Harold and the Purple Crayon

My apologies for the long delay. Work and school have united against me to keep me away from any normal social activities for the time being. That being said I have an annotation of A Picture for Harold's Room by Crockett Johnson to tide you over until I post about meeting author Fred Bowen, responsible for several series of children's fictional sports books.

Johnson, Crokett. A Picture for Harold's Room. United States: Harper & Row, 1960. Print.

• A Picture for Harold’s Room is fit for a level one, first-grade reading level audience, and chronicles Harold’s experimental drawings across his bedroom wall. This book fulfills Margaret Jenses’ criteria for an effective and well written easy reader utilizing rhythm, repetition, vocabulary, clear context, and picture clues. Crockett also utilizes good spacing between each word and a broad use of white space to maximize the reader's eye span. There is minimal rhythm and repetition in the text: "He could not wade home through the ocean / He could not climb those high mountains" (48-49). Most of the text falls under Margaret Jenses' recommendation of a five to seven word limit per line, but sometimes Crockett exceeds this. The text is displayed solely across the bottom of the page. Reflected above it is Harold illustrating the text with purple crayon sketches. By having a character illustrate the story this demonstrates how the concepts of a church, town, a sea, a ship, and a lighthouse are viewed from a young child's perspective.

• There is a clear and chronological context within the story as the plot progresses with Harold finding different ways to draw his way through a town, the mountains, the grass, and finally to his room. Crockett's most advanced innovation with this book is his variations in perspective. Throughout the story Harold changes sizes in comparison with his surroundings. At one point he is a giant, bigger than a town. In another scene he is smaller than a bird and realizes that he is not his usual size. The story concludes with Harold drawing himself back to his normal size and hints at more mature implications about how small or big a child may feel in comparison with the world. Overall, this book is appropriate for beginner readers and still remains popular today.

A few days ago I picked up a book called The Lit Report by Sarah N. Harvey and I'm only a few pages in. I am hooked. This book about a girl growing up in a Christian school whilst harboring a love for classical literature takes me back to my childhood days, except for the Christian school part. I'm not that far into it yet so I'll report more when I've finished it.

Also on the "To Do" list, compare and contrast two types of YA books on Polygamous communities: Sister Wife and The Chosen One.

Until next time!

Quite a Shock

I had only heard the odd comment here and there of attempts to challenge and ban Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl. When I picked it up a few days ago from the library I had not expected the destitute and graphic narrative within the text that, once I devoured in one sitting last night at 2 am, I swore would give me nightmares.

Once you are pulled into "Alice's" world, a nightmare in which she has spent the last five years living with and being abused by the man who kidnapped her, you wish you'd never been taken there. The brief book is a front row seat into Alice's pain and lack of help from any neighbors or caring strangers to report her captor. You also see into her captor's, Ray's, head about how the cycle of abuse began with his mother and transferred into his serial kidnapping of little girls, threatening to murder their families should they run away, his attempts to preserve their "innocent little girl" image, and his irateness when they start to grow up.

Alice is a hollow shell whose only wish is to be unfeeling and freed from her "living death". I quoted the process of reading this book to someone to day as comparable to scraping open your skin, pouring rubbing alcohol onto it, and then setting it on fire.

My boyfriend calls me crazy for reading this stuff and is very surprised how I'm not depressed by it. I survived reading a collection of Holocaust literature for children and Young Adults last semester and thought I was prepared for anything. I had also read my fair share of sexual abuse and rape books (courtesy of Ellen Hopkins), but nothing prepared me for the waking nightmare that is Living Dead Girl.

I would not recommend it for everyone, especially the faint of heart.

I think by seeing the road where Alice has traveled and escaped from that help can be given to real girls in her situation.

Annotation Wednesday

A bit of author news. Sarah Dessen will be at the Politics and Prose Bookstore on Friday, October 9th to promote her new book, Along for the Ride. Hopefully I will be able to make it

It has hereby been declared annotation Wednesday so I give you my review of an ABC book.

MacDonald, Suse. Alphabatics. New York: Bradbury Press, 1986. Print.

