A cautionary tale ... whatever

But

Front cover

A colleague told me about Whatever by William Bee, and when it arrived, sometime over the summer holidays, I immediately took to its clever simplicity.  I laughed outloud on the first read, then returned slowly to take in the different parts and look carefully at the illustrations.  

Anyone remember those silly tales about boys who ran away from their nurses, and were eaten by lions or girls who told lies and were burned to death? 19th century children's literature at its best and probably the most well known collection, Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc, is still available in ever more modern editions. Whatever has that cautionary tale feel to it, and a lovely retro look too.  

Our protangonist stands, arms outstretched, on the front cover.  He's dressed like a miniature business man, and you can just imagine the kind of child he is ... prim and proper and ever so annoying. 

Back and front covers

If you open out the book, you'll find the back cover is the mirror image of the front.  Witty!  Endpapers are nice and decorative too.  

Front endpapers

I'm wondering whether Willaim Bee has been influenced by 1950's wall paper designs for this pattern? The title page is plain and simple: contains the title, the author/illustrator's and the publisher's names. But the facing copyright page is neat.

Copyright page

One bare tree - all its leaves are lined up on the endpapers - and can you see the way some letters have been enlarged in bold?  (If you click on the image you can see better) What do they say?  "Whatever", yeah, who gives a damn about the copyright blurb?

This picturebook uses lots of white space.  It contributes to pacing the narrative, makes us pause and look as the information is given to us in bits as we turn the pages. 

Opening 1

First we are shown Billy (diminutive of William, by the way), hands down now, the half smile stuck on his face, looking bored.   Then we meet Billy's Dad.  

Opening 2

He's a bigger version of Billy, the only difference being his hat, his larger feet and his bushier eyebrows ... oh and his exuberance.  It's oozing off this page already.  

And so we begin.  Our problem is that Billy is difficult to please.  Dad is exuberantly waving puppets, while discarded soldiers are left behind and Billy looks away uninterested.  

Opening 3

Show Billy something very tall ... 

Opening 4

"And he'll say 'whatever'".  (Love the way the book has to be turned to portrait for the giraffe). 

Opening 5

Notice as you turn the pages how Billy's face shows all sorts of expressions: surprise, disgust, disinterest, annoyance - all with those simple dots for eyes, angled lines for eyebrows and a little red mouth that moves mostly downwards.  

And so we continue showing Billy "something very small" (pretty butterflies); the world's curliest trumpet (and it really is curly!); the world's bounciest castle, and he always says "Whatever".  

Opening 9

Take him on the world's steamiest train (there's even a fish leaping around!), or "fly him to outer space" ... what does he say? "Whatever". And so what happens when Dad tries to scare him with the world's hungriest tiger?  Why, Billy says "Whatever" of course!

Opening 10

Isn't he a handsome tiger? And a hungry one too ...

Opening 11

Oops!  All but Billy's shoe is swallowed.  Lots of lovely white as the tiger plods off. 

Opening 13

Can you see the tiger's bulging tummy?  And Billy decides it's time to say something ..."Dad! I'm still in here you know".  Guess who's leading the tiger away from the story, and  what do you think he says when he hears Billy?  I'll leave you to guess!

Reviews describe this as being a picturebook for all ages.  Absolutely right.  It could be used in primary, where everyone will quickly call out "Whatever!", or with teens, where they will mutter "Whatever" under their breath!  Get them to say "Whatever" in a dozen different ways, using Billy's facial expressions as clues to his mood.  With these students, you might also want to show them some of the original cautionary tales for fun.  And with adults in a teacher training context use this picturebook for them to see how cleverly words and pictures can be used to create irony and humour suitable for a wide range of ages. 

And if you really want to ensure there's a bit of formal language work, why not have some fun with superlatives, they're even highlighted in the verbal text - what more could we ask?

But most of all, it's a great little picturebook.  Great for just reading and sharing and laughing together over.  

