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Blueberries For Sal by Robert McCloskey (1948)
Blueberries For Sal (1948) is a picture book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey, also well-known for Make Way For Ducklings. Both stories are thrillers for the preschool set, especially this one. In fact, I’m about to try and convince you that Blueberries For Sal is the inspiration behind Cormac McCarthy’s No Country For Old Men, with blueberries swapped out…
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The Monster At The End Of This Book
The Monster At The End Of This Book by Jon Stone and Michael Smolin (1971) is possibly the most successful of the Little Golden Books published starring Sesame Street characters.
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The Treatment of Curiosity Across Storytelling
Are we supposed to be curious, or aren’t we? From reading stories, I just can’t make up my mind.
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The Cat At Night by Dahlov Ipcar (1969)
The Cat At Night is a picture book written and illustrated by Amrican Dahlov Ipcar (1969). Like many children’s authors and illustrators, she lived a long life (1917-2017).
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Childhood Horror: Why are kid things so scary?
Here’s the thing about horror: It can so easily turn into accidental comedy. Watch the original 1960s Twilight Zone series and what was once genuinely scary now offers a family-night laugh. An inverse is also true: What we once considered fun, innocent, cosy and child-friendly will morph over time into something sinister. In the second decade of the 21st century,…
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Wheel On The Chimney by Wise Brown and Gergely 1954
Wheel On The Chimney is a calm, bird-focused storified description of an old custom observed throughout various parts of Southern Europe.
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The Harlequin and The Circus
Why is the triangle/diamond/lozenge shape associated with the circus? For the answer, we need to go back more than 500 years.
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Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in the 1590s. Like modern audiences, Shakespeare’s live audiences already knew the plot because he nicked it from The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (already three decades old at the time). Obviously, when Shakespeare got his paws on plots he elevated them to greatness. But even before that, stories about young, thwarted (star-crossed) lovers…
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Sidewalk Flowers by Lawson and Smith
Sidewalk Flowers is a wordless Canadian picture book by poet JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Sydney Smith.
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The clues to a great story: notes on the TED talk
Andrew Stanton’s work:
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Tad by Benji Davies
Tad (2019) is a picture book written and illustrated by Benji Davies. This is an especially good mentor text for illustrators because I’ve never seen a better example of a fairly muted colour scheme that suddenly pops after the page turn at the end. I literally said, “Wow!”
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Choric Figures In Contemporary Storytelling
WHAT IS A CHORIC FIGURE? CHORIC FIGURE: Any character in any type of narrative literature that serves the same purpose as a chorus in drama by remaining detached from the main action and commenting upon or explaining this action to the audience. I’ve also seen ‘choral commentator’ and guess it means the same thing. It may be useful to think…
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The Hare and the Tortoise
You win some, you lose some. Aesop was an equal opportunity storyteller and the tortoise of fables sometimes gets a raw deal. But not this particular tortoise. Sometimes it’s “The Hare and the Tortoise”, sometimes it’s “The Tortoise and the Hare”. This tortoise just goes about his business and wins the day. I’ve never once heard him complain that he…
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Mercy Watson To The Rescue by DiCamillo and Van Dusen
Mercy Watson To The Rescue (2005) is a picture book divided into chapters for the emergent reader, written by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Chris Van Dusen.
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Tigers, Lions and Other Big Cats
LIONS How tf did lions become the symbol of bravery? They are the biggest and the strongest and they use that strength to eat the weaker animals. What exactly makes them brave?? Existential Comics (@existentialcoms) November 17, 2019 Tiger is big. Tiger is tough. And Tiger has an important note for you. Dear Reader,WATCH OUT FOR WORMS! They are everywhere!…
