THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PICTURE BOOK: MUCH MORE THAN COLOR AND GLOSS

By Carolee Dean & Uma Krishnaswamni

The following activities were presented at the 2011 NMLA conference. The subject of the session was using picture books with teens.

EXPLORING FAIRY TALES ACROSS CULTURES

Discussion:

A.     Read Domitila: A Cinderella Tale from the Mexican Tradition (a picture book by Jewell Reinhart Coburn)

B.     Ask groups of students to research various Cinderella tales from other cultures. A good starting place might be The Classic Fairy Tales by Iona and Peter Opie. Compare and Contrast the different versions and discuss the influence of culture and the impact of the Cinderella tale on contemporary books and films.

C.     Discuss cultural implications of comparativist labeling of fairy tale motifs—ie. when you call it a Cinderella tale you immediately elevate one element of the story and subsume others.

Writing Activity:

1. Ask students to create their own Cinderella story in picture book form, or explore a variety of genres by assigning different formats for different students (i.e. poem, script, comic book, news release, essay).
2. Tell students to write for a specific audience and to adjust their vocabulary and word choice accordingly (i.e. preschool child, middle school poetry class, high school literary journal). 
3. Ask students to fracture the common motifs of the Cinderella story across gender or class lines.

MAKING HISTORY COME ALIVE

Discussion:

1. Read Sadako, the picture book version by Eleanor Coerr, and then compare it to the same story with the same text told as a short chapter book.

Sadako is the story of a young girl who suffers from leukemia as a result of radiation exposure after the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of WWII.

1.  Read about the Atomic Bombs in the Dorling Kindersley reference World War II. This 336 page text is a beautiful example of the trend in non-fiction picture books.
2. Discuss the difference between a straight non-fiction resource like the DK

book, and narrative accounts (whether non-fiction or fiction). You may also want to bring in other WWII stories such as The Diary of Anne Frank.

Writing Activity:

1. Have students choose a time period they want to research (or assign address a time period being covered in the current history curriculum.
2. Choose a character (real of fictitious) from that time period.
3. Write a first person narrative about the character.

Note: In addition to addressing the writing and editing benchmarks already discussed, this activity addresses a host of social studies objectives.

LITERARY ELEMENTS/GENRE STUDIES

Because picture books are often (though not always) shorter than novels, a broader scope of different literary elements may be discussed in a shorter period of time using a greater number or resources and variety of examples

The Spider and the Fly by Tony DiTerlizzi (based on the tale by Mary Howitt)

The black and white illustrations in this dark and foreboding retell of the Howitt poem, create an almost film noir mood. The Fly, the character driving the action of this story, is the villain, which provides an opportunity to discuss the sometimes confusing distinction between protagonist and antagonist. The Dragonfly dies at the end of the story – a good example of a not so happily ever after resolution.

Activity:  Ask students to choose another classic poem and illustrate it in picture book form. Put the Spider on trial for the murder of the Fly. Write a compare/contrast essay exploring the two main characters.

Manneken Pis: The Simple Story of a Boy Who Peed on a War by Vladimir Radunsky

Tells the story of the statue in Brussels by that name. The voice is strong and carries momentum, with satirical undertones that seem to imply authorial opinion in the telling of the story. The page turn is used as a device to create suspense. The story arrives in the present abruptly on the final page, when the art also changes substantially in medium, form and use of space on the page.

Activity:  Maneken Pis can be said to be a pour quoi tale relative to an art object—the story of how that object came to be. Create a pour quoi tale about a natural or art object in your landscape. What is the tone of your storyteller’s voice? What is the mood of your story?

Flotsam by David Wiesner

Exemplifies the special role of wordless books in demonstrating the progression of story. What is shown? What is left out and why? Visual elements are always strong in picture books in how they foreshadow what is to come or direct the eye. The picture is the clear result of the artist’s viewpoint choice. Flotsam accomplishes this through its literal use of a camera’s eye view.

Activity: Assign differing viewpoints (1^st person, 3^rd limited, 3^rd objective, 3^rd omniscient) to tell the story of FLOTSAM. No coincidence that students from film schools across the country competed to create a trailer for the book, back when trailers weren’t as common as they are now: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/video/podcast/episode3_flotsam.m4v

Black and White by David Macaulay

Intertextual elements, freeplay and the lack of centrally coherent story make this as much a postmodern book as Paul Auster’s City of Glass or Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. But because the container of the picture book is smaller, concepts related to postmodern texts are easier to grasp and understand relative to Macaulay’s temporally fascinating book in which characters slip in and out of each other’s stories and the entire structure depends on the reader to create meaning.

