From: Lindsay <linds_na>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 10:22:42 -0800 (PST)

I'm entranced by the way that the multiple perspectives in Browne's
"Voices in the Park" are really told through the illustration, and hardly at all through the text. The style changes slightly from voice to voice, and the landscape is caricatured to express mood. I haven't yet used this book with older readers, but I had an interesting experience sharing it with an 18th-month-old. I was watching Frieda one afternoon for her mother, and since Frieda has read all the age-approriate books at my house multiple times, I started looking for something else. I pulled out this one because I thought she'd enjoy just looking at the pictures
(finding the "doggies," "apples," "hats" -- identifying objects she can name). I was right, but what I hadn't expected was that she'd react so dramatically to the emotional changes in the illustrations. I didn't notice at first because the first voice is the mother, who is very humdrum. I don't think Frieda noticed anything out of the ordinary at this point either -- she just liked the doggies. But she grew noticeably more quiet at the father's section, which is very melancholic; and when we arrived at Smudge, she suddenly sat up straight, looked at me, smiled, and said "happy!" This was all without reading a single word of the text.

Nina Lindsay



Nina Lindsay, Children's Librarian Melrose Branch, Oakland Public Library 4805 Foothill Boulevard Oakland, CA 94601
(510)535V23 linds_na at oak2.ci.oakland.ca.us
Received on Mon 16 Nov 1998 12:22:42 PM CST