The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship (book)
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship is a children's picturebook illustrated by Uri Shulevitz that retells an Eastern European fairy tale of the same name. The text is taken from Arthur Ransome's version of the story in the 1916 book Old Peter's Russian Tales; Ransome had collected the folktale when he was a journalist in the Russian Empire. The book was released in 1968 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and won a Caldecott Medal for illustration in 1969.
The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship
The Randolph Caldecott Medal, frequently shortened to just the Caldecott, annually recognizes the preceding year's "most distinguished American picture book for children". It is awarded to the illustrator by the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC), a division of the American Library Association (ALA). The Caldecott and Newbery Medals are considered the most prestigious American children's book awards. Beside the Caldecott Medal, the committee awards a variable number of citations to runners-up they deem worthy, called the Caldecott Honor or Caldecott Honor Books.
Caldecott Medal
Frederic G. Melcher first proposed the idea for the Caldecott Award following the success of the Newbery Award.
Illustration by Randolph Caldecott (1878) of The Diverting History of John Gilpin, basis of the medal's obverse
Randolph Caldecott, for whom the medal is named, was an English artist and illustrator. Maurice Sendak said, "Caldecott's work heralds the beginning of the modern picture book."