I was prompted to feature it on my blog when I saw it had recently been published in Portuguese by one of my favourite Portuguese publishers, Planeta Tangerina.  Well done them for bringing it into Portugal.  Well done me for featuring it on my blog!

Anza-Borrego Desert

Based on the recommendation of an acquaintance, i decided to try and fit in a look at Anza-Borrego State Park, just west of the Salton Sea. I had never heard of it, but it turns out it's the largest state park in California and the third largest state park in the country after Wood Tikchick in Alaska and the ridiculously huge Adirondack Park in New York.

As usual, i spent far more time barely scratching the surface of the Salton Sea than i had planned, and by the time we arrived in Borrego Springs it was almost 5pm. We were famished. Busting down the doors of the visitor center just as they were reaching for the lock we took another recommendation and went to this place called the Palms Hotel, where it was said existed very good hamburgers.

The Palms Hotel, built in 1958, had it's own private runway and catered to groups of movie stars who wanted a secluded location where they could partake in debauchery.

Borrego Springs is an awesome little town with no trafficlights. Located in the middle of Anza Borrego Desert Park, the town rests at the bottom of some sizable mountains.

The town has an old connection to Hollywood, and a number of movies have been filmed in the surrounding desert, including Serenity and the finale season of the X-Files. For the X-files they built an Anasazi Village, then blew it up with sidewinder missiles.

Walking onto the isolated property is like stepping back into another time.

There was nobody at the hotel, i don't know what day of the week it was. The hamburgers were great, and i'm not even a fan of burgers. The shade was great too (but i enjoyed the heavy desert heat in the sun), and the warm evening breeze coming down from the shaded canyons brought back all kinds of memories of my distant desert life.

Maree sips on cherry coke. It was REAL, that carafe is full of cherries.

Next to the dining area was a large grassy lawn full of squirrels. The squirrels were grazing on the grass and steadily following the line of the sun, always looking through the newly shaded blades but never crossing the threshold into direct sunlight. It was fun to watch.

The Olympic Pool was very inviting.

In no time at all i had scarfed down a 1lb burger and we wasted no light in trying to do a little hike. Behind the hotel is a trail that lead to a real oasis, covered in tall palms, the namesake of the town. The hike is just a couple of miles up a large alluvial fan and into a canyon. The advantage of being late was that the entire hike was in the shade.

On the trail to the oasis looking down valley towards town. On the left is a large log, part of a desert Palm.

The Red Ocotillo, pictured at the top of the blog is a famous desert plant that blooms with bright red flowers a few days after a rain. I had never seen one before, we just happened to show up when the desert was in full bloom. There was more wildlife in the area than i've ever seen in the desert. There were little quail look birds running around all over the place, bunnies hopping around, bees and birds were looking into the flowers, and of course reptiles.

I just put this on here as example of how either digital sensors or computer monitors cannot display some colors. This it not the color this flower is supposed to be and i don't think the sensor was able to render the detail and variations of the petals. On the screen it's just a burned out magenta. I took a picture with my phone first, which looked terrible, then my 5dm2, which looks only slightly better as far as color is concerned.

The entrance to the canyon, which actually stretches towards the left.

Near the entrance of the canyon the stream finally started flowing and we couldn't help notice the parade of large dead palms scattered all over the ground, with no standing palms in sight for miles around. Apparently there are some powerful floods that come out of the canyon on occasion.

Unfortunately i could tell we simply did not have enough time to get to the oasis and back before nightfall, so i called the hike off early. I wanted to use the sunlight to see what else might be down the road, like some big sculptures of prehistoric beasts build on the site where the creatures were found.

After a long twisty ascent we made it to the top of the mountains. That area down there is some mid level plateau. It was very cold on top and quite windy. Snow seemed possible and was visible on some of the peaks.

