Genre: Golem (Wisniewski, 1996) is probably my favorite Caldecott winner, (of the ones I’ve read, which is most of them at this point) and one of the most beautifully illustrated books I’ve seen period.
Book Summary: The story itself is a haunting rendition of the Golem of Jewish myth – created to protect the ghetto out of clay and magic, but ultimately discarded when the fear of others for him become too much, a sad an ironic echo of the treatment of the Jews themselves far too often in history.
Impressions: Golem is everything I expect out of the best Caldecott winners: Amazing art, good story, and yet be more than just a good story. It would have been easy to show Rabbi Loew as a wholly good character, sympathetic in every way, but by facing the destruction of the Golem as more than just putting down a tool, but ending a life, it makes the characters more real for the reader, not perfect, but still sympathetic. It would have been even easier to paint the people of Prague – the enemies of the Jews – as completely evil, but even with them there is nuance, recognition that it was driven by lies and some evil men, rather than the whole. And as for the artwork, the reason it won the Caldecott, I can’t say enough about it. Cut-paper art of this level of detail and size has to be incredibly labor intensive to make, and yet the results are absolutely worth it. If I could find a poster of the first picture of the city I would hang it on my wall.
Professional Review: From Publishers Weekly (2017)
Elaborately composed cut-paper spreads give a 3D, puppet-show-like quality to a retelling of a Jewish legend. Rabbi Loew has a prophetic vision in 1580 when the Jews of Prague are accused of mixing the blood of Christian children into matzoh: he must create a Golem, ""a giant of living clay, animated by Cabala, mystical teachings of unknown power."" Brought to life with apocalyptic explosions of steam and rain, the Golem seeks out the perpetrators of the Blood Lie and turns them over to the authorities. Thwarted, the enraged enemies of the Jews storm the gates of the ghetto, but the Golem grows to enormous height and violently defeats them with their own battering ram. Once his work is done, he pitifully (and futilely) begs the Rabbi: ""Please let me live! I did all that you asked of me! Life is so... precious... to me!"" Wisniewski (The Wave of the Sea Wolf) emphasizes the Golem's humanity and the problems with his existence; instead of reducing the legend to a tale of a magical rescuer, the author allows for its historical and emotional complexity. The fiery, crisply layered paper illustrations, portraying with equal drama and precision the ornamental architecture of Prague and the unearthly career of the Golem, match the specificity and splendor of the storytelling. An endnote about the history and influence of the legend is particularly comprehensive. Ages 6-10. (Oct.)
Library Uses: Golem would be a very useful book to use as part of a series of art programing, each focused on a different style of painting or illustration. Cut-paper art is a very easy style to begin with, and less messy for the library. True, something as complicated as Golem’s illustrations will be beyond the children, but what they can do will still look good, and be a lot of fun for the kids who are used to adding stuff on to make art (painting, coloring, etc.) rather than taking away. Also a bit easier to start with than working in stone carving.
Readalikes: Even more so than some of the Caldecott winners I read, this book deserves to be read together with other books of immense beauty in the illustrations. David Wiesner’s books, such as Tuesday, make a good counterpoint. With the supernatural element another good book would be Night of the Gargoyles, by Eve Bunting. Finally, Mercer Mayer’s The Sleeping Beauty is another tale expanded from myth or legend, with gorgeous artwork of its own.
References
Publishers Weekly. (2017). Golem. [Review of the book Golem]. PWxyz, LLC. Retrieved from https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-395-72618-1
Wisniewksi, D. (1996). Golem. New York, NY: Clarion Books.
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