Analysis Of The Lion And The Mouse By Jerry Pinkey

Back in 2010 The Lion and the Mouse, by Jerry Pinkey, was awarded the Randolph Caldecott Award by the ALSC for being the most distinguished picture book of the year. When the ALSC decides what book will be the receiver of the Caldecott Award there are quite a few factors that go into their decision making process. Their website shows all of these factors, but the main ones to be focused on are that the publisher/artist must be an American citizen and that their illustrations be original. As far as on the illustrations of the picture book are concerned the committee focuses on how well the pictures tell the story, the artistic technique, if the style of illustration matches the story, if the pictures convey the plot, theme, setting, and mood, and if the book is obviously meant for children. This paper will evaluate how well The Lion and the Mouse did in all of these areas. One of the things about this book that amazed me when I picked it up to look at …show more content…
“The setting of the African Serengeti Plain is intricately illustrated with vivid detail and a wide range of appropriate color. The illustrator is accurate in his depiction of the Serengeti since each animal drawn has the Serengeti as it's natural habitat. This gives the reader a great deal of detail about the African landscape.” (jerrypinkneyillustratorstudy.blogspot.com) The mood in the book is a mixture of things throughout. The reader can see that fear and happiness all play a part in this book. The fear comes when the mouse is running away from the owl for his life with a scared look on his face, but is clearly shown as just barely getting away by hopping in a log. It is also depicted in the split second that the mouse thinks he has been caught by the lion, and when the lion became trapped by the hunters net near the end. The vividness of the expression on the lions face shows that he fears being taken by the