While Diana Sudyka’s illustrations can be found in numerous picture books and middle-grade novels (including last year’s Schneider Family Book Award winner Wildoak), Little Land is her author/illustrator debut. She writes and illustrates this delightful book about the significance of environmental stewardship. Sudyka focuses on a small piece of land — just a tiny piece of the Earth — and details how it transforms over the epochs of time, from the Devonian period to the present. Some of the changes are caused by the forces of nature — ice and fire — but the most dramatic changes are caused by humans. Sudyka encourages her readers to take action and begin to care for the land so the land can in turn take care of us.

Illustrated in a cartoon style and with mostly bright gouache watercolors, Little Land will remind readers of some of the classic picture books of the 1930s and 1940s. What truly stands out in the illustrations are some of her design elements. Her spot art is always spot on, and her use of panels is both eye-catching and inventive. When the land is threatened by the careless activities of humans, Sudyka literally flips the illustrations upside down for a more dramatic effect and changes from the bright greens and yellows found in the previous images to shades of gray and black. All of these design elements combine to produce a picture book that is both visually stimulating and effective in the presentation of its message.

Is Little Land a Caldecott contender? I say yes. One of the five criteria for the Caldecott Award is “excellence of presentation in recognition of a child audience.” The text and illustrations work perfectly together as a call to action for young readers. Sudyka writes that “with help and care, life and land can find a way.” That theme is presented both in text and images in a way that never becomes didactic and respects its young audience. Little Land is an important children’s book with a critical message about the natural world, but it is also a beautifully illustrated picture book, one worthy of consideration from the 2024 Caldecott committee.

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of Little Land]