I liked Borrego Springs, and the Anza-Borrego Desert was truly unique in my experience of American deserts. I'd assumed it would be just like the Mojave desert, but there is definitely a different ecology in the area. Technically, it's part of the Colorado Desert, i think, and then the Sonoran Desert is East of that. The Mojave is to the North. There's a lot to see in all that land.

This is where i saw Sasquatch, running through those misty trees.

Every one has bad days

Front cover

Bad Day, written by Jeni Couzyn and illustrated by Paul Demeyer,  was a picturebook I read to my son when he was small.  It's a title I've often returned to and enjoyed.  I like Couzyn's rhythmic verbal text and Demeyer's illustrations bring the picturebook together beautifully.   It's now out of print but still available second hand on amazon. 

It follows on nicely from The Cloud, which I featured at the beginning of the month, and also depicts a child who's not happy, cross and angry with his family, and who decides to "Go away".  

The title page has a small picture of a yellow canary, and in many of the following illustrations the canary can be seen fluttery around in the illustrations. 

Opening 1

The picturebook opens on a single recto page, facing the copyright and dedication pages.  Nice little dedication up at the top! 

All the illustrations are shown in a frame, this is supposed to make us feel detached, as though we are watching the events from afar.  Each page, or occasionally a double spread, has a short sentence accompanied by a framed illustration.  The verbal text really is rhythmic and lovely to read and children pick it up very quickly.   The illustrations skillfully expand upon what the words are hinting at.  Here, on opening 1, we see a happy little family, all getting on with life, smiling, except for our protangonist - he's easy to spot with a face like thunder!

Opening 2

And so it continues, the family gets on with life, mum and dad, big brother and little brother, the little yellow bird and their energetic dog, and in each illustration we see the thunder faced child get crosser and crosser with the world.    The words continue quite matter of factly, and we gradually see the family notice that he's not having a good day - big brother does seem oblivious though!   It continues ... "Hate my big brother. Hate my little brother." The angry child covets his older brother's freedom, fiddling with his toy motorbike as the brother zooms off on his real one. Then he gets cross when his little brother takes the toy motorbike.  Then everything comes to a head, as it does on all bad days ...

Opening 4

Baby brother cries and dad gets cross.  If you click on the image above, you'll be bale to see the headlines in dad's newspaper, "Bad news", "Pretty bad news", "Worse news", More bad news"!   Then poor mum has just had enough!  Her two sons are crying, the dog is howling and dad has given up.  "Go away", she cries!  Children and teachers will empathise with this illustration, we've all experienced a day just like this!  

Our cross little boy goes up stairs, packs his favourite toys and runs out, escorted by the family dog and his pet canary. 

Opening 6

Then out in the street, he checks his wings, which we may have noticed sticking out of his case on opening 5, (and most likely children will notice them upon re-readings).  The canary has gone, but the dog is around.  The wings are yellow like the canary and  we wonder if they've been fashioned to imitate the small family pet.  And he's off, up into the sky and over the cars. The family dog has his case, maybe it's a regular thing this flying away business?

Hate is still a BIG feeling though...

Opening 7

"Hate these aeroplanes." Possibly justified - that's a lot of planes!

He flies over the Atlantic and asks, "Is this away?".  He asks a bird, who happens to be on the Statue of Liberty, "Is this away?" and of course the reply is, "No, this is New York."  Finally he pauses on a branch.  And the rhythm slows, the colours are deep bluey greens and we are gradually calming down.  "Is this away?", Owl replies, "No."...

Opening 11

Here we see owl, comforting the little boy, who's not angry any more.   So what is "Away"?

Opening 12

"Away is a feeling."  Suddenly, like one of those Hollywood movies we see a dozen little faces and heads pop up, are they about to break into song?  And Owl asks, "Love anyone?" Oh my goodness, the million dollar question.  

Opening 14

Why, "Yes!", our once-upon-a-time-angry little boy realises and off he flies.  And look at all those animals, suddenly they are in little family groups, and they are waving off our protangonist.  