• MacDonald’s unique way of retelling and relating the alphabet to young readers involves depicting each letter of the alphabet graphically transform into an object, or animal beginning with that letter. Repetition of this pattern guides readers through each letter of the alphabet from Ark to Zebra. MacDonald’s minimal layout makes good use of the page’s white space, placing an uppercase and lowercase letter, depicted in straight lines and bold colors, near the top of the page. The letter’s primary color is mirrored on the following page, identifying the name of the animal or object the letter has become. Secondly, MacDonald depicts the letter in a secondary, contrasting color which is also mirrored on the next page to illustrate the new animal or object, which is depicted with curved lines. This provides a connection between the letter and the objects and helps readers better comprehend MacDonald’s illustrations. Each small box that contains a letter represents a single frame of the transformation, indicating motion and action, as well as moving the directing the reader’s attention to follow the animated letter as it flies and bends. MacDonald’s co-dependent text and illustrations drive the reader to recognize and apply the connection between the illustrations and the text.
  

• MacDonald’s transition from straight lined letters to curved lined animals relates to the mood of the book, transitioning from formal and stiff to fun and playful. Her illustration style uses realism and graphics to realistically depict animals and objects. The mood is likewise upbeat and fun, giving readers a new way to learn the alphabet. MacDonald’s book is very educational for young readers learning the alphabet as she encourages them to use their critical thinking skills as opposed to manipulating simple object identification to teach the alphabet.

Perceptions

In class yesterday we were speaking about fantasy and I heard a lot of people say they weren't interested in it because they thought it was all the same, it revolved around the same basic plot, or that they thought fantasy and science fiction were synonymous.

Our mutual concurrence as a class was that those readers hadn't read very good fantasy

I couldn't wrap my head around this. Star Wars + LOTR is the same? Surely not!

As a librarian, I hope to dispel this misconception.

Shan and Sendak

While waiting for Zombieland to begin the theatre showed an extended trailer for Where the Wild Things Are along with an collaborative interview with Maurice Sendak and Spike Jones. I'm so curious but skeptical about seeing this movie. Sendak appears to have given his blessing for it so I'll wait and see what the reviews say.

Also on my list to catch in the next few months is Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant. I am very excited about this movie mostly because of the list of actors slated to appear in it: Selma Hayek, Willem Defoe nearly impersonating Vincent Price, and John C. Reilly. I haven't read the first installment of the series in ages. I was an avid follower of this series as a college student but Shan keeps cranking them out so quickly I've fallen behind. The rumor is that this movie will be based upon the first three books with four sequels comprising the rest of the 12 books.

Annotation Thursday --or-- It's October!

In retrospect of a recent assignment in my Children's Literature class where we're supposed to annotate a collection of fairy tales, I've decided to dress up as a Hans Christian Andersen character for Halloween. Plotting and previewing will come soon enough. Here's hoping I can do it justice.

But it's time for another Annotation where I review Anotinette Portis' follow-up to Not a Box, Not a Stick.

Portis, Anotinette. Not a Stick. Illus by author. United States: HarpersCollins, 2008. Print.

• Portis’ follow-up to her 2006 publication, Not a Box, uses similar illustrative and story-telling techniques. The cover art displays a faux wooden background, indicating the stick’s origin and possibly hinting at a tree’s role in the bookmaking process. The story’s protagonist, an imaginative pig, has a repetitive dialogue with an invisible speaker who continually asks him to be careful playing with his stick. When the invisible speaker interjects the italicized text is positioned at the top of the page, while the pig’s straight-lined words are positioned on the lower half of the page. This shows the reader that two different people are speaking. The pages switch from white text on a dull, brown background to a soothing blue and bright yellow background every time the speaker and the pig speak, respectively. The brown background reveals the speaker’s serious tone and his unimaginative perspective. However, when the pig is speaking the background is a bright yellow with light colored lines to denote his optimistic and dream-like imaginings as he plays with his stick. The pig is drawn with heavy, bold lines while each object the stick becomes is outlined in heavy, blue lines; but the reader can always see the stick housed within the new object.

• Portis portrays the pig and his stick (morphing into a whip, marching baton, fishing pole, paintbrush, barbell, spear, sword, and leash) with realism and an imaginative, surrealistic twist. For example, the stick is both used as a fishing pole and as a leash to lead a conquered dragon by the neck. The pig’s character is meant to relate to the reader and represent a child’s ability to imagine and have several different perspectives on an object. Portis transforms a simple stick into a multifunctional tool and inspires the reader to create their own “not a stick”.