Looking at Picture Books

Looking at Picture Books

I have been looking at two different picture books. One is Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are and the other is Mog’s Christmas by Judith Karr. Both of these authors wrote and illustrated their own stories. I wanted to look at two texts to discuss the different styles that I had been reading about: realism and surrealism as described in an extract of What Do Picture Book Makers Know About Reading that We Don’t by David Lewis. Lewis uses Jacqueline Rose’s definition from The Case of Peter Pan to describe realism:

Nothing must obtrude and no word must be spoken, in access of those absolutely necessary to convince the child that the world in which he or she is being asked to participate in is absolutely real.


Sendak’s picture book seems to have elements of realism. Max is a boy who goes to the land where the wild things are, he gets there by boat sailing for some time till he reaches a mysterious island. Sendak explains Max’s voyage in practical terms of a boat on the sea and the passing of time In and out of weeks and almost over a year to show how far away the land of the wild things is which makes the story more believable. One thing I noticed about Sendak’s pictures is that the initial pages where Max is in his house are illustrated by small boxes of graphic in the middle of the page on the right side with the words opposite in the middle of the left page. However when the forest begins to grow in Max’s bedroom it gets bigger and bigger until it covers the whole of the right side of the page and from then on Sendak’s pictures are no longer small or confined to a box but fill the whole of the right hand page extending into the text page and the wild rumpus is told in pictures alone. This gives the feeling that the forest, the journey and the land where the monsters live is real because the reader sees more of them then of Max’s house. Sendak’s pictures not only add to the text but also give the story legitimacy too. However, according to Rose’s definition of realism Where The Wild Things Are is not truly a realist text because on returning home after his adventure Max finds his supper waiting for him in his bedroom and the last line of the story is and it was still hot, proving the adventure was not real and transforming the story into a surrealist text.

Mog’s Christmas is a realist text because nothing disturbs the illusion that Mog’s world is real. Mog is a tabby house cat with human characteristics that wakes up on Christmas morning feeling suspicious about all the new people and odd changes in the house. Mog hides outside on the roof and then falls through the chimney discovering that actually the house looks “lovely” and that she rather likes Christmas. Mog’s Christmas shares a lot of characteristics with Where The Wild Things Are. Both texts were written in the sixties when there was an explosion of picture books into the market. Both texts start off with the text on the left page and the picture on the right page but change format so that the pictures cover both the left and right pages. In Mog’s Christmas this is to show Mog’s reaction and the stimulus that she has reacted to. For example Mog seeing the Christmas tree on pages 6-7 shows the tree and the family in the garden and Mog the cat, tail up and an expression of terror on her face. The pictures on each page reinforce the accompanying text which always explains what Mog has encountered and how she feels about it. This story book convinces children to believe that Mog is a cat with human characteristics because of the way that Mog thinks, feels and acts but also by the families’ reactions to her: speaking to her, feeding her food that cats ordinarily do not eat and exaggerating her status to that of a human.

Conclusion

Where The Wild Things Are and Mog’s Christmas are good examples of each genre; surrealist and realist. Sendak initially draws the graphics small and non descript whilst Max is at home but once he begins his adventure Sendak’s illustrations take over both pages, are detailed, colourful and at one point express the wild rumpus without the need for text. This is utterly surrealist as it explores a child’s imagination which is boundless and wild. I particularly like the wild rumpus which has no specific meaning but through the pictures it shows the Wild Things howling at the moon, jumping, stamping and swinging through trees. Max is described as a “WILD THING” by his mother in the beginning of the story for behaving in undesirable ways and so he explores himself as being one of the Wild Things and as their king he is the wildest of them all.
Children appreciate the need to go wild and make mischief, particularly where the wild rumpus engages the reader to take part without text to explain this and without addressing the reader directly.

Mog’s Christmas may appeal to children’s experience where they encounter situations like Christmas that they do not completely understand but may have some notions of, like Father Christmas who (like Mog did) comes down through the chimney. Mog also encounters a Christmas Tree which is quite a bizarre custom and hard to explain to a child. These Christmas customs are explored in a humorous way by Mog’s misunderstandings making the story more enjoyable. Christmas is a good subject for a picture book because it is so visual and there are lots of colourful decorations. Although both picture books are comparatively different they are both are successful in entertaining the reader because their stories are engaging and the pictures are detailed and colourful.

Using your readings of critical stuff as well as the rest makes this exemplary.