Deanna’s Wonder-book

I sketched/painted this. In my mind it represents Mary looking off from her own painful life and watching this other dark, messy, colorful story unfold, that of which she is subconsciously the main character of (the monster?). Or maybe she is looking toward her creation to escape it to find healing? I don’t know. I originally wanted to paint the monster above her eyes, but that quickly became blobs of blue and purple which can be whatever you want it to be, really.

This is exercise 4 of the activity section in Hello Ruby. It was fun to put all the little parts together. Now I look at my laptop and imagine what’s under my keyboard to look like this LOL

This is Exercise 4 of the Hello Ruby build your computer. I thought this book was very interesting because Liukas took a complicated subject, computer programming, and tried to simplify it for a young audience. Not only did the artwork contribute to an innocent understanding of programming, but the exercises in the back allow young readers to participate in a complicated subject at their level!

Throughout Peter Pan, there are wonderful elements in the story that reminds me of magic, whimsical creations, and a child’s imagination.  Barrie writes with the mind of a child and I think it contributes a lot to the story and how it would engage a young reader quite easily.  But despite the magic seen, especially, in the quote above, Barrie also writes with caution.  Although the idea of never growing up sounds amazing, we can notice in the story that the characters are somewhat miserable.  The lost boys complain of missing their mother, and so do the pirates as well, which was fascinating to me.  Although I’m sure there are more themes than what I see currently, I get the sense that Barrie is telling the readers that never growing up isn’t all that.  I wonder why Barrie wrote a book like this with it’s theme being a pretty alarming one. Is it due to Barrie’s childhood?  

Reading J.M. Barrie’s version of Peter Pan, is the first time I have ever read Peter Pan. I have only seen the movie maybe once or twice and never was a huge fan of it. When I began reading this version, I was extremely confused. I kept having to reread certain parts to make out what was happening and even then I was left with slight confusion. Since it has been so long since I have seen Peter Pan, I forgot that it was Wendy’s mother who originally knew who he was. I am still unsure on that? I also found it weird that Peter and his shadow could be removed from each other and that Mrs. Darling was wanting to save the shadow to show her husband. I do not remember the significance of the shadow but I am hoping as we continue further along, that I will find out why it is important. 

PS I love this image @alexismmarcantel 

In this excerpt from E. Nesbit’s “The Magic City”, I absolutely love the way Nesbit inserts herself into the story. I find it super playful and it really makes it feel like there is a story being told you, and not just that you’re reading a long periodical. Also, it provides a functional purpose, to prepare the reader for the division of the story plots.

This is an excerpt from “The Magic City” by E Nesbit. I loved this part of the story where Nesbit uses small font to portray a quieter and smaller voice coming the tiny man figurine that comes to life. This is an example of how the use of just a simple formating can add so much life to a story.  

I found it interesting the Potter chose to format her book in a nonlinear way. It seems as if she is not really ending the story at all but keeping it in a kind of loop. The end is the beginning and the beginning is the end, which makes it compelling to keep reading. 

Children also tend to read the same book again and again so yeah, I like this idea of a loop . . . 

So after reading this particular quote I was reminded of the constant illustrations in Lon Po Po and Hyman’s LRRH. Although written many years apart, I couldn’t help but think that neither Hyman or Ed Young left room to “pause and understand the interactions between picture and text”. Each page of each book was covered in color and illustrations, and in the case of LRRH, there was no white space at all. But I think in both of these books, the endeavor to connect illustrations with the story was successful, regardless of the lack of white space. I think that perhaps the lack of white space, giving time to contemplate the story without a picture, is to represent the urgency and violence of it all. 

So earlier this week I was wondering about why Hyman chose to draw Little Red reading her own story. After reading more about it, we now know that Hyman retold that story in comparison to her own life. Hyman explained that LRRH was the first book she was capable of reading on her own as a child, and that her grandmother even made her a red cloak like Red Riding Hoods. Now I believe that it can be argued that the picture above isn’t Red Riding Hood reading her own story, but Hyman as a child reading another older version of Little Red Riding Hood.

In the introduction of The Red Riding Hood readings, I found this particular quote to be interesting because it reminds the reader that one of the reasons that Little Red Riding Hood has developed so many times over the years is to entertain a developing society. As society’s children continue to evolve, so does the way they process information and emotions, leading writers to update the way they tell stories with so called “morals”. 

I thought the way Ed Young did the dedication page was interesting. Upon first looking at the image, it looks like a wolf; however after looking more closely, it somewhat resembles a man. The parts in white on the right side look like a face, and an arm. It seems that Young is trying to warn young girls to be aware of the some men, and to watch out for the cliché “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” 

Young writes that wolves lend “their good name” for “our darkness.” Isn’t Young also apologizing to wolves then? Does this make us read the text differently (at least as adults)? And if this is our darkness, what does that mean/imply?