Leonard S. Marcus's thoughtful recognition of the labor and serendipity that go into the making of great art illuminates every page of A Caldecott Celebration. It is also to his credit that he has chosen six of the most beloved titles in the canon of American literature as his representative sample of Caldecott-winning children's titles: Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings, Marcia Brown's version of Cinderella, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, William Steig's Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and Chris Van Allsburg's Jumanji.

Marcus's subjects--both texts and creators--have amazing stories behind them. Robert McCloskey, we learn, brought 16 ducks to live with him in his small Greenwich Village apartment while he was working on Ducklings, and he drew the final versions of the tale directly onto sheets of metal to abet the printing process. When William Steig chose a donkey to be the main character of Sylvester, he spent a long time thereafter trying to decide if the creature should walk on two legs, human-style, or remain more realistically four-legged. And Maurice Sendak spent years working on a tale that wasn't going anywhere: "Where the Wild Horses Are." Not a drop of the mystery and fondness one feels toward these works is diluted by the details shared in A Caldecott Celebration, and after reading Marcus's considered tribute, you'll only love these books the better. --Jean Lenihan