The Picnic by Mavis Gallant is darkly comic, a ‘comedy of manners’, starring an eccentric old French aristocratic woman. The reader is afforded a close-up view into her life via an American family, the Marshalls, Major Marshall being stationed in France after the war. The Comedy of Manners is an entertainment form which satirizes the…
‘Dialogic’ is related to the word ‘dialogue’ and describes ‘having a conversation’. In education, dialogic reading refers the conversation adults have with students around the text they are reading together. Adults typically ask questions and make comments to help young readers explore the shared story at a deeper level. Because it is the dialogue that happens…
A very popular Australian picture book. Looks so simple. But what’s the secret sauce?
The more you read of [Shields’] stories the more you sense her delight in making connections, moving things on…If Shields had a single subject in these stories it was really solace, the strategies we employ to keep despair, or doubt, or even confusion at bay. Mostly that solace comes from language, whether it be literature or…
Written by author Ulf Nilsson and illustrated by Eva Eriksson, When We Were Alone In The World is a 2009 Swedish picture book produced by two longtime experts in their field. I am reading the English language translation from Gecko Press. PLOT OF WHEN WE WERE ALONE IN THE WORLD Written in first person point…
Scarface Claw is a wonderful animal villain. Honestly, for a close-reading I could have picked any of Lynley Dodd’s Slinky Malinki series (or from the even-better-known Hairy Maclary series set in the same world). I find it impossible to pick a favourite. But if I have a favourite character, it is probably a tie between Slinky…
“The Swimmer”(1964) is considered one of Cheever’s best short stories. Anne Enright feels that this would never have worked as the novel Cheever had originally planned and adds that it would work even better as a short story had he lost one or two pools. (The naturist communists are amusing but we don’t want any…
child had been cancelled from a local library and was covered in yellowing sellotape. I still have that copy.
A very cute rabbit checks out a book from the library. The book is called Wolves. As rabbit reads the book, the wolf ’emerges from’ the book (or maybe it doesn’t), coming closer and closer to the rabbit as the rabbit gets scareder and scareder. Finally, we see an extreme close up of a scary wolf…
Mavis Gallant died last year, but if she were still around she might not think much of my attempt to dissect her stories in order to learn from them: Gallant is dismissive of analysing or explaining her work, and distrustful of academic attempts to do so. The Guardian, 2009 The same Guardian article says of her…
Hilda Bewildered Pre-reading Questions Post-reading Discussion In Hilda Bewildered, list the ways in which outside appearances do not match what’s inside or underneath. Highlight below for some answers: The taxi that Hilda gets into looks like a Citroen from the 1960s, but once inside, the dashboard indicates that this is an ordinary modern vehicle. The Princess…
Sometimes in literature you’ll hear a setting interpreted in the same way as a character. What does this mean? When should you do this? See: How can setting be a character? This article focuses specifically on buildings as character. Most stories: Setting affects character. In some stories: Setting interacts with the characters. IS HOUSE AS CHARACTER A…
Orphans in modern literature evolved from orphans of folk and fairytales. There are many orphans in American and British children’s literature, but also in literature from around the world. Some communities have always been set up with strong social networks. Even if parents die, there are no true orphans because the extended family will care for them.…
“Given a long enough time, of course, a wide enough frame, there is nothing said or done, ever, that isn’t ironic in the end.” Madame Morrible, Wicked, Gregory Maguire These notes draw heavily from a Narrative Breakdown podcast called The Power Of Irony. See also: All Good Stories Are Ironic from Cockeyed Caravan blog. Irony [is]…
Peritext is especially important in picture books, and refers to the physical features and design elements that surround the story. When readers take note of this information, their experience of the story will be enhanced, or possibly change. Peritext includes information on: Part of me thinks that a reader’s preference for a physical book isn’t…