I've been a fan of Raúl Colón's distinctive style for years, but this is the first of his books that I think has a really good chance at the Caldecott. It's gotten starred reviews in The Horn Book, SLJ, Booklist, PW, and Kirkus. Not too shabby. But more than that, it just has an award-book feel to it.

According to the author's note at the back, this is an autobiographical fantasy. A boy sits on his bed reading a book. We see the title Africa and a large elephant on the book's cover. Nearby there's is a toy pith helmet, a sandwich on a plate, and some art supplies. On the table next to the bed sits an inhaler and a bottle of medicine, and outside the window we can see a city. While Colón doesn't mention being ill and confined to bed as a child in his author's note, he has talked about this in interviews.

Next, the interior scene gives way to the boy's sketchbook pages showing him walking through the desert wearing the helmet and carrying a satchel full of sandwiches, an easel, and a large sketchbook. He flags down a passing elephant, who poses for a portrait and then gives the boy a ride to see more animals for him to sketch. There is no text, and the scenes vary from peaceful spreads to fast-paced chase sequences shown in panels. There are a couple of hair-raising moments with the larger and fiercer animals, but the presence of that benevolent elephant keeps the overall tone cozy rather than scary. The sandwiches, too, come in handy for feeding and placating most of the animals. Finally, near the end of the journey, the boy takes a break to eat his lunch while a baboon sits at the easel and draws a passable sketch of the young artist.

Observant readers will notice that as the book progresses, Colón's signature warm yellow light with deep blues has gone from morning to midday to afternoon and then sunset. Finally, the boy looks sleepy, leaning against his elephant friend. His eyes close, and we are back in the city with the boy sitting on his bed, sketching his imagined scenes. Or were they real?

As with the best of these sorts of enter-a-new-world fantasies, Colón employs a different style and page treatment for the two worlds. At the beginning and end, for the city-bedroom world, the illustrations are done with thin pen lines and light watercolor with space between the art and the edge of the page. The African adventure pages are full bleeds drawn with Colón's signature glowing light sources, warm colors, heavy shading, and textures added by scratching into the pigments with sharp tools, often using parallel lines that reveal a light underpainting. And while the jacket contains the obligatory title and author's name, the cover under the jacket is truer to the spirit of the wordless text, with no writing at all and a completely different scene.

Wordless books tend to fare pretty well with Caldecott committees, as do books about entering a different world. Remember Journey last year? For me, this book fits the Caldecott criteria to a T: excellence of execution; appropriateness and excellence with the interpretation of story, theme, and concept; plot, theme, characters, setting, mood shown through the pictures; recognition of a child audience. I suppose some might quibble with the last point; the book does have a nostalgic tone. But I don't think that will stand in the way of kids enjoying the possibilities and the adventure.

What do you think? Is this book at the top of your lists? Do you think it's got a shot at the Medal?