CCBC-Net Archives
Starry Messenger
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Megan Schliesman <Schliesman>
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 09:19:58 -0500
Like Dean Schneider, I too find Starry Messenger one of my favorite Peter Sis books. And I appreciate hearing from both Dean and Kathy Isaacs on how readers respond.
One of the things I find so remarkable in the book, in addition to the complexity of the art and the many many details one finds in pouring over the pictures, is the emotional quality of it. I'm thinking particularly of those pages where Gallileo has been ordered to stop believing what he knew to be true, and then is tried before the Pope's court. Think of the trauma of being told not to have faith in, as the text puts it, "what he could see with his own two eyes.
...Gallileo was afraid. He knew people had suffered terrible torture and punishment for not following tradition." And there is the small figure of Gallileo standing in a chamber with larger-than-life images of all the terrible things he imagines might happen surrounding him. On the next page is the Pope's court--again, the figure of Gallileo is small, appearing almost physically fragile, while rows of red-garbed cardinals stand in judment behind him and devilish figures are around him on the floor. I think with these images Sis helps readers understand Gallileo's fear--and the power of those who were against him--on an elemental level.
I find even the end papers of the book stirring--the deep blue darkenss of the sky and shadowed images of buildings against the night, and high up in one is a solitary figure gazing at the stars. I see immediately that this was a singular and passionate figure, bringing what I know of Gallileo to the picture when I open the book. For children, it underscores the experience of the book itself, I think.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 06 Jun 2001 09:19:58 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 06 Jun 2001 09:19:58 -0500
Like Dean Schneider, I too find Starry Messenger one of my favorite Peter Sis books. And I appreciate hearing from both Dean and Kathy Isaacs on how readers respond.
One of the things I find so remarkable in the book, in addition to the complexity of the art and the many many details one finds in pouring over the pictures, is the emotional quality of it. I'm thinking particularly of those pages where Gallileo has been ordered to stop believing what he knew to be true, and then is tried before the Pope's court. Think of the trauma of being told not to have faith in, as the text puts it, "what he could see with his own two eyes.
...Gallileo was afraid. He knew people had suffered terrible torture and punishment for not following tradition." And there is the small figure of Gallileo standing in a chamber with larger-than-life images of all the terrible things he imagines might happen surrounding him. On the next page is the Pope's court--again, the figure of Gallileo is small, appearing almost physically fragile, while rows of red-garbed cardinals stand in judment behind him and devilish figures are around him on the floor. I think with these images Sis helps readers understand Gallileo's fear--and the power of those who were against him--on an elemental level.
I find even the end papers of the book stirring--the deep blue darkenss of the sky and shadowed images of buildings against the night, and high up in one is a solitary figure gazing at the stars. I see immediately that this was a singular and passionate figure, bringing what I know of Gallileo to the picture when I open the book. For children, it underscores the experience of the book itself, I think.
Megan
Megan Schliesman, Librarian Cooperative Children's Book Center School of Education UW-Madison 608&2?03 schliesman at education.wisc.edu
Received on Wed 06 Jun 2001 09:19:58 AM CDT
