This Picture Book Life

guest post by sophy henn! elements of an A+ picture book: Henri’s Walk to Paris

03.26.2015

Remember when I did a post on Where Bear? and dissected how it made such a perfect picture book? Well now, its creator (and all around lovely, talented, generous person), Sophy Henn, is back to look at a classic picture book and tell us what makes it A+ from an illustrator’s perspective. I’m so delighted to have her take!

Over to Sophy!

I have bounced around from book to book trying to settle on one to talk about for this, my very first guest blog post ever! I truly love picture books, and still can’t believe I am lucky enough to work in the industry. I have to confess to avoiding current picture books as much as possible. There are so many utterly beautiful books out there, it can be a bit intimidating!

So when choosing a book to talk about, I looked to the classics, then to my book shelf, then wildly around various book shops and then back to my book shelf. I narrowed it down to two, then changed that two a few times, and after a quick round of eeny meeny miney mo, here we have my choice for discussion…

Henri’s Walk to Paris. Illustrated by Saul Bass, Story by Leonore Klein (first published 1962; republished 2012).

SETTING THE MOOD / OPENING CREDITS
A bold and sparse cover can be such a delight when seeking out a book amidst the jam packed jostle of the picture book shelves. Henri‘s Walk to Paris certainly has that clean graphic quality of many of Bass’s film posters, but gives us enough information to draw us in.

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The cover, endpapers and title page work together to create the opening credits of the story, like one of Bass’ film title sequences, with the same simple shapes, heavy text and strong sense of movement.

MINIMAL USE OF IMAGERY / GIVING US SPACE FOR IMAGINING!

The opening spread warms us up to Henri’s interest in things outside his immediate existence.. Henri is an inquisitive and curious child, gobbling up all this praise of Paris, so of course…who wouldn’t want to live there?

But his pink feet poking out at the bottom of the huge book he’s reading give us a visual clue as to where all this information will lead!

It is the second spread that really lays the foundations of Henri, our main character, and of the book’s visual language. He has big ideas but also strong roots and through the simplest of shapes and the clearest of copy, we understand this immediately.

It is already apparent that this book has a clear narrative and strong, direct imagery, but there is much left to our imagination, lots of space to fill in the gaps. What does Henri look like? What do Henri’s friends look like? What does anyone look like? (Marvelously we tend to only see people’s feet through the book – another nod to walking.)

I really enjoy picture books that leave room for the reader to invent and explore, and this is a wonderful and quite extreme example of that. Though the images in Henri’s Walk to Paris reflect the text, it’s the boldness of the layouts that give the images their punch. Which brings me to…

CONTRASTING LAYOUTS TO EMPHASISE DIFFERENCE

Henri is from the small town of Reboul and is rather excited by Paris with its hustle and bustle. When telling his friends of their differences, the simple but utterly effective layouts convey this completely, in a visual language a child would clearly understand, well traveled or not!

ONWARDS

So, back to The Walk. Henri decides he really must visit this Paris, so, as any practical child would, he packs a lunch and leaves.

Klein acknowledges a child’s solution to a problem in often the most direct way with this part of the story line. Something I am in complete agreement with.

THE READER KNOWS MORE THAN THE PROTAGONIST

Through a wonderful striped spread (again very reminiscent of Bass’s animated film credits), we see how Henri is unwittingly about-turned, and starts walking back the way he came, none the wiser.

How deliciously empowering for a child to now watch the rest of the story unfold in on the secret that our lead character is blissfully unaware of.

So now Henri, who has been moving consistently from left to right in our story is now moving from right to left. Sometimes the simplest visual clues are the most effective.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

And as Henri passes through familiar and sometimes identical spreads from the beginning of the book we know we are coming ‘home,’ though through a clever and literal twist Henri does not. Even when he sees familiar feet! How satisfying to come full circle, even if our protagonist doesn’t realise!

Bass’s use of type in his final spread leaves us in no doubt as to the theme of this book: Home! What does home really mean? Family, friends, a sense of familiarity and good soup on the stove mean home to Henri, and who wouldn’t be happy with that?

There is a directness to Klein’s writing that I really love; her clarity matches Bass’s . They both seem to distil what they want to convey down to the minimum and as someone who also likes to do that (advertising background again!) there is always the risk the book will appear too sparse, cold even. But by putting home, with the love and comfort that represents, at the heart of this book we have a wonderfully warm story with a gentle humour that bounces between the words and the text, succinctly reminding us (like another foot-focused story), there’s no place like home!

