In his post about Call Me Roberto!, Brian E. Wilson noted that picture-book biographies aren’t often among the Caldecott winners and honorees. The criteria states that a picture book needs to have “a collective unity of story-line, theme or concept, developed through the series of pictures of which the book is comprised,” and biographies don’t always lend themselves to that definition of an eligible picture book.  

That’s exactly why I hope the Committee is seriously considering Kara Kramer’s illustrations for Ernő Rubik and His Magic Cube, written by Kerry Aradhya.  

Kramer’s composition and design choices — from the display type on the jacket and title page, to the inviting case cover, to her lively and varied illustrations themselves — embrace Aradhya’s approach to her subject’s life and work, yes, but they also provide that “visual experience” that the criteria call for.  

The front case cover is an example of the visual experience you’ll find in Kramer’s art. It features a field of blue squares with “Try it!” lettered in white squares and the exclamation point formed by red squares. “Try it” could refer to the Rubik’s Cube itself, but it’s also a nod to the book’s celebration of the creative process. 

This biography’s focus is how Rubik developed, through much trial and error, his iconic puzzle cube in 1974. His aim wasn’t to create a cultural phenomenon but to “build a big cube out of smaller cubes that moved around each other and stayed connected” to teach his architecture students about three-dimensionality. I’m not an artist, but illustrating a cerebral process like this for a young audience seems daunting. Kramer (and Aradhya) approaches this challenge by centering the creative joy that solving this problem brought Rubik. Her imaginative mixed-media and digital-collage illustrations invite readers into the mind of the book’s subject. Many of the illustrations twist and turn on themselves — as irresistible as attempting to solve the Rubik’s Cube itself.  

From the very first double-page spread, it’s clear that Kramer’s images will take readers in some interesting directions. A colorful view of a Budapest neighborhood is on the verso. Most of the buildings look like traditional structures, but the exterior of one is divided into nine squares — each featuring a different image or design. On the sidewalk surrounding this corner building is a portion of phrase in a formal font — “use these puzzles to discover” — the word discover flowing into the front door. The recto moves to a room inside, where young Rubik is happily playing alone with “his favorite playmates of all: his puzzles.” 

Throughout, the illustrations playfully incorporate angular shapes and geometric forms, reflecting Rubik’s lifelong delight in “imagin[ing] all the possibilities” offered by manipulating shapes and three-dimensional puzzles. Mountains are triangles, a sailboat looks as if it’s been constructed from tangrams. Panel illustrations are framed in parallelograms, rectangles, and squares. The colors are vibrant, and the scenes are dynamic, drawing readers into Aradhya’s story. We are seeing the world through Rubik’s architect eyes. 

For all the angularity, Kramer’s figures and scenes flow and curve and morph in surprising ways. When he’s in the thick of trying to solve his own challenge (how to build a big cube out of smaller cubes), his head turns cube-shaped, indicating his intensity and hyper focus. He has an epiphany while watching the water move over and around stones on the shore of the Danube, and his head regains its rounded shape with white squares floating out of the top. His mid-section features an angular spiral (if a spiral can be angular). Ideas are rippling out, answers are flowing. 

My favorite spread follows the Danube epiphany. On the verso, Rubik walks and ponders water and stones and his cube conundrum. Bordering both pages at the bottom is a quotation from Rubik: “If you are curious, you will find the puzzles around you.” The quote continues up the outer side of the right-hand page around the top: “If you are determined, you will” and concludes inside an image of Rubik running: “solve them.” Words and phrases from the quote are displayed in a variety of designs and on different backgrounds. It’s an easy puzzle to decipher and highlights two concepts that have guided Rubik’s work: curiosity and determination.

Kramer’s illustration style, her technique, and her interpretation of Aradhya’s text are all Caldecott worthy. It’s this consideration from the criteria — “Excellence of presentation in recognition of a child audience” — where Ernő Rubik and His Magic Cube truly shines as a picture book. 

This is the seventh picture-book biography we’ve covered this season; each one as deserving as the next to receive Caldecott recognition. Might this year’s announcements include a picture-book biography? We are five short weeks out, people! 

Calling Caldecott is pausing for the holidays this week; we’ll be back posting on January 2. We hope you have a picture-book filled break!

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of Ernő Rubik and His Magic Cube]