From: Melody Allen <melodyan>
Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1999 09:11:39 -0500

To answer KT's query, which I quote here:
     
     "So I'm wondering how the committee arrived at this decision, using
     the criteria they must consider:
     
     1) Excellence of execution in the artistic technique employed.
     2) Excellence of pictorial interpretation of story, theme, or concept;
     of appropriateness of style of illustration to the story, theme, or
     concept; of delineation of plot, theme, characters, setting, mood, or
     information through the pictures.
     
     Can someone please speak to these terms, as they relate to "No,
     David?" I'm not trying to second-guess the committee or play devil's
     advocate; I'm just trying to understand how people make a case for a
     faux-naive style and visual humor as distinguished illustration."
      
     
 In the most basic and positive of ways, I would say the art successfully extends the text (plot and theme) by interpreting why the off-stage mother says "No, David."
 In the first part of the book, the text does not say what David should stop doing - the reader must look at the illustrations to determine the "wrong" behavior. In this way, the text cannot stand alone and is integral with the illustrations - to me a true picture book. I am trying to remember the color tones as I do not have a copy in front of me. I know there are lots of orange and red tones. What I wondered was whether the palette softens or changes when the mother expresses her reassuring love at the end. Melody Allen Melodyan at lori,state.ri.us
Received on Tue 09 Feb 1999 08:11:39 AM CST