G1 Review: Show & Tell: Exploring the Fine Art of Children's Book Illustration

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Evans, Dilys. 2008. SHOW & TELLL: EXPLORING THE FINE ART OF CHILDREN’S BOOK ILLUSTRATION. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN: 0670878553

In this well-designed, very readable book, Dilys Evans chronicles the backgrounds, inspirations, and artistic processes of 12 children’s book illustrators. Her Author’s Note sets the tone for her work by comparing prehistoric cave painting with children’s book illustration. Each reflects an artist’s need to “show and tell (a) story” (Evans, 1). From the desire to share a story, her introduction moves on to a definition of fine art and to a brief, clear discussion of how children’s book illustrations conform to that definition. She then sets her sights on her goal and motivation for this book: she wants to explore different artists from different backgrounds who use different styles to help children—and presumably adults—to “discover the power of their own imaginations” (Evans, 2).

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Evans chose 12 illustrators to discuss, and this is one of the strengths of her book. With the widespread talent available to her, she had the unenviable task of limiting her scope to those whose work she enjoys. This concept, outlined in her note at the beginning of the book, frees her from having to justify or contextualize her choices. She can focus on the illustrator and the person’s work without and how it affected her, resulting in a more personal and manageable undertaking. A huge “all star” book—or “best of” book, as she mentions in the introduction—would have been possible, as would an academic study. Each of these, however, would have compartmentalized the topic and raised different sorts of expectations among her audience.

Evans devotes a chapter of 10-12 pages to each of her 12 artists. Each chapter heading consists of a small framed picture of a blank two-page spread, with the artist’s name in a red sans serif font. Centered beneath each name is a short catchphrase (catchword?) that captures some aspect of the artist. Completing the simple yet memorable package, each heading also contains either a self-portrait or noteworthy character generated by the artist. These headings build schema for her audience and reflect the “power” of illustration alluded to in the introduction. Readers have a decent idea what to expect before beginning the chapter.

Each chapter features clear and concise writing readily understandable to an audience of middle school students and older people and generally begins with biographical or personal information related to the artists’ catchphrases. “Oh, No!” “What if?” and “Imagine That” are examples of this technique that binds the individual chapters. Her chapter openings are strong and connect to the subtitles, and, after relating details about the authors’ lives and art, she ends with a different take on the same theme. Overall, the text reads more like a magazine article accessible to those interested in the topic, with lively writing that does not get bogged down in excessive detail. Readers learn the important points and move on, better educated on the lives and the careers of the illustrators.

Her chapter layouts are cleverly done. Usually, the first open two-page spread is adorned with only the title image, affording her the opportunity to set her sights on the author’s background information. From the third page onward, she begins discussing the illustrator’s art, with smaller images (often book covers) in the margins and larger images dominating the spread. This practice enables her to stuff the pages with artwork and give readers a better understanding of the artists’ careers and styles. The text for the artwork usually begins on the same spread as the images, cutting down on a lot of unnecessary page turning and allowing the reader to concentrate on the marriage of text and image along the same lines as children’s books. That the text has ample white space between lines also contributes to the ease of reading.

With her narrow focus on illustrators who work is important to her, lucid language, and use of illustrative and beautiful artwork, Evans achieves her goal of using the work of these artists “to find a universal language to talk about art on the page…and use it to explore the many other wonderful books that are on our shelves” (Evans, 2). A book such as this only increases the interest and anticipation in the next 12 illustrators she chooses to explore.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--"This attractive title will be a boon for librarians, teachers, students, and anyone else who wants to learn to look at and talk about the art in children’s books." (BOOKLIST, September 2008)
--"The strength of this book lies in the depth of the author's understanding regarding how decisions about formal qualities and design affect narrative and in her ability to articulate their effectiveness for the layperson." (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, May 2008)
--"Teenaged artists have much to learn from Evans's thoughtful analyses, and even the casual reader will experience these authors on a different level after reading. In addition to being a strong purchase for public and high school, it is a must-have for art school libraries." (VOICE OF YOUTH ADVOCATES, June 2008)