Thank you Sophy, for your willingness to guest blog and to offer so many wonderful insights into what makes this picture book tick! What an honor to have you here.

Sophy’s next book, POM POM GETS THE GRUMPS will be out in the U.S. in December and is out in the UK now!

david small’s picture book life

their picture book life

03.24.2015

David Small. There are six pages of his books in my library’s online catalog and that doesn’t include all of them. He’s an illustrator and an author and he’s been working in the field of children’s books for over 30 years.

He’s from Michigan. He has an MFA from Yale’s Graduate School of Art. His work has appeared in places like The New Yorker and the NY Times. He’s won two Caldecott honors and a Medal (The Gardener and One Cool Friend; So You Want to Be President, respectively).

His graphic memoir, Stitches, was a finalist for the National Book Award. It’s hauntingly good and true and sad and hopeful. I loved it and can’t recommend it highly enough.

His first picture book was Eulalie and the Hopping Head.

Small and his wife, writer Sarah Stewart, have partnered on a number of picture books. This is a great article about that development and their mutual esteem.

He’s also collaborated with kidlit greats like Jane Yolen.

From One Cool Friend.

There’s a loose and carefree quality in Small’s work, which is done in watercolor, pen, ink, and pastel. His lines are prominent and masterful.

From The Gardener.

Even in the saddest illustrations, there’s often a hint of joy or, always, humanity. That’s the word that most comes to mind for me when I consider Small’s illustrations. Humanity.

From Imogene’s Antlers.

He does humor or poignancy well and his illustrations have a classic, timeless quality; they can look old or new.

From Elsie’s Bird.

From The Quiet Place.

From Glamourpuss.

I posted about it here. I love how personal the story was for Small and how it portrays a girl whose family doesn’t “get” her strange affliction, but she’s okay with it. (Brings to mind the very recent, Hug Me, in that way.)

One Cool Friend by Toni Buzzeo, pictures by David Small. These characters are two of my favorite picture book pairs.

The Library by Sarah Stewart, pictures by David Small. Ahhh. This is a book for book lovers. A classic.

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart, pictures by David Small, a great example of one of Stewart’s epistolary stories.

The Quiet Place by Sarah Stewart, pictures by David Small. Another beautiful story told through letters.

Glamourpuss by Sarah Weeks, pictures by David Small just came out and is hilarious! My favorite spread is the second one, in which Small has included a couple of black and white photographs that fit the outrageous mood of Glamourpuss’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. Highhorsen, perfectly!

Check out my last Their Picture Book Life feature on Sophie Blackall too! (I go girl, boy, girl, boy in case you were wondering.)

writegirl in los angeles

DISPATCH FROM DANIELLE

03.19.2015

I’ve posted about how I volunteer once a month or so with Reading to Kids here in Los Angeles where we read picture books to elementary school students and craft with them. So while it’s not about my picture book life per se, I wanted to spread the word now about another wonderful literacy organization I’ve been volunteering with this year: WriteGirl.

“WriteGirl is a creative writing and mentoring organization that promotes creativity, critical thinking and leadership skills to empower teen girls.”

It’s all about girls and writing. Girls empowered through getting words on the page.

It has many components, but the main ones I’ve been involved with are weekly mentoring and monthly writing workshops. It’s been pretty amazing to work with a teen girl on a regular basis, one who blows my mind with her insight and natural talent. And the workshops are a chance to see the wide array of girls in the program, their varied voices and spirits. It’s a privilege.

Women are paired with girls as writing mentors. We meet once a week or so with our mentees to talk and write and share our writing. To encourage. To explore. To explain. To expand.

Pretty cool, right?

Plus, there are a dozen workshops through the school year on Saturdays. Workshops on journalism, memoir, songwriting(!), fiction, poetry, comedy, you name it. And women come and talk to the girls and help lead the writing activity-filled days. Special guests are women in the news business whose names you might recognize. Successful songwriters for pop stars. A wonderful champion of poetry in L.A.

But the real draw is that the girls are guided through a day of writing. Their words. Their stories. And at the close of every workshop, some of them read snippets aloud to the whole group. It’s moving and incredible to see them speak.

“Never underestimate the power of a girl and her pen.”

