Get documents about "Depictions of African Americans in American Childrens Picture
Document Sample
Every Picture Tells a Story:
The Art of Narrative in Wordless Books
Allen Library 1st Floor, University of Washington, June 21 – July 7, 2006
Visual Storytelling
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a book as “a written document,” but the 20th century produced a robust tradition
of books without any writing at all. Such wordless books rely on visual cues to tell their stories, drawing on traditions of
wordless story-telling such as pantomime, medieval stained glass windows, African American “story quilts,” cartoons, and
silent films, to name a few.
A 20th-Century Phenomenon
In the early 20th century, “woodcut novelists” like Lynd Ward began exploring narrative elements in their art, leading to a
mini-explosion of wordless books for adults and contributing to the eventual development of the modern graphic novel.
Although scattered examples of wordless children’s stories existed before 1970, the last three decades have seen an
increase in the production of picture-stories for children, which are more easily re-purposed for a global audience than
are books that require expensive translation.
Not Just For Children
This display presents a selection of narratives told entirely in pictures. While the tradition of illustrated children’s books
lends itself more easily to wordless picture-stories, several notable “picture novels” contain mature themes and were
clearly aimed at adult audiences.
Books on Display: Quentin Blake. Clown. (1996). Tomie de Paola. Flicks. (1979).
Clowns traditionally perform in The title and the audience
Mitsumasa Anno. Anno’s Journey. gestures and actions rather than members who appear in silhouette
(1978). words, making a clown the perfect at bottom of the pages pay tribute
A framing story – a man journeys protagonist in Blake’s charming to the old art of silent film.
across the countryside – tale.
showcases many mini-dramas Tomie de Paola. Sing, Pierrot, Sing:
within the narrative: a duel, a Raymond Briggs. The Snowman. A Picture Book in Mime. (1983).
courtship and wedding, a family (1986). Again, de Paola takes a traditional
packing up and moving house. This fantasy of a snowman who silent art – pantomime – and turns
The footrace that begins on the comes to life is perhaps the most it into “silent” book.
page shown here ends, after some popular wordless book of all.
complications, 3 pages later. Briggs uses comic-strip visual Eric Drooker. Blood Song: A Silent
images resembling animation stills Ballad. (2002).
Jeannie Baker. Home. (2004). to suggest the progression of the Drooker is one of the few
In this story a window functions as story’s action – a technique also contemporary graphic novelists to
a story frame to show the passing used by several other books in this tell book-length stories entirely in
of time as the neighborhood seen display. pictures.
in glimpses beyond it undergoes a
renewal. Ruth Carroll. What Whiskers Did. Tom Feelings. The Middle Passage:
(1932). White Ships, Black Cargo. (1995).
Molly Bang. The Grey Lady and the The earliest 20th-century example Feelings, a prolific children’s book
Strawberry Snatcher. (1980). of a wordless children’s book in the illustrator, considered The Middle
This Caldecott Honor Book is a UW collection, What Whiskers Did Passage to be his crowning
variation on popular visual “puzzle” is contemporaneous to the work of achievement. Although it is often
books. Here, the reader is Ward and Patri, displayed in the classified as children’s literature, the
challenged to pick out the “Grey adjoining case. book’s scenes of violence, cruelty,
Lady,” almost invisible against the rape, and suicide were clearly not
grey background. meant for the usual picture book
audience.
http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/childrens/wordless_bibliography.pdf
Guillermo Mordillo. Crazy Cowboy. Gabrielle Vincent. A Day, a Dog.
John Goodall. Puss in Boots. (1976). (1999).
(1990). Humorous stories lend themselves Vincent’s spare line drawings,
One storytelling technique particularly well to visual evocative and unusual in the
employed in wordless books is to storytelling. Mordillo employs heavily-illustrated children’s book
rely on the reader’s familiarity with elements from tall-tales and market, set this wordless tale apart.
a popular tale. Goodall’s Puss in cartoons to tell this slapstick yarn.
Boots is a good example of the Tatjana Von Hauptmann. Hurra,
technique. Jan Ormerod. Sunshine. (1981). Eberhard Wutz Ist Wieder Da!.
Ormerod uses familiar morning (1979).