CONNECTIONS
--This book would very effective for art teachers, or even English teachers, to use with students throughout middle and high school, if only for the sake of its clear, illustrative biographies and ideas on creating art.
--Other titles on creating and illustrating children’s books:
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE: A READER’S HISTORY FROM AESOP TO HARRY POTTER, by Seth Lerer. ISBN: 978-0226473017
WRITING WITH PICTURES: HOW TO WRITE AND ILLUSTRATE CHILDREN’S BOOKS, by Uri Shulevitz. ISBN: 978-0823059355
ILLUSTRATING CHILDREN’S BOOKS: CREATING PICTURES FOR PUBLICATION, by Martin Salisbury. ISBN: 978-0764127175

G1 Review: Bebé Goes Shopping

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Elya, Susan Middleton. 2006. BEBÉ GOES SHOPPING. Ill by Steven Salerno. Orlando, FL: Harcourt. ISBN: 9780152054267

As its title suggests, this story centers on the exploits of “Bebé” during a shopping trip with his mother. At first, Bebé is agape and amazed by the size and variety of items in the supermarket. Strapped into his shopping cart, he soon sees familiar and brightly colored items and begins reaching for them. This is helpful to his mother the first time, and she rewards him with a gratifying kiss. However, she becomes more and more exasperated over the next few scenes as he continues grasping and grabbing mischievously, generally personifying the expression “terrible twos.” At the end of her tether, she finally finds a box of animal crackers to placate her son, who comically proceeds to chomp his way through the box while she finishes her shopping and happily exits the store.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
This funny story is geared toward younger readers and, with its “troublemaking” but extremely cute baby, has something in it for anyone who has ever shopped with a toddler. Elya’s text is done in rhymed couplets and is interspersed with Spanish words in a bold typeface. With Salerno’s drawings, contextual explanations, and the use of cognates such as “muchos colores,” these new vocabulary words are easily comprehensible to readers without Spanish knowledge. For those curious to learn Spanish or to consolidate their understanding of the vocabulary in the text, there is a helpful glossary after the story.

Each two-page spread has a minimal number of words, usually in two to four lines consisting of 11 or 12 syllables. The general stress pattern seems to be iambic, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, but this is not consistent. (Readers will have to improvise at times when reading to someone else.) Overall, though, the use of rhymed lines creates a mellifluous ease to the text, allowing its reader a chance to emphasize certain important words or concepts and its listener to get caught up in an entertaining story.

One feature of the text worth noting is the use of pauses, in the form of dashes and both ending and internal punctuation. At the beginning of the book and after Bebé finally gets mollified with his animal crackers, Elya uses long dashes liberally, largely as a means of explaining a word or concept, as in “the supermercado—with groceries galore” and “Bebé finds a camel—a humpy sorpresa.”

Nearly all of the lines in the story have end punctuation, and only a handful lack internal punctuation, a period, comma or exclamation mark. These natural pauses and stops force the reader to take a breather and also highlight important parts of the action: “Just play with my llaves,” she says. “¡Por favor!”/He giggles and drops them. They clank on the floor.” At these points of the story, imagining comments from the audience on Bebé’s actions and Mamá’s responses to them would be very easy and perhaps make the reading more interactive.

The beautiful illustrations work in conjunction with the text to make this a winning story. Done in watercolor, colored pencil and ink, they begin with items in the supermarket drawn in bold bright strokes. In both the characters and backgrounds, Salerno rarely pays attention to staying within the lines when adding color, leading to watercolors leaking out of the colored ink borders and, in some cases, unexpected white space that almost serves as a shadow. The vegetables and dry goods in the first scene show this technique very well. Similar to the text, the illustrations have a certain focal point, with something always at the center drawn in enough detail to attract the viewer’s eye.

Interestingly, just as the lines provide points of emphasis, so do the illustrations. For the characters, drawn almost in caricature, Bebé and Mamá each have oblong heads and rosy cheeks. In Bebé’s case, his head is oversized with a tuft of curly hair on top, suggesting that he may be a “thinker” (or a conniver) even at a young age. The mother has a curvy figure and roseate cheeks, indicating that she may be new to child-rearing. Other characters in the book are drawn more angularly, but all of them have an almost comic book feeling about them: realistic but somehow not.

