Children Literature---Willy's Pictures by Anthony Browne

SUMMARY

Willy loves painting and looking at pictures.  He knows that every picture tells a story.  His works look like some famous works, but not really... You can see Willy and his bananas in famous paintings like Mona Lisa, The birth of Venus, ...and so on.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Willy the monkey

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Internal Narrator

THEME
Using pictures to tell Willy's Story

STYLE
Word Choice--- Use kid's way to talk, so the words are easy to understand.
Sentence---Most of the sentences are long because of describing pictures.
Exposition--- Willy described the meaning of his idea about each picture.
Dialogue---None

TONE
Humorous,  warm, lovely

AWARD
Hans Christian Andersen Medal---for excellence in illustraition

REFLECTION
I like this book because it changes the famous paintings by putting Willy in and his bananas.  After painting these pictures, Willy would like to add some words under the pictures.  Plus, the writer help us to understand the picture more, he puts fold-out pages of the original famous paintings at the end of the book.  With his humor, we can see the writer uses different point of view to see a picture, so do us~

 The Birthday Suit

"Quick, cover yourself up!"

Lots and Lots and Lots of Dots

"We gradually started to notice some very strange thins in the park."

Coming to Life

"I was just finishing this painting when I heard a small voice say, 'give us a hand.' "

Children Literature---Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey

SUMMARY
Mother, Mrs. Mallard, and father duck, Mr. Mallard were looking for a perfect place for their babies.  She was so worried about the place to raise her family where there might be foxes or turtles.  They flew to different places, but when they got to Boston, they found a nice pond in the Public Garden, with a little island on it. They fished there and followed a boat to get peanuts for breakfast.  When Mrs. Mallard was shocked by a bike that almost ran over her, they flew to other places, at last, they found an island on Charles River.  They began to hatch eight eggs.  A policeman, Michael fed them every day.  One day the ducklings hatched out and were called Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Quack, Pack and Quack.  While Mrs. Mallard taught ducklings how to swim and dive and other things, Mr. Mallard took a trip to see the rest of the river, and they agreed to meet in the Public Garden in a week.  One morning, she took the ducklings off the island to find Mr. Mallard.  When they came to the highway, they were stopped by the speeding cars.  Michael the police helped them to cross the road and even called other polices to help them across the street, right into the Public Garden.  They reunited with Mr. Mallard.  The ducklings liked the new island so the family decided to live there at last.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist---The duck family
Antagonist---the cars and bikes
Round Character--- Mrs. Mallard
Flat Character--- The policemen

SETTING
Backdrop Setting--- The place was located around Boston, in Public Garden and Charles River.

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW
Omniscient Narrator

PLOT
Plot Type--- Parallel Plot
1st plot: The duck couple flew to Public Garden, but found out this is not a perfect place for their little ducklings when Mrs. Mallard shocked by the bicycle.
2nd plot: They flew to Charles River and found this is a perfect place to live.
3rd: The mother duck took ducklings to find Mr. Mallard and finally they lived in Public Garden.

CONFLICT
The protagonist against Another/Self.

THEME
Parents' love to children

STYLE

Word Choice--- Easy words with the rhythm like the ducklings' names.
Sentence--- In order to describe some situations, the author used some long sentences but with some repetitions in it, made it easy to read.
Exposition--- Most of the sentences are exposition.
Dialogue--- With little part of the conversation type.

TONE
Humorous,  warm, lovely

AWARD
The Caldecott Award

REFLECTION
This is a very lovely story when I read.  The author used a very lovely way to describe the ducklings' movements like "Before you could wind an eyelash Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack, Nack, Quack, Pack and Quack fell into line..."  With this vivid description, we can easily understand how the ducklings moved.  Plus, the author used the sound "Qua-a-ack!" to tell when Mrs. Mallard and ducklings faced the traffics and the cars went "Honk!", they kept quacking and the cars kept speeding.  When I looked at the illustration and with the sound I made in my mind, the whole situation was just right in front of me.

Also, we can see the enthusiastic policeman, Michael, helped the duck family to cross the road. Some personification descriptions like "... Nack, Quack, Pack and Quack all marching in line behind her.", "...she was so proud she tipped her nose in the air and..." to help readers understand more and picture the image in mind easily.

This is a book that makes me feel happy to see ducks' movements and feel exciting when I reads the speeding cars part.  Also, to use the innocent way to look at animals like we all did in childhood time.


EXTERNAL LINK
The Statue of "Make Way for Ducklings"

Children Literature---Piggybook by Anthony Browne

SUMMARY
Mr. Piggott lived with his two sons, Simon and, Patrick in a nice house with his wife, Mrs. Piggott.  Everyday, he and his sons just opened their mouths and waited to be fed but Mrs. Piggott had to do every houseworks.  One evening, when the boys got home from school and Mr. Piggott got home from work, they couldn't find their Mom but found a piece of paper written"You are pigs."  Since that day, the father pig and pig sons didn't know how to cook or do the houseworks.  Few days later, Mrs. Piggott went back and they all started to help Mom do the housework, and they even sort of liked it.  And Mom was happy.

ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS
Protagonist--- Mrs. Piggott
Antagonist--- Mr. Piggot, Simon and Patrick
Round Character--- Mrs. Piggott, Mr. Piggott, Simon and, Patrick

SETTING
Backdrop Setting

NARRATIVE POINT OF VIEW:
Omniscient Narrator

PLOT
Plot Type---Dramatic(Progressive) Plot

Setting--- The piggott lived in a nice house.
Conflict--- The father and sons never did any housework but Mom.
Rising action--- Mom left a piece of paper written "You are pigs." and went away.
Climax--- When there were nothing left in the house for the father and sons to cook, they started to root around and found some scraps.  Just then, Mrs. Piggott came back.
Dénuement--- The father and sons started to do houseworks and cooking.
End--- Mom could fix the car.

CONFLICT
The protagonist against another

THEME
Doing housework together is a must, not just Mom's work.

STYLE

Word Choice--- easy words
Sentence--- Using same repetition in different paragraphs.  Most of the sentences are long to describe the situation.
Exposition--- Most expositions are the descriptions of Mom's action or the connections between each situation.
Dialogue--- Most dialogues are between the father and sons, Mom doesn't say any words.

TONE
Humorous, satirical, warm

REFLECTION
I was attracted by the title of the book.  From the cover, you wouldn't know why it's called "Piggybook," I mean, there's no piggy on the book cover.  As I started to dig into the book, I found the most essential part of this book is in the pictures.  At the beginning, there were just a few pig pictures in the ads or cereal cartons.  Then, in the next page, I started to see Mom's appearance but we cannot see her face also, Mom's background color is yellowish and somewhat lonely.

We can easily see that it's always bright and shining when the father and sons is on the pitcture, but Mom's is so dim.  It's a really big contrast.  The big change of the father and sons became pigs was when they found out Mom's leaving and the background changed into pig patterns.  Their life became dull and unhappy and lived like in a pigsty.

Days later, Mom came home like a lighthouse lighting up the house.  The father and sons were so happy, not just opened their mouths waiting for food.  In the end, they knew they should help Mom do the housework and later, Mom could even fix the car.

I think the end picture that Mom fixing the car is a really big change because Mom is not just working in the house to be a housewife, she can also do something else she like.  Also, it indicates that the stereotype of Mom doing housework alone has been changed, father and children starts to do housework now.  I believe this is a perfect book to teach children doing housework. :)