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What If...? by Anthony Browne
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From: K.T. Horning <horning_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 12:24:00 -0500
And now, on to our discussion of "What If...?" by Anthony Browne (U.S. edition: Candlewick). When it comes to reading the pictures and visual literacy, no discussion of picture books would be complete without mentioning the picture books of British artist Anthony Browne. You probably know his early work through books like "Gorilla" (Julia MacRae, 1983), Will the Wimp (Julia MacRae, 1984), "Piggybook" (Julia MacRae, 1986), "Changes" (Julia MacRae, 1990), and "Voices in the Park"
(Doubleday, 1998). In England, he has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice, and perhaps more significantly for the purposes of this discussion, he is a five-time winner of the Emil Award, which annually honors one British "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other." In 2000, he won the International Hans Christian Andersen for his complete works, judged by an international jury to have made a lasting contribution to children's literature.
His latest book, "What If...?" is a classic Anthony Browne picture book. The illustrations are witty and sophisticated, and yet they are fully accessible to young readers who will be required to "read" and interpret them to appreciate the story. This task is made easier for them because of the way they psychologically resonate for young children, taking a common fear that many have (fear of the unknown) to its logical extreme in several scenarios.
"What If...?" reminds me most of one of Browne's early books, "Changes" which is also about a young child facing a common childhood fear -- in this case, the changes in his household with the introduction of a new baby. "Changes" uses a surrealistic style to amplify those fears by turning common household furnishings into something bizarre. For example, one of the changes he notices is in the bathroom sink -- the tap is a human nose and the drain, a human mouth. I have always loved sharing this book with three year olds because they have to really study each illustration to find what's weird and out of place. (To them, many things are.) I would sometimes have to hold the book open on one page for 30 seconds before one child would notice what was odd. And that moment of discovery was always extremely satisfying, for me and the children. I was once sharing this book in a story hour where an extension phone sometimes rang, and we had all learned to ignore it. This time, it rang while we were looking at the afore-mentioned page, and the children's observations were these:
"There's someone's nose in the sink!"
"There's a mouth there, too! With teeth!"
"And the phone rang!"
I love the way the children embraced their whole environment in the spirit of surrealism, and noticing the unexpected in a familiar place. Such is the power of Anthony Browne's art.
i don't want to say too much about "What If..."? to open this discussion because I want to give you all a chance to chime in with your own thoughts about the book. have you had experiences sharing it with children? Do they "read" the pictures differently from adults? What do you think of the book overall?
Unfortunately, Anthony Browne can't join our discussion this week, but here are two links to short videos of him reading aloud an excerpt, and then talking about the book:
Anthony Browne reading "What If...?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMG-Qe6k4PY
Anthony Browne talks about "What If...?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEf4FOcxehE
--KT
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 12:24:00 -0500
And now, on to our discussion of "What If...?" by Anthony Browne (U.S. edition: Candlewick). When it comes to reading the pictures and visual literacy, no discussion of picture books would be complete without mentioning the picture books of British artist Anthony Browne. You probably know his early work through books like "Gorilla" (Julia MacRae, 1983), Will the Wimp (Julia MacRae, 1984), "Piggybook" (Julia MacRae, 1986), "Changes" (Julia MacRae, 1990), and "Voices in the Park"
(Doubleday, 1998). In England, he has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice, and perhaps more significantly for the purposes of this discussion, he is a five-time winner of the Emil Award, which annually honors one British "work of imagination for children, in which text and illustration are integrated so that each enhances and balances the other." In 2000, he won the International Hans Christian Andersen for his complete works, judged by an international jury to have made a lasting contribution to children's literature.
His latest book, "What If...?" is a classic Anthony Browne picture book. The illustrations are witty and sophisticated, and yet they are fully accessible to young readers who will be required to "read" and interpret them to appreciate the story. This task is made easier for them because of the way they psychologically resonate for young children, taking a common fear that many have (fear of the unknown) to its logical extreme in several scenarios.
"What If...?" reminds me most of one of Browne's early books, "Changes" which is also about a young child facing a common childhood fear -- in this case, the changes in his household with the introduction of a new baby. "Changes" uses a surrealistic style to amplify those fears by turning common household furnishings into something bizarre. For example, one of the changes he notices is in the bathroom sink -- the tap is a human nose and the drain, a human mouth. I have always loved sharing this book with three year olds because they have to really study each illustration to find what's weird and out of place. (To them, many things are.) I would sometimes have to hold the book open on one page for 30 seconds before one child would notice what was odd. And that moment of discovery was always extremely satisfying, for me and the children. I was once sharing this book in a story hour where an extension phone sometimes rang, and we had all learned to ignore it. This time, it rang while we were looking at the afore-mentioned page, and the children's observations were these:
"There's someone's nose in the sink!"
"There's a mouth there, too! With teeth!"
"And the phone rang!"
I love the way the children embraced their whole environment in the spirit of surrealism, and noticing the unexpected in a familiar place. Such is the power of Anthony Browne's art.
i don't want to say too much about "What If..."? to open this discussion because I want to give you all a chance to chime in with your own thoughts about the book. have you had experiences sharing it with children? Do they "read" the pictures differently from adults? What do you think of the book overall?
Unfortunately, Anthony Browne can't join our discussion this week, but here are two links to short videos of him reading aloud an excerpt, and then talking about the book:
Anthony Browne reading "What If...?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMG-Qe6k4PY
Anthony Browne talks about "What If...?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEf4FOcxehE
--KT
-- */Please note: The CCBC has moved to Teacher Education, 225 N. Mills St. /* Kathleen T. Horning Director Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) 401 Teacher Education Building 225 N. Mills Street Madison, WI 53706 http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc horning_at_education.wisc.edu 608-263-3721 (phone) 608-262-4933 (fax) ==== CCBC-Net Use ==== You are currently subscribed to ccbc-net as: ccbc-archive_at_post.education.wisc.edu. To post to the list, send message to... ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To receive messages in digest format, send a blank message to... digest-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu To unsubscribe, send a blank message to... leave-ccbc-net_at_lists.wisc.edu ==== CCBC-Net Archives ==== The CCBC-Net archives are available to all CCBC-Net listserv members. The archives are organized by month and year. A list of discussion topics (including month/year) is available at... http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/ccbcnet/archives.asp To access the archives, go to... http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/ccbc-net ...and enter the following when prompted... username: ccbc-net password: Look4PostsReceived on Mon 29 Sep 2014 12:28:24 PM CDT