Salerno has made the eyes, eyebrows and mouths carry the characters’ emotions and, at each major emotional shift, uses a background color to support those feelings. A kiss between mother and child results in closed eyes for each and smiles all around on a soft blue background. Confusion appears on a white background with broad, wavy, vertical yellow lines, as Bebé opens his eyes wide and arches his pencil-line eyebrows toward the center of his forehead. Anger jumps with a kicking baby and finger-pointing mother, each with open eyes, snarling mouths and scowling eyebrows on a soft reddish pink background. The animals in the animal cracker box also show “Why me?” expressions after Bebé begins eating them.

The scenes move from a certain packed-in feeling at the beginning of the story, perhaps to suggest Bebé’s amazement at the possibilities the market holds for him, to a sparseness that better showcases his individual moments of mischief. Until the last scene at the checkout counter, Salerno uses an abundance of white space and wavy brushstrokes of soft colors to divide the characters’ actions into smaller, digestible bits, complementing the lines of text.

The story is, in a sense, a string of events with all eyes constantly on Bebé, who goes through a number of emotions. While he angers his mother, he is also indulged by her and others at the supermarket. Most notably, in what may be the “moral” of the story, or simply something for all parents to remember, a “nosy senora” imposes on the younger mother who’s at the end of her tether, reminding her about children, “It’s hard to be good when there’s nothing to do.” The mother then gives Bebé the animal crackers and is able to complete her shopping. At the end of the story, the mother seems relieved and even goes so far as to call her son “her wonderful helper.” All sins are forgiven…until the next shopping trip.


REVIEW EXCERPT(S)
--"English-only and bilingual readers will enjoy the bouncing rhythm and buoyant illustrations." (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, May 2006)
--"Salerno's cheerful, energetic swirls of color and line, ample white space and changing perspectives transform an everyday outing into a dramatic adventure that will leave readers smiling." (KIRKUS REVIEWS, March 2006)
--"This delightful tale turns an everyday chore into a lively adventure, brimming with entertainment and enjoyment for all." (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, February 2006)
--"Fantastico!" (BOOKLIST, February 2006)

CONNECTIONS
--This is an excellent way to introduce the family to an additional language, as are many other titles by Susan Middleton Elya and also the board books of Gladys Rosa-Mendoza.
--A book such as this could benefit older students learning rhythm and rhyme, to examine both its successes and areas for improvement.
--Big fans of Bebé would probably not want to miss BEBÉ GOES TO THE BEACH, by Susan Middleton Elya. ISBN: 9780152060008

G1 Review: Joseph Had a Little Overcoat

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Taback, Simms. 1999. JOSEPH HAD A LITTLE OVERCOAT. New York: Viking (Penguin Putnam Books for Young Readers). ISBN: 0670878553

This book centers on episodes in the life of Joseph, a Polish Jew alive in an unspecified time but likely in the early part of the 20th century. A farmer, Joseph lives frugally and participates enthusiastically in the vibrant social and religious life surrounding him. At the beginning of the story, Joseph works on his farm while wearing an ankle-length, striped brown overcoat with a number of hand-sewn patches at its hemline. As the story continues and the overcoat begins to fall apart, he transforms it into smaller and smaller articles of clothing: a jacket, a vest, a scarf, a necktie, a handkerchief, and, finally, a button. After he completes each new article of clothing, he wears it during some sort of personal or communal event. For example, he goes to the local fair wearing the jacket, visits his sister wearing the tie, and uses his handkerchief when drinking a cup of hot tea with lemon. At the climax of the story, when Joseph loses his button, the last remaining bit of his beloved overcoat, he maintains his practical spirit by not bemoaning his loss. Instead, he sits down at his desk with his art supplies and creates a book about the experience.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS
From beginning to end, this seems to be a very “personal” book for its author, Simms Taback. In addition to hand-drawing the text, Taback inserts himself into the book on the title page with his parenthetical comment, “and there’s a moral, too!” after he provides an overview of the plot. At the end of the book in a note addressed to readers, he discusses both his creative process and the background of the story. What began as an adaptation of a Yiddish folk song from his youth (complete with music and lyrics) becomes a contextualized story. Through his own experience, readers receive a glimpse into the history and beliefs of rural Jewish life in Eastern Europe. To the author, this is a life worth recalling and remembering. In his note at the end, Taback further cements his connection with the simple sentence, “Some people noticed Joseph looked a lot like me.”

