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Vivian,

I have to admit I hadn’t given a lot of thought to childrens books before I took this course. (Trends and issues in critical literacy) I’m starting realize from the exploration of childrens books we did at the Critical Literacy Conference from listening to Mini Grey talk about her creative process that children’s books really are a unique form of art. Some of the works can be very profound and contain many layers of meaning-just like great works of art. As with visual art, my preference is for pieces that interpret experience in an aesthetic way but don’t contain an explicit message or lesson, I find that a little condescending and frankly not as beautiful… With the children’s books I’ve examined through this course, I find the ones I most appreciate are also this way. They provide different layers of meaning, trips through the imagination and are ripe for exploration and always leave you asking more questions.

Erin

Hi Erin,
I think as in the different layers of meaning, as readers we also can engage in different layers of reading depending on the perspectives from which we read a text. As in your comment regarding the children’s books you most appreciate, I think a sign of a book that ‘works’ for someone is whether it is generative or not ie. does a reading a particular text lead to further inquiries and so forth.

Can’t wait to hear more about your thoughts on children’s books.

Thanks
vivian

Vivian,
What an inventive way to produce a text-based interview! I may have to try that with Desperate Husbands. I could have Diane read the email questions.

And THANK YOU for the nice shoutout. I really do appriecate yours and Andy support!

-Charles

Thanks Charles! Good idea with having Diane read the e-mail questions…I think that would work out nicely. I have a lot of DH and MN to catch up on…this weekend is the time for it!

vivian

[…] On this show An interview with author Mini Grey Podcasts […]

very good

Hi Vivian,
This topic is right up my alley. Since taking your critical literacy class and now that I am a mother-to-be, I am always on the look out for great books to add to my child’s library collection. I am excited to add Ms. Grey’s picture books to my child’s library. I love taking a classic tale and giving it a new twist. I remember reading classic fairy tales and feeling sort of cheated since they all ended with a happy ending. What does “happily ever after” really mean? It’s nice to know that there are books out there that tell stories from a different perspective. It gives parents and teachers a wonderful tool to help children probe deeper and help they become active readers, rather than just passive listeners who accept “the end.” Thanks for the great interview! -Kristina

Vivian,
Listening to this interview, and having read Traction Man in your Children’s Literature class, I feel that I have a clearer sense of how such a text could be created. I love the idea of layering the real life illustrations of a kitchen with the make-believe world that a child and his action figure perceive. The thing that strikes me about this particular method of authoring is that it is quite removed from the way that we suggest that children should go about creating their own pieces. In the school where I work we utilize a workshop approach to writing (and reading for that matter). In the first grade, our authors are instructed to draw what they will write. If there is something in their pictures that is not in their writing, we teachers encourage our students to go back and add words to their text that more fully explain their illustration. Clearly this process does not leave much room for a dual story line that is told through pictures and words. I think that students would love to have the opportunity to work on this level, and even in primary grades they could experience success with this layering because often times they can be so much more expressive with art than they can be with words. I can even envision using some of the mentor texts that they have already grown accustom to as examples of how this would work. In particular, I am imagining Kevin Henkes fabulously funny book, Julius, Baby of the World, wherein there is one page that is told without words, through the use of a series of small drawings of Lilly in her time-out chair. I need only to show the children this page to the class and let their eyes march across the pictures and they are in stitches. They get it, and I think that if the thinking were modeled properly, this would be engaging (read: fun) and exciting work for young authors.

Thanks,
Rachel

I love how her text offers different perspectives on characters. In picture books she can tell two versions of the story. Even young children can pick up on the stories being told through the pictures. She uses pictures to show complex and subtle messages. Ordinary objects are given a second life and analogies are drawn between things which encourage creativity. Reading and writing become exciting through a creative process, they also become more exciting when they are brought together. Making picture books also sounds like an amazing process where so many mediums are combined to form the final product.

Vivian,
I enjoyed listening to your interview with Mini Grey. After hearing it read in your class, I checked it out of the library for my own 2nd grade class. I knew that they would love the idea of an everyday hero that goes on wild adventures. A problem I have faced this year in my teaching is getting children to use their imagination. I think that they feel that because they haven’t had a lot of adventures, like the stories we read in class, that they have no stories of their own to tell. I read this book and we talked about what kind of adventures Traction Man had and that even though they happened in our ordinary settings, that the adventures were anything but ordinary.

For Writer’s Workshop, we talked about what kinds of ordinary things we could exaggerate on to make extraordinary stories. The stories that they wrote about Traction Man (or Traction Lady as some students preferred) were by far the most creative, detailed stories they’ve written this school year. I like that Mini Grey purposely created this story about ordinary things that she gave a “second life” too. Her book and helped my kids realize what an adventure story really is and that it’s more than the adventures portrayed on TV and in movies. It helped them find value in their own everyday experiences.

Thanks,
Anjuli

Hello ,my name is Capri and I teach the first grade. I really enjoyed your interview, and it is also nice hearing the authors point of view on the book that was written.
I specifically enjoyed it because it shows how Ms. Mini Grey used her imagination and maybe became a child while writing this book. I haven’t read the book to my children yet, but it was read to me by my professor, but as I listened to the book I used my imagination, by putting myself in Traction Man shoes and actually becoming the character. I believe that my students will do the same thing especially since they love action heroes. It has been a pleasure listening to your podcast.
Thank you,
Capri C.

After enjoying the “Traction Man”, book in class, I can appreciate the imagery of Mini Grey. I enjoyed hearing about her creative process as she wrestled with the contrast between words and the visual. Much of what she said was indicative of the film process I undergo when I am in the pre-production phase of a film. I found it insightful and interesting to hear that book authors and illustrators are obsessed with this whole notion of the image and its affects and proximity in the story and on the page. Ms Grey indicated that she found wonder in ordinary things and often developed and built her story around this. I think that filmmakers and other creative people are challenged everyday to interpret their surroundings, seeing things from an unconventional filter, digesting life through the eyes of humanity. Interesting interview!

Vivian,

THanks for a great interview! I liked the concept of making the ordinary extraordinary. I haven’t read any of Mini Grey’s books, although now I will have to, but the description of how she takes an everyday scene and brings it one step beyond reality into the imagination could be a great tool in the classroom. Reading a book like this with a class could inspire students to do something similar. As students begin to do that, they are starting the process of constructing their own reality. Doing something like this could help students begin to question something that they may have previously considered to be an absolute truth, one important component of critical literacy.

Vivian,

This interview made the connections between Traction Man and critical literacy much more explicit for me. After reading the book in class, we had discussed the ways in which the book called for a return to the imaginative nature of childhood; the emancipation of the spirit from pre-packaged adventures. While I still think this is an important aspect of the book’s message, I now find myself focusing on the concept of limitation. The fun of Traction Man is his ability to transform a household for a child, but his crowning achievement came only after he was stripped down to nothing more than a doll in a green yarn suit. Only then was Traction Man’s success a direct result of a child’s imagination rather than a mass-produced gadget.
I hate to see children upset, but I would rather set limits than allow too much “freedom” to limit the imagination. It may be easier to get what you want, but ultimately there is more joy to be had from overcoming the challenge.

Thank you for an enlightening semester!

Warmly,
Diana