Caldecott Medal Winner # 2 / The Hello, Goodbye Window

The Hello, Goodbye Window is a collaborative effort between author Norton Juster and illustrator Chris Raschka. The concept of a collaborative effort in a children's book makes perfect sense to me; someone may have a wonderful idea for a story, but can not create the images that would appeal to a child. Together, Juster and Raschka have created a wonderful story with beautiful, watercolor-like imagery.

The concept behind the story is a fairly simple one: there is a window from which a child's grandparents would always be to either greet or say farewell with a wave. In the book, the authors explore the different uses and possibilities that exist with the window, from looking a one's reflection at night to greeting the brand new day with a robust yell. As I said, the story is a simple; however, the graphics and images within this book are stunning. Raschka utilizes unconventional "coloring" techniques to tell the story of this book. He colors outside of the lines, using block coloring as someone would see when a four-year-old is trying to stay inside the lines with a magic marker. In addition, Raschka juxtaposes colors that one would not conventionally choose to put together, and puts blocks of colors throughout that are not necessarily connected to anything and are not necessarily meant to represent anything, but are just there to provide a colorful background.

Another aspect of this beautiful children's book that I enjoy is the inter-racial relationship that exists between the grandparents, and when the parents show up to "pick up" their child from the grandparents' house, the reader also sees that the parents are an inter-racial couple as well. It is not only wonderful to expose this progressive concept to children through their literature, but also, it is wonderful to help them realize that not only new couples can be inter-racial, but couples as old as grandparents can be inter-racial. This story could have been told with a conventional Caucasian couple, a conventional African-American couple, but the authors chose to share their simple and beautifully illustrated story with an inter-racial couple, and I applaud them for that choice.

Norton Juster is also the author of the famed classic The Phantom Tollbooth, and Chris Raschka has written Happy to Be Nappy, little tree, and another Caldecott Honor Book Yo! Yes?.


Nate Smith


Resource:

Juster, N. & Raschka, C. (2005). The hello, goodbye window. New York: Michael Di Capua Books.