At each juncture of the story until its climax, Taback uses straightforward declarative sentences to depict Joseph’s reality. The first sentence always begins with “Joseph had” and consists of five words, while the second sentence is the blunt and realistic “It got old and worn.” Once Joseph understands his reality, he does something to improve it. These all begin with “So he…” and end with him wearing his whittled down piece of clothing for some occasion. This repetition of form focuses readers on how Joseph responds to the world around him through the various manifestations of his retooled overcoat. Younger readers listening to the story, and even older readers without perhaps a high level of proficiency in reading, are comforted and able to anticipate the movement of the plot.

When Joseph loses his button, the story takes an unfamiliar turn, but the language remains largely the same until Taback delivers the moral at the end of the story. Even the moral is broken up into two parts, the first a complete sentence, the second a fragment. The language stays simple throughout, and the reader is free to concentrate on the action.

Joseph is a poor Jewish farmer, residing in Poland during the early to middle part of the last century. None of these “facts” about the main character and setting are delivered to the reader through the text. Instead, they are relayed through the design and illustrations of the book. Taback uses a number of different media for his stunning artwork that enlivens the story, helpfully listing each in the beginning of the book. His settings and characters are rendered without perspective, almost in the manner of folk art, rather realistically but with rounded and slanting lines giving everything a homemade feeling. Likewise, he uses deep earthy colors in his backgrounds and minor characters and balances these with brighter colors, most often in Joseph’s yellow shirt, to provide a focal point, but also evident in some of his other characters and settings. Die cuts throughout the book follow the transformation of his overcoat.

In many of the scenes, Taback uses white or some lighter hue for a newspaper page, pithy saying, sheet music, book cover or some other cultural marker. Flipping through the book, readers’ eyes are drawn to these often humorous pieces. Through them more information about the author’s understanding of his own history through the lives of Joseph and his contemporaries emerges. “Better to have an ugly patch than a beautiful hole,” “When the coat is old, only the holes are new,” “If a pauper eats a chicken, one of them is sick,” and “What one has, one doesn’t want, and what one wants, one doesn’t have,” are examples of the homespun wisdom relating to the overall themes of thrift, making do and dreaming of life in another place. To support this notion, there are numerous letters and postcards addressed to Joseph from relatives and others who have emigrated, not to mention a drawing of and allusions to the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.” There’s a certain practicality about day-to-day life tinged with possibilities of a more lucrative future, away from the hardships of farming in Poland.

Taback also uses his background drawings to show the bounty of flowers, crops, animals and neighbors that Joseph has, especially before he loses his button. All are drawn with realistic touches. Flowers packed tightly represent spring, different types of cabbages the harvest season, and falling leaves the autumn. Similarly, in the interior of his house, details are literally stuffed into the two-page spreads. However, when Joseph loses the button, he appears in front of a stark black background, with the sentence “Now he had nothing” showing his momentary loss before he takes a positive action.

Another artistic feature is that the characters (people and animals alike) are always looking at Joseph, reminding readers that he is the center of this story. While his neighbors and relatives merely seem to be looking at him, those in close proximity to him, his animals, seem to be at times incredulous, skeptical or sympathetic toward his actions, injecting more humor into the story. Along this same line, Taback combines a number of period and modern photographs of people, especially to decorate the walls of Joseph’s house and to show apartment dwellers in the city scene. Many of the older photographs are of rabbis or historical personages, reflecting Taback’s Jewish heritage. Many of the more modern photographs seem to be of people he knows. These add to the personalized mixture of text and art represented in this straightforward, detailed story.