John Goodall. The Adventures of routines to help children make This German title points out the
Paddy Pork. (1968). sense of the story. Here, a international appeal of wordless
Here the antique illustrations succession of smaller images stories. On this page, a story-within-
match the old-fashioned feel of the indicates progression of the action a-story unfolds as Eberhard’s
story. In many of Goodall’s in small successive steps. relatives gather to watch a silent
wordless books, full-page pictures film of his travels.
alternate with half-pages that are Giacomo Patri. White Collar : A
turned over as the action unfolds. Novel in Linocuts. (1975 edition; Lynd Ward. Gods’ Man : a Novel in
first published in 1940). Woodcuts. (1968 ed; first
Shirley Hughes. Up and Up. This picture-novel portraying the published 1929).
(1986). struggles of a middle-class family Heavily influenced by the German
In Hughes’ humorous wish- during the Great Depression woodcut artist Frans Masereel and
fulfillment fantasy, the depiction of includes images of class struggle, his depictions of human struggle,
action sequences in many small unionization, and abortion. Patri Ward produced 6 “woodcut
panes is a technique borrowed self-published the novel in 1940 novels” between 1929 and 1937,
from comic strips. after he was unsuccessful in and is sometimes referred to as the
interesting a commercial publisher “grandfather of the graphic novel.
Ezra Jack Keats. Clementina's in his work. Gods’ Man, completed when
Cactus. (1999). Ward was only 25, is the first and
The colorful illustrations appeal to Eric Rohmann. Time Flies. (1994). best-known of these works.
young readers, while a very simple Rohmann plays with time and
story makes words superfluous. space as a bird appears to be Holden Wetherbee. The Wonder
transported to prehistoric times Ring: A Fantasy in Silhouette.
Frans Masereel. Passionate and back again as it flies through a (1978).
Journey: a Novel in 165 Woodcuts. dinosaur skeleton. It’s up to the Here silhouettes, popular in
(1948 edition; first published 1919). reader to determine whether these Victorian times, are used to tell an
[English edition of Mein events really happen or whether old-fashioned story.
Stundenbuch]. the story is a flight of imagination.
Flemish artist Masereel completed David Wiesner. Free Fall. (1988).
20 wordless novels in the 1910s Peter Spier. Noah's Ark. (1977). Wiesner’s dreamscape
and 1920s and strongly influenced Spier assumes his readers are incorporates visual elements
the American woodcut artist Lynd familiar with the Noah story, and displayed on the first pages of the
Ward. His picture-novels include here fleshes out the daily details of book into the action of the young
Die Passion eines Menschen, Die caring for animals upon the Ark. boy’s dream – a variation on the
Sonne, Die Idee, and Geschichte visual games common in wordless
ohne Worte. Passionate Journey Brinton Turkle. Deep in the Forest. books.
(Mein Stundenbuch) is generally (1976).
considered to be his greatest work. This book can be read as a
straightforward story of a bear cub
Mercer Mayer. Frog Goes to who wanders into a cabin, but to More Interesting Examples:
Dinner. (1985). understand its subtle humor the
Mayer’s popular series of stories reader must be familiar with the Susan Bonners. Just in Passing.
featuring a nameless boy and his tale “Goldilocks and the Three (1989).
pet frog employs comic vaudeville Bears.”
elements and slapstick humor to Peter Collington. A Small Miracle.
advance the action. (2002).
www.lib.washington.edu/subject/childrens/wordless_bibliography.pdf
Fernando Krahn. Sleep Tight, Alex
Pumpernickel. (1982).
Tatjana Von Hauptmann. A Day in
the Life of Petronella Pig. (1982).
Lynd Ward. Wild pilgrimage: a
Novel in Woodcuts. (1932).
Peter Wezel.The Good Bird. (1964).
Ed Young. Up a Tree: A Wordless
Picture Book. (1983).
To find more wordless books,
search the UW Libraries’ catalog
(catalog.lib.washington.edu) for the
Genre/Form “Stories Without
Words”
For Further Information:
“Wordless Books: Promise and
Possibilities, a Genre Comes of
Age,” by Sarah Dowhower, in
Yearbook of the American Reading
Forum, vol. 17 (1997).
“Turning the Visual into the Verbal:
Children Reading Wordless Books,”
by Judith Graham, in What’s in the
Picture?, ed. Janet Evans. (1998).
Words about Pictures: the
Narrative Art of Children's Picture
Books, by Perry Nodelman. (1988).
Wordless/Almost Wordless Picture
Books, by Virginia E. Richey and
Katharyn E. Puckett. (1992).
Storyteller Without Words: the
Wood Engravings of Lynd Ward,
with text by Lynd Ward. (1974).
-- Kathleen Collins, June 2006
www.lib.washington.edu/subject/childrens/wordless_bibliography.pdf
