A Ball for Daisy

The 2012 Caldecott Medal winner is A Ball for Daisy illustrated by Chris Raschka who won this prestigious award back in 2006 for The Hello, Goodbye Window written by Norton Juster.  The Caldecott Medal is awarded to the illustrator of the best children's book honored for its artwork and published in the United States in the preceding year by a committee selected by the American Library Association.  This year's winner is a wordless book and will appeal to toddlers and preschoolers for its deceptively simple story line and watercolor, gouache and ink illustrations.  The picture book opens with a small dog playing with his red ball, sleeping on the couch with his ball, and then going to the park with his owner who is revealed later as a little girl in a yellow polka dot dress.  The ball is taken away by a brown poodle who bites the ball and destroys it.  Daisy is of course devastated and Rashcka's illustrations depict all the emotions associated with losing something of value--anger, sadness, frustration, and disappointment.  The image of the little girl petting her dog on the bright green striped couch to comfort Daisy is very tender.  The story ends with the owner of the poodle, a little girl in a green and turquoise striped dress, bringing a blue ball to the park and watching Daisy and her dog in play. The two girls later wave a friendly goodbye as Daisy is seen going back home with the new ball and cuddling up with it on her sofa. This is a delightful story to lapsit with your young child and one that can be "read" again and again.  Congratulations, Chris Raschka!