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In Daddy's Arms
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From: lhendr at unm.edu <lhendr>
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:42:19 -0700 (MST)
I've been hoping more would be said about _In Daddy's Arms_, which was one book that for me was love at first sight. I'll try to be brief, highlighting some of what delighted me in this book.
The compelling collage cover mixes the childlike and the sophisticated, the display type literally underscores "In Daddy's Arms" and demonstrates
"I AM TALL." Every aspect of this book carries out its theme of "African Americans Celebrating Fathers" in words and pictures that are individually moving, but that together truly make a celebration. The book in itself is a collage of poetry and art.
Even before I realized that Javaka Steptoe was the son of John Steptoe, who created picturebooks unlike any seen before, I was moved by the freshness of the title page figures cut out of screening holding hands. The dedication page with its exquisite collage of a monarch butterfly with battered wings set on a small crookedly fringed piece of burlap suggests both the fragility and strength of life, and its continuity, and the words, "Dedicated to my Mother and the memory of my Father/Special thanks to the energy of Life, Love, Creativity..." sum up what this book is about: a celebration of Life, Love, and Creativity specifically in the relationship between fathers and children.
In the bold image of footprints, a small person, walks on the edge of the water, trying to fill those footprints. Strong textures of paper, paint, and sand on wood contrast with the small white words on the blue, adding another dimension to the message conveyed by the picture: "When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him."
"In Daddy's Arms," says "I am big and strong and proud like him," words and images conveying warmth, humor and a childlike perspective. We move from arms to hands on the next page, with the close-up of the father's big
"hard and calloused" hand holding the mother's hand, both hands significantly framed by the brick with which the father worked.
The backbone of the "stern papa" is "forged of African iron/ and red Georgia clay" and that is how Steptoe literally portrays him. Furthermore this spine is also the spine of the book, its center, holding the rest together and linking beginning to end. I have never seen a use of the gutter quite like this -- and it so perfectly fits the poem and the book. What a stroke of genius to put this in the center of the book!
Lighter in mood is the hilarious "Tickle, Tickle" in which the picture expresses tickled laughter with such lightness and sense of movement that it is hard to see and read without holding oneself tight in anticipation of tickles and laughter!
The simplicity of "Promises," with its bold pieces of torn paper brings a lump to the throat. Javaka's poem, with apples in cross-section with the seeds in the picture, is an incredibly moving and powerful metaphor. "For better or worse/the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," is a sentiment that sums up many of the poems. All the poet contributors in some way acknowledge the link between their creativity and their fathers.
"Artist to Artist," which doesn't look much like the other illustrations, is a perfect example of Steptoe's ability to match his art to the mood and message of the poem. The crayons of the poem have been used to draw the drawing father and the scribbling daughter and her scribbles, a perfect match of form and content.
The concluding "My Father's Eyes" is reminiscent of Langston Hughes in its simplicity, the illustration richly expanding the metaphor of the African sunset in the father's eyes. It is a fitting close to the book, with the closure of sunset and the continuity of the African heritage transmitted from father to child. Do the two pictures represent the two eyes -- eyes in which we see Africa? Ourselves and the future reflected?
As someone else has written, every one of these poems and each one of Steptoe's interpretations of each poem comes across as heartfelt. And although each is highly individual, together they make a unity, and a true celebration of art and our common humanity, for each one of us has received a heritage and creativity with its multiple meanings from a father.
Linnea Hendrickson lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Fri 27 Feb 1998 01:42:19 PM CST
Date: Fri, 27 Feb 1998 12:42:19 -0700 (MST)
I've been hoping more would be said about _In Daddy's Arms_, which was one book that for me was love at first sight. I'll try to be brief, highlighting some of what delighted me in this book.
The compelling collage cover mixes the childlike and the sophisticated, the display type literally underscores "In Daddy's Arms" and demonstrates
"I AM TALL." Every aspect of this book carries out its theme of "African Americans Celebrating Fathers" in words and pictures that are individually moving, but that together truly make a celebration. The book in itself is a collage of poetry and art.
Even before I realized that Javaka Steptoe was the son of John Steptoe, who created picturebooks unlike any seen before, I was moved by the freshness of the title page figures cut out of screening holding hands. The dedication page with its exquisite collage of a monarch butterfly with battered wings set on a small crookedly fringed piece of burlap suggests both the fragility and strength of life, and its continuity, and the words, "Dedicated to my Mother and the memory of my Father/Special thanks to the energy of Life, Love, Creativity..." sum up what this book is about: a celebration of Life, Love, and Creativity specifically in the relationship between fathers and children.
In the bold image of footprints, a small person, walks on the edge of the water, trying to fill those footprints. Strong textures of paper, paint, and sand on wood contrast with the small white words on the blue, adding another dimension to the message conveyed by the picture: "When you follow in the path of your father, you learn to walk like him."
"In Daddy's Arms," says "I am big and strong and proud like him," words and images conveying warmth, humor and a childlike perspective. We move from arms to hands on the next page, with the close-up of the father's big
"hard and calloused" hand holding the mother's hand, both hands significantly framed by the brick with which the father worked.
The backbone of the "stern papa" is "forged of African iron/ and red Georgia clay" and that is how Steptoe literally portrays him. Furthermore this spine is also the spine of the book, its center, holding the rest together and linking beginning to end. I have never seen a use of the gutter quite like this -- and it so perfectly fits the poem and the book. What a stroke of genius to put this in the center of the book!
Lighter in mood is the hilarious "Tickle, Tickle" in which the picture expresses tickled laughter with such lightness and sense of movement that it is hard to see and read without holding oneself tight in anticipation of tickles and laughter!
The simplicity of "Promises," with its bold pieces of torn paper brings a lump to the throat. Javaka's poem, with apples in cross-section with the seeds in the picture, is an incredibly moving and powerful metaphor. "For better or worse/the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," is a sentiment that sums up many of the poems. All the poet contributors in some way acknowledge the link between their creativity and their fathers.
"Artist to Artist," which doesn't look much like the other illustrations, is a perfect example of Steptoe's ability to match his art to the mood and message of the poem. The crayons of the poem have been used to draw the drawing father and the scribbling daughter and her scribbles, a perfect match of form and content.
The concluding "My Father's Eyes" is reminiscent of Langston Hughes in its simplicity, the illustration richly expanding the metaphor of the African sunset in the father's eyes. It is a fitting close to the book, with the closure of sunset and the continuity of the African heritage transmitted from father to child. Do the two pictures represent the two eyes -- eyes in which we see Africa? Ourselves and the future reflected?
As someone else has written, every one of these poems and each one of Steptoe's interpretations of each poem comes across as heartfelt. And although each is highly individual, together they make a unity, and a true celebration of art and our common humanity, for each one of us has received a heritage and creativity with its multiple meanings from a father.
Linnea Hendrickson lhendr at unm.edu
Received on Fri 27 Feb 1998 01:42:19 PM CST