REVIEW EXCERPT(S) & AWARDS
--"A book bursting at the seams with ingenuity and creative spirit (whose) rhythm and repetition make it a perfect storytime read-aloud." (SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, January 2000)
--"A true example of accomplished bookmaking… filled with homey clutter, interesting characters, and a million details to bring children back again and again." (BOOKLIST, January 2000)
--"With its effective repetition and an abundance of visual humor, this is tailor-made for reading aloud." (PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY, November 1999)
--Caldecott Medal Winner: 2000

CONNECTIONS
--A great way to teach children about thrift and not wasting resources, in addition to reminding them of the need to persevere and stay positive during rough times.
--Can easily be adapted to performance, with the overall flow of the story and the Yiddish folk song at the end.
--Other books by Simms Taback, especially to show how he reworks fairy tales or incorporates morals for children:
THERE WAS AN OLD LADY WHO SWALLLOWED A FLY, illustrated by Pam Adams. ISBN: 9781904550624
THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT. ISBN: 978-0142402009

LS 5603: Summer 2010 Work

For my latest course at Texas Women's University, LS 5603, Literature for Children & Young Adults, I'll just add to my existing blog. By the time I'm done here, I hope to have written a lot of snappy, informative book reviews and read even more great literature. Hope you enjoy the book reviews! (The first one should be up in a couple of days, once I resolve my jet lag and internet connectivity issues.)

9: Internet

From Google, I searched for “international school libraries” (without the quotation marks). Even though my interest area is in the relationship of the school library to instruction, my aim is to work in an international school library. In an international school, the library should play a central role in teaching and learning, functioning as a “window” to the world for a school, an English-medium environment in a non-English-speaking country. Additionally, most of my teaching experience has been in international schools. They are usually vibrant places serving students of a number of different nationalities. The library I envision would be a central point for all members of the school community, including students, teachers, administrators and parents.

After searching Google and (oops!) misspelling the word “international” in my search term, the first hit I received was for the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL). (The results of this "fuzzy search" from Google are above. The "Did you mean...?" feature is very handy in retrieval.) Besides the word “international” in its title, IASL's mission statement was striking. Here it is in its entirety:

The Mission of IASL:
The mission of the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL) is to provide an international forum for those people interested in promoting effective school library media programs as viable instruments in the educational process. IASL also provides guidance and advice for the development of school library programs and the school library profession. IASL works in cooperation with other professional associations and agencies.

Membership is worldwide, and includes school librarians, teachers, librarians, library advisers, consultants, educational administrators, and others who are responsible for library and information services in schools. The membership also includes professors and instructors in universities and colleges where there are programmes for school librarians, and students who are undertaking such programmes.

IASL publishes School Libraries Worldwide, a refereed journal published twice a year. A quick look through its titles showed issues devoted to improving the role of the library in teaching and learning. While the publication may not deal solely with international school libraries, the librarian teaching and living outside of the U.S. would be able to read about libraries around the world and the challenges faced in different areas. The wide range of articles about international contexts does not rule out readership by librarians based in the U.S. Instead, the publication accepts articles about school libraries everywhere.

IASL also has an Advocacy page containing links to International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), International School Library Day, a host of resources for the school librarian, School Librarians Make a Difference (with different research on school libraries and their role in learning), and, finally, the UNICEF Rights of the Child. By following these links, the international school librarian—or, really, any school librarian—would receive ample information on topics pertinent to working with students and becoming a more active, informed instructional partner.

For a librarian already a member of the American Library Association and perhaps already a subscriber to the School Library Journal, joining IASL would be a perfect way to become more “international.”

8: Research Visuals

Unsure of what a Research Visual/Multimedia for an international school librarian interested in improving student learning would entail, I began my search at Google Images with the search terms “international school libraries” (without quotation marks). The second image on the first page of results was published on a blog. Further research revealed that the image belongs to the Australian School Library Association (ASLA). It is the top image on this page.

