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Words for Anthony Browne's Images?
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From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 18:36:20 -0500
There's so much one could say about Anthony Browne's works, and yet we're not saying it. I'm not sure why, except to realize that many in the CCBC-Net community are either in the midst of completing the year in a public school or on vacation because their official "year" in college or at school just ended, or diving into the summer library program of their public library, or recovering from being at the Book Expo in Chicago or getting ready for the ALA conference also in Chicago. Or maybe your library didn't order many of Mr. Browne's books at the time of their U.S. publication, and so you don't have access to the books mentioned so far. All or none of the above.
Before we leave Anthony Browne - for now - I want to recall how UW-Madison Professor Emerita Gertrude Herman used to wax eloquent as she talked in her Children's Literature courses about Anthony Browne, or made reference to one of his books in a book discussion at the CCBC, or while she was on the ALSC Notable Children's Books Committee during the mid70s. I think it was the book "Through the Magic Mirror" (U.S. edition: Greenwillow, 1976) about which she said Browne's art reminded her of Magritte. Or maybe I'm remembering when she referred to his illustrations for Annalena McAfee's "The Visitors Who Came to Stay" (U.S. edition: Viking, 1985). I remembered her comments when I saw "Changes" (U.S. editon: Knopf, 1990) and "The Tunnel" (Knopf, 1989). Each of these books involves a child, a boy, who is undergoing a transition. What a word to use in any remark about Anthony Browne: transition. He makes visual transitions in every illustration. If he isn't transoforming an easy chair into a gorilla, he's turning a teapot into a cat. And much more.
Some of Browne's images and transformations might make us laugh - or perhaps even feel a tad uncomfortable - but they deepen our understandings of brief texts each time we turn the pages of these books. They definitely make children laugh. It's not been unusual for his books to be named "Children's Choices" by the International Reading Association/Children's Book Council during past years.
Disturbing? Exciting? Hilarious? Puzzling? Is it fair to try to discern the single words we might use to best describe Anthony Browne, the artist of books for children? Which words come to your mind? Which books are the ones standing out in your mind?
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Thu 22 Jun 2000 06:36:20 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 18:36:20 -0500
There's so much one could say about Anthony Browne's works, and yet we're not saying it. I'm not sure why, except to realize that many in the CCBC-Net community are either in the midst of completing the year in a public school or on vacation because their official "year" in college or at school just ended, or diving into the summer library program of their public library, or recovering from being at the Book Expo in Chicago or getting ready for the ALA conference also in Chicago. Or maybe your library didn't order many of Mr. Browne's books at the time of their U.S. publication, and so you don't have access to the books mentioned so far. All or none of the above.
Before we leave Anthony Browne - for now - I want to recall how UW-Madison Professor Emerita Gertrude Herman used to wax eloquent as she talked in her Children's Literature courses about Anthony Browne, or made reference to one of his books in a book discussion at the CCBC, or while she was on the ALSC Notable Children's Books Committee during the mid70s. I think it was the book "Through the Magic Mirror" (U.S. edition: Greenwillow, 1976) about which she said Browne's art reminded her of Magritte. Or maybe I'm remembering when she referred to his illustrations for Annalena McAfee's "The Visitors Who Came to Stay" (U.S. edition: Viking, 1985). I remembered her comments when I saw "Changes" (U.S. editon: Knopf, 1990) and "The Tunnel" (Knopf, 1989). Each of these books involves a child, a boy, who is undergoing a transition. What a word to use in any remark about Anthony Browne: transition. He makes visual transitions in every illustration. If he isn't transoforming an easy chair into a gorilla, he's turning a teapot into a cat. And much more.
Some of Browne's images and transformations might make us laugh - or perhaps even feel a tad uncomfortable - but they deepen our understandings of brief texts each time we turn the pages of these books. They definitely make children laugh. It's not been unusual for his books to be named "Children's Choices" by the International Reading Association/Children's Book Council during past years.
Disturbing? Exciting? Hilarious? Puzzling? Is it fair to try to discern the single words we might use to best describe Anthony Browne, the artist of books for children? Which words come to your mind? Which books are the ones standing out in your mind?
Ginny Moore Kruse (gmkruse at ccbc.education.wisc.edu) Cooperative Children's Book Center (www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/) A Library of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin Madison
Received on Thu 22 Jun 2000 06:36:20 PM CDT
