For my Library Materials for Children class, I had to evaluate a picture book. Remember those? If not, you should revisit them. Picture books are one of the best forms of reading, no matter your age. Beautiful artwork combined with essential language makes for an exhilarating read. This one was the 1992 Caldecott Medal winner and was named as an ALA Notable Children's Book.
David Wiesner’s Tuesday (1991) tells a story – with almost no words. “Tuesday evening, around eight,” frogs go joyriding when their lilies come to life. This time indication and one more are the only words in the book. While flying their lilies, the frogs pull midair tricks, startle a late night snacker in his kitchen, don capes stolen from a clothesline, watch television, and battle a dog. At the end, the reader discovers the start of a new escapade the next Tuesday.
To tell a story only in pictures, those pictures need to be expressive, both in emotion and plot. Wiesner does this with frogs’ faces that reveal fun, mischief, anxiety, and surprise. Other characters in the book similarly emote.
Wiesner also works well with light. With the events of the book occurring at night, moonlight spotlights faces and animals in an otherwise dim scene. Lights from windows and televisions do the same. Wiesner uses pictures within pictures effectively, with backgrounds setting a scene and smaller frames moving the action along.
Though watercolors are often known for more impressionist scenes, Wiesner creates detailed and realistic settings. Readers instantly connect with kitchens, living rooms, birds on power lines, and clothes hanging in the yard. Yet the fantastic idea of frogs flying lilies through those clothes makes way for the reader’s imagination.
Telling a story without words is difficult indeed; the pictures have to tell the whole story. Wiesner’s whimsical tale enchants readers with its art and its story.
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