The image offers the perfect research visual because it places student learning at the center of a school library’s reason for existence. On the outer part of the circle, the library works in a cyclical manner to assess needs, conceive and deliver programs to address those needs, and evaluates the effectiveness of the programs delivered. As needs change, programs will change. Research in the form of a needs analysis for a particular international community could lead to the implementation of numerous programs, which could then be evaluated for their use and efficacy.

Additionally, the image contains four “tracks” surrounding and influencing the central core constituency of “learners and learning”: teachers and teaching, resourcing the curriculum, developing the physical environment, and providing access to information. Each of these areas offers a myriad of research opportunities. A quick scan of the titles of School Libraries Worldwide or School Library Journal articles and issue themes reveals a great deal of attention paid to these areas.

Copyright information: Australian School Library Association (ASLA), 2004. No further information was provided on the image, nor did the website mention any restrictions regarding the use of the image.

For the second image above, I used the search terms “international school libraries and instruction” (again without quotation marks) on Google Images. On the second page of results was a chart that had accompanied an article in the School Library Journal. Entitled “The SLJ Spending Survey” and written by Marilyn L. Shontz and Lesley S.J. Farmer, the article appeared in the January 1, 2007 issue and provides a snapshot of school libraries based on research conducted in the 2004-2005 academic year.

Pertinent to the digital age, Table 10 is based on research into school library computer use for teaching and learning. This research spurred thinking in two areas: how to assess computer use accurately and how to target certain areas, such as increasing the use of school-provided databases. Assessing computer use could be problematic in that student and teacher self-perceptions of their use of library computers may not correspond to their actual use. Additional instruments would have to be created to harvest more objective data.

As for the difference in the percentages of web searching and using school databases (82% and 39%, respectively), information received here would allow the librarian to begin designing and implementing programs to increase the use of school databases. If we combine this with the four “tracks” mentioned in the discussion of the first image above, it is possible to conclude that a small action research project would involve teachers and teaching, resourcing the curriculum and providing access to information.

Each of these visuals could form research areas for the school librarian, either for conducting his or her own original research or for accessing published research on these topics.

Copyright information:
Shontz, M.L. and Farmer, L.S.J. (January 1, 2007). The SLJ spending survey. School Library Journal. Retrieved March 21, 2009 from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6403260.html.

7: Image

While searching for the reputable website connected to my interest area (Competency 9: Internet), I found the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL). That was actually the first hit after a search on Google. On its Advocacy page, there was a link to International School Library Day celebrated on the fourth Monday in October each year. Clicking on that link brought up this image.

Interestingly enough, as I researched more about this image through the IASL site and also on Google Images, there were numerous references to October as International School Library Month.

Day or month? Does it matter? Here, the concept matters, a day (or even a month) to celebrate school libraries around the world. In my international school, this celebration could take the form of displays, author visits, book talks, and activities to promote the use of the library as a research center. Since the date comes early in the school year, the library could begin planning for the month early. Having a month-long celebration would allow for a wider variety of activities and events.

With my interest area in influencing instruction through the library, I envision this event and the activities surrounding it as designed to place the library firmly in the minds of all international school constituents: students, teachers, administrators and parents.

As for the image itself, my interpretation is that the strands of different colors represent cultures or library stakeholders in an international school, joined at the center by the school library. That all of the strands “meet” at the center of a book binding could suggest that the library “holds everything together” on campus.

Whatever interpretation the image brings to mind, the key for the international school librarian—or for any librarian, for that matter—is to showcase the library as a partner in instruction to benefit students as well as the entire campus community.

Copyright Information: The International School Library Day logo was designed by Peter Rugendyke for the International Association of School Librarianship (IASL), the holder of the copyright. An exact copyright date was unavailable on the IASL website, although the logo was not used for the first International School Library Day announcement in 1999. It did appear on the 2006 online announcement. However, since there are no announcements after 1999 or before 2006, determining when it first appeared is difficult. The webpage with downloadable copies of the logo was last updated in 2003, so perhaps that provides a clue.