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From: Eliza T. Dresang <edresang>
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 07:59:12 -0500
The Genie in the Jar* by Nikki Giovanni, illus by Chris Raschka is definitely one of my favorites of 1996. It exemplifies for me the very highest level of synergy between artist and illustration, with Giovanni's lyrical words and Raschka's bold-colored imagines on textured golden-brown paper each brilliantly interpreting, transforming the other.
The colors are particularly significant and highly symbolic. In general they reverse what we might expect: white behind the "danger" messages and black behind the comforting messages of strength and community. Yet one group of middle school age readers in my friend, Kate McClelland's, library in Old Greenwich, CT, were sophisticated enough to note that the "black" was showing through on the "white" background, perhaps indicating how the white may have overpowered but never extinguished black.
The sense of community and safety with this book, yet the personal freedom that the little girl "Genie" has when she has "taken in" the strength of the community to combine with her own (also represented by color), are extraordinary.
I've read the poem/story to very young children who were held spellbound by the cumulative verse and powerful, "expressionistic," childlike illustrations. Since older and younger children appreciate it, it seems to be a picture book for all ages.
I think it is a book that bares repeated looks to appreciate fully.
In one more sense it represents community: the teaming between an African American and white author to express both specific and universal cultural truths. (Nikki Giovanni sought out Chris Raschka according to Marc Aronson, the editor at Henry Holt). I agree with you about the wonder of this pairing, Ruth.
You might be interested to know (if you don't) that Nikki Giovanni, Chris Raschka, and Marc Aronson are all part of the April 4 - 5, 1997 children's and young adult literature conference to be held in Madison, WI, one of the sponsors of which is the sponsor of this list--the Cooperative Children's Book Center of the School of Education at the UW. The name of the conference is Radical Change: Books Opening to the 21st Century.
I will be speaking at that conference also (I've recently moved from Madison where I was an adjunct with the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies and District Director of Library Media and Technology with the Madison Public Schools for more than two decades to join the faculty of the School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University).
*Genie* will be part of that talk.
Glad you asked the question, as I love to talk about *Genie*! Eliza Dresang
At 04:20 PM 12/12/96 00, you wrote:
Eliza T. Dresang Phone: 904 644 5877 (w) Associate Professor Phone: 904 224 1637 (h) School of Library & Information Studies FAX: 904 644 9763 Florida State University E-mail edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Tallahassee, Florida 32306 48
Received on Fri 13 Dec 1996 06:59:12 AM CST
Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 07:59:12 -0500
The Genie in the Jar* by Nikki Giovanni, illus by Chris Raschka is definitely one of my favorites of 1996. It exemplifies for me the very highest level of synergy between artist and illustration, with Giovanni's lyrical words and Raschka's bold-colored imagines on textured golden-brown paper each brilliantly interpreting, transforming the other.
The colors are particularly significant and highly symbolic. In general they reverse what we might expect: white behind the "danger" messages and black behind the comforting messages of strength and community. Yet one group of middle school age readers in my friend, Kate McClelland's, library in Old Greenwich, CT, were sophisticated enough to note that the "black" was showing through on the "white" background, perhaps indicating how the white may have overpowered but never extinguished black.
The sense of community and safety with this book, yet the personal freedom that the little girl "Genie" has when she has "taken in" the strength of the community to combine with her own (also represented by color), are extraordinary.
I've read the poem/story to very young children who were held spellbound by the cumulative verse and powerful, "expressionistic," childlike illustrations. Since older and younger children appreciate it, it seems to be a picture book for all ages.
I think it is a book that bares repeated looks to appreciate fully.
In one more sense it represents community: the teaming between an African American and white author to express both specific and universal cultural truths. (Nikki Giovanni sought out Chris Raschka according to Marc Aronson, the editor at Henry Holt). I agree with you about the wonder of this pairing, Ruth.
You might be interested to know (if you don't) that Nikki Giovanni, Chris Raschka, and Marc Aronson are all part of the April 4 - 5, 1997 children's and young adult literature conference to be held in Madison, WI, one of the sponsors of which is the sponsor of this list--the Cooperative Children's Book Center of the School of Education at the UW. The name of the conference is Radical Change: Books Opening to the 21st Century.
I will be speaking at that conference also (I've recently moved from Madison where I was an adjunct with the UW-Madison School of Library and Information Studies and District Director of Library Media and Technology with the Madison Public Schools for more than two decades to join the faculty of the School of Library and Information Studies at Florida State University).
*Genie* will be part of that talk.
Glad you asked the question, as I love to talk about *Genie*! Eliza Dresang
At 04:20 PM 12/12/96 00, you wrote:
Eliza T. Dresang Phone: 904 644 5877 (w) Associate Professor Phone: 904 224 1637 (h) School of Library & Information Studies FAX: 904 644 9763 Florida State University E-mail edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Tallahassee, Florida 32306 48
Received on Fri 13 Dec 1996 06:59:12 AM CST
