The Ugly Duckling

Rachel SmithCaldecott Analysis

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Basic Information

The Ugly Duckling was written by Hans Christian Andersen and was published by Morrow Junior Books.

It was received a Caldecott Honor in 2000.

Style

The style of the Ugly Duckling would definitely be realism. In all of the illustrations the artist took their time to add realistic detail. Looking at the illustrations is like looking at real life. The images are so real and true. It is like looking into nature.

Media

The artists tends to use a lot of watercolor painting. This helps create the natural and realistic feel. There are not harsh lines or marks. It is more understated and soft like a baby duckling.

In the book, the illustrations are very soft and light.

Line The use of line in this

story was to draw the readers attention where the illustrator wanted it.

In the majority of the pictures, the lines were soft and curved. This was true because

the illustrations most all included grass surrounding the ducklings and other images.

The use of these soft and curved lines helped make clear the style of the story as they made the illustrations more real.

Shape These illustrations consist of many curved and undefined shapes.

It gives the story the feel of nature and because the story takes place in nature this gives the story a very real feeling.

There are not any harsh lines used in the illustrations and this gives the shapes a more subtle feel.

The ducklings are soft and have round bodies. And the grass is

curved and angled.

Color

The illustrator used the perfect colors for this story.

When looking at the pages the media used was watercolor painting which is traditionally pastel colors.

All the pictures had light hues to them.

The pictures did not have bright or bold colors to them, but rather a soft and delicate chroma.

Texture

There was a lot of texture in these illustrations.

The artist added so much detail and texture to each of the pages.

When looking at the ducklings they all have lines for their feathers.

In the book it says that texture is defined as how the artist can communicate their tactical impression (Tunnel, pg. 36). I think that the artist did a nice job with

their use of texture and making these illustrations come alive.

Composition Personally I loved how this

book was balanced.

The pictures were placed strategically so that nothing was blocked with words and all of the words were clear.

Some of the pages just seemed to frame the words as to draw the reader to the words and then to the illustration surrounding them.

It made for a good flow for the story and the reading of the story.

Conclusion I really enjoyed re-

reading this story.

Personally I had not seen this particular version and I thoroughly enjoyed the illustrations.

The artist is incredibly talented to be able to pull off such amazingly beautiful and surprisingly realistic illustrations.