Just a few weeks from now, on June 23 and 24, the children’s-book world will celebrate its award winners at the American Library Association’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. The venues will be banquet halls; the speeches will be heartfelt.
But in Augusta, Maine, on April 25, a significantly more homespun awards ceremony took place in a dingy arena. In addition to the two student-choice awards and the Lupine Award, given to the best Maine-related books of the year, the Katahdin Award was presented. Honoring the body of work by a Maine author or illustrator, it’s been presented since 1999 to such luminaries as Robert McCloskey, Ashley Bryan, Phillip Hoose, and Melissa Sweet. Here in Maine, children’s-book talent is as thick on the ground as wild blueberries.
The honoree in 2019? Photographer Dwight Kuhn.
Unlike many other Katahdin winners’, Kuhn’s name is not widely recognized even though his photographs grace some 140 children’s books about science and nature. The vast bulk of his catalog consists of books published directly for the school and library market, books such as Animals With Backbones and Animals Without Backbones and a four-book series about the ecosystems of a fallen tree, a stream, a milkweed patch, and an apple tree. These books are the workhorses of many a children’s room.
Kuhn has crossed over from the institutional market with his recent titles, including Where in the Wild, a book of poems about animal camouflage by David M. Schwartz and Yael Schy, and its two sequels and the stunning Rotten Pumpkin, also with text by Schwartz, which documents the decomposition of a jack-o’-lantern. As our review notes, Kuhn’s photos of “fuzzy Penicillium, slime mold, and spore cases ‘that look like tiny red balloons’ all gruesomely impress.”
Kuhn’s commitment to helping children encounter the natural world through books is abundantly clear. Like slime mold, his output may not be glamorous, but his body of work has made a difference. I am so very glad it’s been recognized. And his speech was heartfelt. Vicky Smith is the children’s editor.
