From: Martha Weston <martha>
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2003 08:52:46 -0700

As an illustrator, I should be jumping up and down to defend the use of pictures in ANY children's book. But I remember hearing a reading on the radio of a children's book a few years ago. I was transported and thought it was a stunningly beautiful, magical story. While it wasn't a poem, it had the affect on me of poetry. I couldn't wait to see a copy. When I did, I was completely disillusioned. The highly skillful illustrations, which were by the author, were detailed to the point of absurdity and, of course, none of my vivid imaginings from hearing the story were present.

But I think the main problem, (besides the fact that the author's vision was not mine!) had to do with the detail. Nothing was left to the imagination. For many books -- and I would include single poem books -- I believe illustrations need to be in a dance with the text, more hinting at a way of seeing what the words suggest, not visually whacking the reader over the head.

Martha

www.marthaweston.com

On 4/15/03 11:00 PM, "ccbc-net list" wrote:
Received on Wed 16 Apr 2003 10:52:46 AM CDT