to agree that Erin Stead’s illustrations are far superior than the craft of the writing.
[3] http://blaine.org/sevenimpossiblethings/?p=1723
[4] http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2011/01/14/caldecott-winner-erin-e-stead-on-a-sick-day-for-amos-mcgee/
[5] http://libraryvoice.org/2010/07/25/book-review-a-sick-day-for-amos-mcgee/
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