Every WriteGirl who graduates high school goes to college. Michelle Obama honored the organization with National Arts and Humanities Youth Program award. One of the girls is the first Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. WriteGirl publishes anthologies of the girls’ work so they get a taste of publication. There’s a program that reaches out to girls in schools and juvenile detention centers. But most importantly, there are women helping girls and girls being together and girls writing. That’s WriteGirl.

Keren Taylor, Founder and Executive Director is standing in the middle there. She’s also been featured as a CNN Hero!

If you’re in L.A., Skylight Books is holding a WriteGirl reading this Saturday, March 21st!

And pretty soon, the annual poetry drive will start up. You can purchase a poem written by a teen girl to support the organization! Stay tuned in their newsletter.

Is there anything like WriteGirl where you live?

viva frida + frida kahlo peg doll

PICTURE BOOKS +

03.16.2015

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales, photography by Tim O’Meara (2014).

Morales has done something bold and extraordinary here. She’s created a book about Frida Kahlo, but instead of tackling her personal or artistic biography, she does something more unusual.

She strips away those details and gets at the core of Frida and tells that story. The woman. The artist. The creator. A woman who knew suffering and thus had great capacity for feeling. And, according to this rendering, she used those feelings to create.

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All that in just a few words scattered over the pages (both in English and Spanish).

A few words that capture the strength of this woman. The force.

But there are autobiographical details sprinkled throughout, visual ones. The pet monkey, Fulang-Chang. The wounded deer, like the ones she would paint her own head upon. Diego.

And I haven’t yet mentioned the art itself! It’s (primarily) photographed puppets! Puppets!! Stop motion dolls that are dazzling and cute and full of joy and life.

Yes, life. This is a book about the life of an artist. And it does an incredible job of capturing her distinct spirit. Violence and melancholy are noticeably absent from this depiction, but for me anyway, it’s almost like the creative process dwarfs those elements. In creating is the place of joy and freedom from suffering. In creating is life.

Thanks to Neal Porter Books for images!

(Here’s my post on Morales’s Niño Wrestles the World!)

As soon as I saw Kellie from The Kaleidosocope’s picture book inspired peg dolls (Flora and the Flamingo; Max from Where the Wild Things Are), I knew I wanted to collaborate with her! And by collaborate, I mean she makes a wonderful doll and I put up the pictures she takes!

A doll is a perfect companion to this book, full of doll-puppets. And isn’t it wonderful? Beautiful with a hint of darkness. Like Frida herself.

You can pre-order one from Kellie here! I hope you will.

Kellie graduated with a BFA in Fine Arts and minored in Child Development. She studied children’s literature and has always had a deep fondness for picture books. As a mom to four little boys, she gets to indulge and share this love of reading and illustrations.

When she isn’t reading, Kellie spends her time in the woods of British Columbia with her kids or painting wooden dolls.

Here is her shop with her other peg dolls and some fabulous pencils you’ll want to check out.

And here is her personal Instagram with kid and doll adventures.

home by carson ellis + her illustration work

PICTURE BOOKS +

03.10.2015

home-carson-ellis Home by Carson Ellis (2015).

This. Picture. Book.

It explores homes. All kinds.

It seamlessly moves from country to city to sea. And then it travels to faraway homes, to unusual homes, to homes of animals and even fairy tale characters.

All of it portrayed through the most beautiful, majestic artwork. Hints of an old world and new. Flora and fauna and textures. Pink noses and rosy cheeks. The most wonderful details. The smoothest, matte paper.

The color palette, earthy tones with pops of red is just gorgeous.

There are homes we know.

Homes we’ve heard of.

Imagined homes.

Homes we can’t even imagine.

French homes. Atlantians’ homes. A Kenyan blacksmith’s home. A Slovakian duchess’s.

It starts and ends with Carson Ellis’s own home. And Carson Ellis in it. And not to be missed is that mourning dove that carries us through the book, that leaves its nest-home on the title page and makes appearances here and there. That bird is our guide, our proxy.

And one of my favorite things? This book asks questions. It doesn’t have all the answers about all the homes. Some of them are mysterious, for us to decide.

This is a book to behold.

To snuggle into, to make yourself at home in.

Carson Ellis’s work has been on my radar for a few years via her middle grade novel covers/illustrations and her work for the Decemberists (aka her husband’s band; he’s the writer of Wildwood too). You may have already known her work too. Here’s some of her stuff to admire!