Activity: Discuss what is stated in Black and White and what is left unsaid. The idea of elision or purposeful withholding shows up in the space between the storylines, where slippage occurs and the narrative wheels into a different dimension. This is complex material, ripe for adolescent minds that can grasp its complications but can also appreciate its playfulness. B & W, published in 1990, uses some of the tools of graphic novels—frames, banner text—to quadruple the space traditional available on a picture book spread to tell a story.

Waiting for Mama by Lee Tae-Jun Illus by Kim Dong-Seong

The 2-page spreads in this classic 1938 Korean-English bilingual picture book illustrate shifting viewpoint, character development, the construction of scene and sequel, and story arc, as well as more complicated concepts such as rhyming action and the shifting of power between adult characters and child protagonist.

For a list of books cited and to see Uma’s 7-point analysis system, visit her blog by going to her blog.

Historical figures make interesting characters for stories. Their lives are rich and complex. When an author writes a story about person from history, they don’t usually cover that person’s entire life. They choose a dramatic high point and build the story around that event.

For this month’s writing activity, research a person from history. Decide what key event from their life to focus on, and use that as the climax of the story. Then build your plot toward this high point. If you want to get really creative, you might throw in a vampire or a zombie.

http://spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com

TAKE ME THERE by Carolee Dean

Book Trailer

Dylan: 17, tall, dark, handsome, well built but thuggish.

Jess: 17, pretty, long red or brunette hair if possible. Rich and unattainable.

PART ONE

PART TWO

                                                PART THREE

THE END

GAME WORLD                                                                  Name: _________________________

Introduction: – The Set Up: Write 1-3 sentences describing the hero, his everyday world, the call to adventure and what prize the hero will be pursuing in the Game World.

Crossing: In order to enter the Game World, the hero must cross over from the ordinary world, but something is trying to stop him. The good news is that there is a Guide who will help him by giving him special Gifts. Write 1-3 sentences describing 1) the vehicle the hero uses to cross into the new world, 2) what is trying to stop him, and 3) who is going to help him.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The New World is a mysterious and dangerous place. Our hero must get what he came for and then get out as quickly as possible but he is going to have to pass through several levels of the Game World before he can get the Prize and leave. Each level will be increasing more difficult. Explain the challenges he will face at each level below:

Level 1: ___________________________________________________________________

Level 2: ___________________________________________________________________

Level 3: ___________________________________________________________________

Level 4: ___________________________________________________________________

The Final Challenge: _________________________________________________________

Reward: ___________________________________________________________________

I wrote an article for the January issue of the Spellbinders newsletter 

http://spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com. about a special Movie Club that I run after school with two of my colleagues. The club is designed for students on the autsim spectrum, but the Movie Critic’s Checklist that we created can be used with anyone. For more information about the Movie Club, visit the Spellbinders site after 1/7/11.

Movie:_______________________                                          Movie Rating:_____

Rate Yourself As a Critic:____________

Directions: Rate your performance on each of the following using a scale of 1-5.

Aim for 4-5’s on 16 items for a total of 65-80 points.

Movie Critic’s Checklist

TRANSFORMERS #1

In any well-written story a character grows and changes as a result of the events that take place in the story. The outward changes that occur are easy to see. Cinderella dresses like a peasant at the beginning of the story; then she receives a magical gown and shoes and goes to the ball looking like a princess.

The inward transformation is harder to observe. When the clock strikes midnight, Cinderella runs away because she is embarrassed by her rags, but at the end of the story she is willing to face everyone in her tattered clothes and claim her right to try on the glass slipper. She goes from being timid and self-conscious to bold and self-assured.

Make a list of things from nature that Transform into other things:

Caterpillars turn into butterflies

Tadpoles turn into frogs

Eggs hatch into chicks

Seeds become trees

Rivers evaporate into clouds which eventually become rivers again

Choose one item from the list and write a short story or children’s book telling the process of how the transformation takes place. For an example you may want to read, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

TRANSFORMERS #2

Make a list of objects that turn into other objects or have dual uses:

Cars that turn into robots

Pens that are actually secret cameras

A sofa that turns into a bed

A bookcase that is also a secret doorway

A seat cushion that doubles as a flotation device

Create a character. Then choose one item from the list and write a paragraph describing how your character finds the object and discovers that it has multiple uses.

TRANSFORMERS #3

Make a list of creatures that people can turn into:

Vampires

Werewolves

Zombies

Ghosts

1)      Create a hero and give the hero a best friend.

2)      Choose a creature from the list and pretend that the hero’s best friend turns into that creature.

3)      Next think of three things the hero can do to try to change his friend back.

4)      Write a story where the hero’s first two attempts fail and the last one succeeds.

5)      Try to put an unexpected twist at the end of the story. 

