On the front cover of The Age newspaper today there is a stunning illustration and poem, ‘From the Shadows’, written in response to the Victorian bushfires by the amazing Graeme Base, author and illustrator of incredible picture books such as Animalia and Enigma.
Prints of the illustration can purchased through The Age’s photo sales department with all profits of the sales going to the Red Cross Bushfire Appeal 2009.
One of the things I love about going on outings with Ned is watching the way he interacts with other children, and adults for that matter. He is a very social little boy, it’s part of his personality but I think it is part of all children to be really open to meeting new people and making friends.
I love observing Ned watching other children and I can often see in his eyes the hope that they will notice him and talk to him, not in a sad way, just a hopeful, inquisitive way. He is never afraid to inch closer to another child and quietly join in to a game or garbled conversation.
Recently I have taken my favorite picture book about friendship off the shelf and I hope to start reading it to Ned soon. Leon and Bob by Simon James is a simple but really powerful picture book and one that won my heart the instant I read it.
Leon has moved house; he lives with his mum and his dad is away in the army. Leon is lonely so he creates Bob, an imaginary friend who only he can see.
‘He always walked to school with Bob.
He always had Bob to talk to.’
On Saturday Leon looks to the house next door and he sees a new family moving in and a boy just like him. Leon keeps thinking about the boy and decides in the morning to visit the boy but only if Bob goes too.
But Bob leaves Leon just as he is about to ring the door bell and Leon must summon up his courage to do it alone.
‘Leon rang the bell and waited.
The door opened.
“Hello,” said the boy.’
The ending to this beautiful picture book is just gorgeous as Leon makes a ‘real’ friend and guess what his ‘real’ friend’s name is…?
Simon James’ watercolour-and-ink illustrations are simply divine, his characters and settings are so realistic. I adore his use of light in the illustrations and the shadows that his characters cast. There is an image of Leon walking up the steps to the neighbour’s house – the steps and the house seem so huge and Leon so small with his little shadow beside him on the stairs. The elongated format of the picture book also helps give that sense of being small and longing.
Just like what I see in Ned’s eyes though, the story is not sad – it is happy and hopeful. The endpapers sum up the story perfectly, at the front of the book the park that spreads over the double page is quiet and empty and on the last double spread Leon and his new friend are playing soccer, gleeful to have found each other.
Simon James has written and illustrated many critically acclaimed beautiful picture books, he has a fantastic website which contains many of his lovely illustrations and a bio. I love this quote…
“Watching children draw, it is easy to see drawing as a natural joy, well beyond criticism or judgement. It’s a kind of conversation with one’s self.
Drawing is good for you.”
There are some really gorgeous picture books about friendship and I have many more favorites that I will write about over the next couple of weeks. But now I’m off to admire my Stephenie Meyer boxset that arrived from the US today – yippee!
Don’t miss checking out this trailer from UK outfit, aka Studios.
It’s a film adaptation of Oliver Jeffer’s picture book, Lost and Found. Lucky UK residents will have the chance to see the complete 25-minute film on Christmas Eve at 2:30pm and on Boxing Day at 4:30pm on Channel 4.
The colours, movement of the animated figures and music evoke the themes of the book so beautifully. An independent crafter, Karine (whose blog can be found here), was commissioned to knit the main character’s outfit – how cool is that?!
Studio aka has done some amazing stuff. I have previously blogged about Helen Ward and Marc Craste’s book, Varmints, which Studio aka made into a film, directed by Marc. If you haven’t seen it already, Jo Jo in the Stars, their multi-award-winning production is also must-viewing.
(Via Babyccino.)
Following on from my post earlier in the week on Andy Griffiths’ memories of Struwwelpeter, it has been interesting for me to think about whether sometimes we might consciously or subconsciously protect children from books that we think are scary or gross in some way. And how an adult sense of humour and sensitivity to these things is different from that of a little person.
Not nearly as gruesome as Struwwelpeter but still somewhat ‘frank’ are two wordless Pamela Allen books Rowan is loving at the moment: Simon Did and Watch Me. He started to read these at Nanou’s house and has borrowed them to read over and over at home. (Unfortunately both are now out of print, but could still be available at libraries.)
In Simon Did, Simon is at the zoo, where he boldly disobeys the sign that reads ‘DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS’. Some unfortunate consequences ensue including, in the end, Simon being swallowed himself. Rowan loves reciting the words of the sign, and doesn’t seem at all perturbed by the messy ending for Simon.
In Watch Me, each page of the story pictures a little boy doing a trick on his bike – no hands, standing on one foot, etc – as he rides faster and faster down the hill. He hits a stone, and comes tumbling over the handlebars, and the closing page shows him in tears with a serious bump on his head. Being wordless, the illustrations are central to the meaning, and the bike’s increasing speed is cleverly shown by the steepness of the hill and by the ears of his companion dog which fly back at an increasing rate. It’s no coincidence that ‘Watch me, Mama!’ has recently become part of Rowan’s vocabulary in daily use…
No happy ending in either of these books – in fact you might even imagine they could induce some nightmares – yet Rowan loves them. Any other gruesome or miserable endings in books you’re surprised little people are enjoying?
The other morning on the radio I heard Andy Griffiths (popular Australian author, most well-known for The Day my Bum Went Psycho or … Butt … in the US). He was a speaker on a panel for a Deakin University debate on the topic, ‘Yes, I can’t read and write but it’s not my fault.’
Andy was talking about the books he loved as a child: Dr Seuss, Alice in Wonderland, Cole’s Funny Picture Book, and Enid Blyton’s ‘canon’. But clearly one of his very favourite books was Struwwelpeter.
Der Struwwelpeter was first published in 1845 by German author, Heinrich Hoffmann, and first published in English in 1848. The book is made up of a series of short stories, each devised to teach a lesson, and in each one a child comes to a very sticky (and frequently morbid) end. Through an adult’s eyes, it’s really very gruesome. In the story of Kaspar who did not have any Soup, a healthy, strong boy proclaims that he will no longer eat his soup, and consequently wastes away to death. In the story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, a mother warns her son not to suck his thumbs. When she goes out he continues his thumb sucking, until a tailor appears and cuts off his thumbs with giant scissors. Nice. And worth remembering that when written this book was intended for an audience of 3 to 6 year olds…
Andy’s memories of Struwwelpeter are of it being one he read at his grandmother’s house, and he would approach reading it with a mixture of joy and dread. He said he thought it was a great example of children’s literature because you never knew what would happen next: it could be ‘horrifying or funny or a mixture of both’. When Andy became a secondary English teacher, he realised that one of the reasons his students were not motivated to read was because they hadn’t learnt books could be fun; his students had never had the chance to meet deranged characters like those in Struwwelpeter.
Have been thinking about this since, even in relation to some of the books that Rowan loves as a toddler… more thoughts on this soon.
The lovely bookish posts just keep coming this week. Design Mom has posted some gorgeous photo’s of Jennifer Khoshbin’s cut paper artwork. I have poured over and over Khoshbins’ website and she has an etsy store, so much goodness.
Also 123 Oleary, Media Macaroni and Crooked House have all been excited about the release of a trailer for the animated film Coraline, based on Coraline by Neil Gaiman and due for release in 2009. Now I’m excited TOO!
While on Youtube I also found this clip of a Disney animation test in 1983 for Where the Wild Things Are
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