That Book Woman Book

I picked up That Book Woman, by Heather Henson, illustrated by David Small, reluctantly, thinking that it was undoubtedly a useful book for the beginning of the school year, when we librarians always choose books about books, but I was not expecting a Caldecott-quality picture book.
I decided to look at the book in the way that Kay Vandergrift suggested in her article on Picture Book Analysis, that is, to 'read' the pictures first without the text and then go back and see how well the illustrations told the story. In the case of The Book Woman, I learned through the pictures alone that the glum protagonist, (identified in the text as Cal,) lived in an isolated cabin on a mountainside, part of a large family, that included a sister who was a voracious reader. Over the course of a year, a woman, presumably the Book Woman of the title, treks up the mountain, delivering books and apparently, gaining Cal's respect as his expression changes over time from surly to smiling. In the end, Cal and his sister sit high up on the porch reading, as the sun, and the Book Woman, descend the mountain.
This is exactly the plot of the story. In fact, the cover illustration alone captures the conflict and introduces the resolution. But on a deeper level, the delineation of the theme, setting, main character and mood is captured in the artwork through the use of the elements of line, color, shape and space.
The line of the title page leads our eyes up the mountain, through the sunlight, to the isolated cabin on the hillside where most of the story takes place.
The city, from which the Book Woman brings her books, is depicted on the front matter, in a soft watercolor spot, looking magical, suggesting perhaps the wonder of the gift she's bringing to the mountain. The colors: yellows, grays and greens, suggest sunrise, the beginning of a new day, and foreshadow a new beginning for Cal, while the last page shows the same city, in blues and purples, at the end of day, mission accomplished.
The size and color of the illustrations change in relation to the time of day, time of year and location. Indoor pictures are only one page while outdoor pictures expand from 1 l/2 pages to full 2-page spreads when we need to appreciate the vast distances traveled to bring books to mountain families.
I especially like the use of both vertical and horizontal space, for example the house high up on the hill with birds flying lower down on the page, or Cal reaching up to hold onto a branch with one hand while reaching down for a lost lamb with the other. Lark is usually reading high up on the porch, or even in a tree, but looks up from a table at Cal when he asks her to teach him to read. These diagonals suggest movement, which Cal confirms in the text, that he "was not born to sit so stoney-still."
The written text sounds like mountain-speech, but is printed on the page as if it's poetry. An example of how the text and the illustrations support each other might be the scene when the Book Woman first visits Cal's family: "the way Lark's eyes shine penny-bright, the way her hands they won't keep still, reaching out to grab a treasure". In fact, in the illustration, Lark has her hands behind her back, fingers laced together, just the way we would ask students on field trips to help them resist the temptation to touch treasures. Cal's new understanding, expressed in the illustrations by his first smile, is articulated in the text as well "…but now I see what's truly there" and we understand that it's not just the words in books that he comprehends but the existence of a wider world.
Hard as it is to believe, inner-city children live the same kind of isolated existence as Cal's family, interacting mainly with people who look and talk and think just like them. Books can suggest futures that couldn't be imagined otherwise, and I believe children will make that personal connection. Whether or not This Book Woman is the most distinguished picture book of the year, I don't have the experience to decide. I would however be sure to buy it for my Chicago Public School students.