Opening 15

The focus on hate in the beginning is replaced with love ...

"Love my Mum, love my Dad,

love my monkey, love my dog,

love my bird, love my big brother,

love my little brother,"

And the family is all happy, our little boy is being pampered by mum. Everyone is ready for bed, the boy's case, wings and toys are scattered on the floor.  Everything is normal again. 

Opening 16

And the final illustration shows our little boy, snuggled in bed, asleep, his wings, the dog and canary nearby and we read the words, "Love owl" ... and he's there in a framed picture above the bed.  Wise old owl, he knows. 


As we've shared this picturebook, we've felt the words through the way we say them and the images that have accompanied them.  Once again, it's an excellent support for developing  emotional intelligence.  Children will empathise with the little boy and be carried with him on his emotional roller coaster. Did he really fly away?  Was it all a dream?  How do we deal with our bad days?  Lots of possibilities for discussion, in particular with primary children.

Jeni Couzyn is a poet and the verbal text is a poem. I've copied it below so you can read it in its entirety.  Feel the emotion as it peeks then slowly dissipates, to be replaced with calm and comfort. 

Hate this day. 
Hate these toys. Hate this food.

Hate my big brother. Hate my little brother.

Hate my dad. "Go away."

Going away. Got my suitcase.  

Got my wings. Work OK.

Hate these aeroplanes.

Is this away?

No, this is the Atlantic.

Is this away?

No, this is New York.

Is this away?

No.

Away isn't a place. Away is a feeling.

Love anyone?

Yes.

Love my Mum, love my Dad,

love my monkey, love my dog,

love my bird, love my big brother,

love my little brother, 

love owl.

Charan Sachar

Charan Sachar is one of the talented people I met serendipitously on Facebook and so glad I discovered this talented potter.

Charan, who now lives in Seattle, has lived in India for a significant part of his life where his mother ran a boutique designing clothes for brides and bridesmaids. The colors, fabrics, embroidery and designs he came across then has had a strong impact on his work now.

He uses a combination of techniques such as wheel throwing, extrusions, slab constructions and alterations to create his forms. Each piece is then further decorated free hand with underglazes and slip to give it the textured feel of embroidered fabric. Some pieces go through multiple firings to give it more depth of color and texture.

Platter for Crackers ~ Serving tray

Oktoberfest Beer Stein ~ Big Coffee Mug

His work also reflects his love for Bollywood movies and his fascination with life in India. He strives to give life to clay, decorating it with Indian influences keeping functionality and uniqueness in mind.

Love the detailing in his work!

Dancing Divas~ Inspired by Bollywood.

Charan says,'Pottery has given me the much needed respite from the monotony of everyday life. Working with clay and giving it form feels as satisfying as organizing and bringing peace to all the chaos that is there around me.

My goal is to continue to work with this medium to create art work which is cherished for life.'

We wish him all the very best in his endeavor:-)

You can check out his Facebook page or buy his stunning work at his Etsy store Creative with Clay

(images by Charan Sachar)

pinning my interests...

...something that has been keeping me completely occupied these days!

Pinterest is a visual board style photo-sharing platform, where users can categorize their inspirations under various topics.

The best part is with just the 'Pin-It' button on your browser you can pin all your inspirations to your Pinterest page, while you surf the internet.

Here are screenshots of some of my boards.

A board for 'My Style' on interior design...

An inner page with my recent pin...

You can follow me archanasr on Pinterest as well! Let's share and get inspired!

The cloud - a book that shows emotions

Front cover

I saw The Cloud by Hanna Cumming in a catalogue by The Story Bag for workshops that brought together art and literature.  I ordered it to satisfy my curiosity, it was the only picturebook on the list which I didn't know. 

