CCBC-Net Archives
[CCBC-Net] THE SNOWY DAY
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Perry Nodelman <perry_nodelman>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:03:12 -0500
On 20-Jul-09, at 11:29 AM, fran manushkin wrote:
> Perry, I haven't (yet) read your book and would be very
> eager to hear what you can tell us about the "manipulative" qualities
> of THE SNOW DAY. I know that Ezra felt he wanted there to be a book
> about an African-American child that offered a universal childhood
> experience (unless you live in a sunshine state). Anything else you
> can share about this book would be fascinating.
The first sections of The Hidden Adult, in which I discuss the six texts, is actually 81 pages of distressingly small print, which means about twelve of those pages are about the Snowy Day--probably something like 100 words of mine for every 1 of Keats's, much more than I can easily summarize here. But maybe one small section will give you a taste of it. I've been talking about how very sophisticated Keats's pictures are--how they emerge from a complex background of ideas about what art is and what illustrations are and a rich history of complex theories such as impressionism, what Ruskin called "the innocent eye" of the artist, and so on. I then quote W.J.T. Mitchell's comment that " The 'innocent eye' is a metaphor for a highly experienced and cultivated sort of vision," and go on to say this:
>
>
> because adults feel free to give children access to sophisticated
> pictures like those in The Snowy Day because of the rhetoric of the
> "innocent eye" traditionally associated with such pictures, many
> children do learn how to make sense of them--become exactly the
> sophisticated viewers these pictures imply and demand. With enough
> experience of picture books of this sort, and with adults talking
> with them about the pictures and helping them to see the meanings in
> them the adults see, they learn to understand visual language such
> as that used in The Snowy Day as representative of innocence and
> childishness--and perhaps even, to some extent, understand the book
> as I and many other adults do, as intending to be a celebration of
> the joys of the childlike. They develop, in other words, the
> sophisticated knowledge of what one particular sophisticated adult
> philosophy understands to be the meaning of their own existence as
> young human beings, and possibly even learn to view themselves and
> their own actions as this philosophy understands them. They learn
> childlikeness from children's books.
I hope that helps.
Perry
_____________ Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/
Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 10:03:12 AM CDT
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:03:12 -0500
On 20-Jul-09, at 11:29 AM, fran manushkin wrote:
> Perry, I haven't (yet) read your book and would be very
> eager to hear what you can tell us about the "manipulative" qualities
> of THE SNOW DAY. I know that Ezra felt he wanted there to be a book
> about an African-American child that offered a universal childhood
> experience (unless you live in a sunshine state). Anything else you
> can share about this book would be fascinating.
The first sections of The Hidden Adult, in which I discuss the six texts, is actually 81 pages of distressingly small print, which means about twelve of those pages are about the Snowy Day--probably something like 100 words of mine for every 1 of Keats's, much more than I can easily summarize here. But maybe one small section will give you a taste of it. I've been talking about how very sophisticated Keats's pictures are--how they emerge from a complex background of ideas about what art is and what illustrations are and a rich history of complex theories such as impressionism, what Ruskin called "the innocent eye" of the artist, and so on. I then quote W.J.T. Mitchell's comment that " The 'innocent eye' is a metaphor for a highly experienced and cultivated sort of vision," and go on to say this:
>
>
> because adults feel free to give children access to sophisticated
> pictures like those in The Snowy Day because of the rhetoric of the
> "innocent eye" traditionally associated with such pictures, many
> children do learn how to make sense of them--become exactly the
> sophisticated viewers these pictures imply and demand. With enough
> experience of picture books of this sort, and with adults talking
> with them about the pictures and helping them to see the meanings in
> them the adults see, they learn to understand visual language such
> as that used in The Snowy Day as representative of innocence and
> childishness--and perhaps even, to some extent, understand the book
> as I and many other adults do, as intending to be a celebration of
> the joys of the childlike. They develop, in other words, the
> sophisticated knowledge of what one particular sophisticated adult
> philosophy understands to be the meaning of their own existence as
> young human beings, and possibly even learn to view themselves and
> their own actions as this philosophy understands them. They learn
> childlikeness from children's books.
I hope that helps.
Perry
_____________ Perry Nodelman http://pernodel.wordpress.com/
Book Trailers: The Hidden Adult: Defining Children's Literature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3t7JAfPQeA The Ghosthunters2: The Curse of the Evening Eye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qapDE1Kwnis The Ghosthunters I: The Proof that Ghosts Exist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw0ow7oQV7k
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 10:03:12 AM CDT