The best way to keep a story going is to set up a PRIZE to be won or PROBLEM to be solved and then think up at least three obstacles that get in the way of the hero attaining the prize or solving the problem. These obstacles may all be related events that build upon one another, or they may be unrelated events that take the main character off in a totally different direction with each difficulty encountered.

Make a list of simple goals such as going to the kitchen for a peanut butter sandwich, catching the bus for school, turning in a homework assignment.

Next, create at least three obstacles that prevent the main character from attaining the goal. These difficulties are completely made up, which may make them seem like illusions, but good storytellers make the story so engaging that we forget we’re being fooled.

After you create your goal and your obstacles, go back and write an introduction describing the character and setting. Then expand on your three attempts to attain the prize. Finally, write a conclusion. What is the REWARD? Does the character get what he was after? You’re the story teller. You get to decide.

Imagine an ordinary person like yourself starting out in an ordinary setting, such as the place where you live. Describe your city or town and then go from there. Sometimes it’s actually harder to describe your own world because it seems so familiar and boring, but imagine that you are describing it to a pen pal from another country or to an alien visiting from another planet.

It may be helpful to start with something interesting about your hometown. For instance, is there anything that happens on a yearly basis? Even tiny towns have Pinto Bean Festivals, Pinto Bean Queens, and Parades. Does anything special happen on the Fourth of July? Is there a winter festival in December?

I live in Albuquerque, NM, and one of my favorite times of year is autumn. You can feel the crispness in the air with the change of seasons and smell the green chiles roasting all over town. Huge trucks full of chiles park at random places throughout town and you can buy the hot peppers by the bushel. They roast them there as you wait and the aroma is heavinly.

Two weekends ago was the apple harvest at Dixon’s Apple Orchard, situated in the mountains of New Mexico, near the Cochiti Pueblo. My husband and I stood in line for an hour waiting to get apples, but it was worth it. When we got home my daughter helped work the apple-peeler-corer-slicer and we made pies, pastries, and fried apple rings.

Last weekend we went to the Grower’s market downtown where people were selling everything from homegrown corn to handmade soap and purses made out of blue jean pockets. I bought twelve ears of corn and was dissapointed to discover that every ear had a worm in it. I just cut off the ends and boiled the corn and it was perfect.

Right now the International Balloon Fiesta is happening. Hundreds of hot air balloons take off every morning and you never know when one will land behind your house or on the school soccer field.

Think about the place where you live and write a paragraph describing a special event that happens there every year. Then put a character in the middle of that event, and see what happens.

The end of a story is often referred to as the denouement, which means to untie the knot in Old French. This is a time to tie up loose ends and answer questions. Some stories have a quick or surprise ending without a denouement. Other writers give lengthy explanations tying up every loose end. Have you ever finished watching a movie or reading a book and said, “I hated that ending?” It may be because you felt it ended too quickly, or the opposite, maybe it felt like the story went on and on. Have you ever thought of ways you wished the story had ended?

Now is your chance to do something about it. Write an alternate ending. For example, what would have happened if the story of Cinderella had ended tragically and one of her stepsisters had ended up with the prince? Would she have married the stable boy? What if Romeo and Juliet had lived? Would they have ended up with a house in the suburbs? Imagine a marriage counseling session after they’ve been married for ten years and they’re rehashing old grievances. Maybe Juliet still can’t get over Romeo killing her cousin. Maybe’s he’s upset that he married so young and never went to college.

So here’s your chance- make a comedy into a tragedy, or vice versa.

visit http://spellbindersbooknews.blogspot.com to read this month’s issue of the educational newsletter and my column “The Secret Language of Stories.”

DIAMANTE POEMS

One of the things that make stories really interesting to us is the opportunity to watch characters grow and change. Stories, like Cinderella, that have withstood the test of time to become great classics, are usually stories focused upon this type of transformation. This month we will explore using a diamante poem to demonstrate this type of character change.

A diamante poem is usually six lines in length and is shaped like a diamond. This form is discussed in detail in A New Poetry Form: The Diamanteby Iris Tiedt.

The first and last lines of the diamante are each a one-word noun. Lines two and six consist of two adjectives. The third and fifth lines are comprised of three verbs each. The fourth (middle) line is a sentence connecting the two nouns.

For our purposes the top half of the poem will signify what the main character is like at the beginning of the story. The second half of the poem will show what he is like at the end, and the sentence in the middle will describe how this transition takes place. We will also take a bit more latitude and use more than one sentence(line), or even a paragraph, if desired.

The following example is from Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi.

Peasant

Timid         Afraid

Running        Hiding       Cowering

He discovers that he is the son of the ruthless Lord Furnival, and

he decides to use this information to help free his friend, Bear.

Plotting       Confronting        Rescuing

Brave       Daring

Freeman

Now have fun writing a diamante of your own!