Child's Play the publisher's give a short description of The Cloud on their web site "Everyone has bad days, and children are no exception. When a black cloud descends on a little girl at school, support from a classmate with a great deal of imagination helps to brighten up everyone’s lives. The atmospheric illustrations really tell the story in this delightful picture book from a new author/illustrator."

It is the atmospheric illustrations that I am going to focus on in my blog post.  

What mood or emotion do you associate grey with?  Most of us will go for sad, negative, angry, upset.  Grey is a depressing colour and suitably so it is the background of the front and back covers for The Cloud.  The top part of the child's face we just see under the foreboding scribbled cloud, confirms the negative, sad feeling the background grey gives us.   Those touches of colour coming in from the edges look hopeful though, I wonder why they are there?

Endpapers

I find the endpapers quite shocking in their bright red, with the coloured crayons dispersed among the black squiggles. I'm not sure why Cumming chose red, maybe because the main character has a red t-shirt?  Why do you think she chose red?  What do your children think?

Title page

Though this page appears grey in my photo, it isn't!  It's actually white, with just the oval under the title in grey!  All those arty materials look fun.  Upon rereading this picturebook children will identify with these images and understand that it was through drawing, colouring and painting with a friend that our character was helped. 

Opening 1

Opening 1 shows us the art class.  We are told it's fun, and despite the grey looking classroom (it's raining outside as well!)  it does look like everyone is enjoying themselves... "Well, almost everyone." There's our character in her red t-shirt, with scowling eyes, arms crossed and tightly closed mouth.  "There was one girl, who sat by herself and drew nothing."

Opening 3

The illustration on the verso page is the one we saw on the front cover. Look at those kids chatting and having fun in the recto, but no one talks to the girl with the cloud over her head.  I'm not surprised are you?  She looks very grumpy.  But one little girl in the class is keen to make friends, so off she goes ...

Opening 5

There's a lovely sequence in verso, showing the little girl being engulfed in black cloud ... having a chat didn't seem to work. I wonder what the reply was?  It is a particularly useful activity to ask the children in your class what they think - a way for them to have a go at reading feelings and emotions and sharing these personal readings. 

Opening 7

But this little blond-haired girl was not put off, she looked at her crayons and thought maybe there was a way.  It didn't go too well to begin with, but she kept on trying, kept on drawing and finally ...

Opening 8

Our girl with a cloud over her head was smiling, only a tiny smile, but it's a smile.   Cloud is a bit smaller too!  And look out the classroom window ... it's almost stopped raining ... and the classroom wall is not quite so grey either - everything looks brighter. 

But it doesn't stop there, the children in the classroom liked the idea of creating pictures together, so they all had a go ...

Opening 9

And here they are!  Can you see the blond-haired girl who didn't give up?  And how much smaller that black cloud is! What fun they are all having, and how much brighter that classroom is now!  Look back at opening 1, just to remind yourselves.  They end up doing a huge class drawing, which really does look fun, but best of all ...

Opening 11

"... the cloud was gone. Well sort of!"  And our classroom window is there again, and even if we can still see a tiny cloud in the sky the sun is shining, shining so brightly that the classroom is all yellow and warm.  It matches the big smile across the girl's face.  

There's a small circular illustration before the back endpapers, showing a happily integrated child playing hopscotch with kids in her class.

Opening 12

There's a solitary figure by the gate, I wonder if the children will invite her to join their game? 

The Cloud is a very simple, clear  story.  It's about accepting and not giving up on people, and the illustrations help readers see and feel emotion clearly too.  This little book is excellent for actively working with emotional intelligence, but as mediators we need to give our children pointers, ask them to look and think:  what colours are the pages and what do these colours make us feel? What are the characters feeling, how do they know this?  Can we imitate their postures and facial expressions, what do they feel like? Encourage children to empathise with the dark haired girl whose cloud eventually disappears, what could she be so upset about? By identifying emotions in others and seeing how problems can be resolved, young children can learn strategies of their own, both when they have problems, or to help others overcome their own.