Inspired by Picasso's Read Period, a growing preference for less bull in my own picture book writing, and recent discussions on the health and prognosis for picture books, I decided to create the "Picasso Picture Book Scale," subtitled "The Art of Bullshifting."
Based on Picasso's lithograph series from 1945 titled Le Taureau, I find it useful to imagine the spectrum of picture book lengths as analogous to Picasso's abstraction of the bull.
Am I just feeding you a cock-and-bull story? Absolutely not! Though I hope by the end to impart a little of what I've learned from the art of bullshifting.
Here's a run-down of the featured picture books:
Bull 11: Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1,149 words)
Bull 10: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg (1,054 words)
Bull 9: Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág (965 words)
Bull 8: The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith (863 words)
Bull 7: The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf and Robert Lawson (737 words)
Bull 6: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson (657 words)
Bull 5: The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant and Stephen Gammell (523 words)
Bull 4: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (418 words)
Bull 3: Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (336 words)
Bull 2: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle (221 words)
Bull 1: Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems (161 words)
Picture book writers and readers can follow the genius of Picasso from "Bull 11" to "Bull 1," as he shifts from full bull to essential bull, from the corpulent to the core. By the way, don't you find it apropos t
2 Comments on The Picasso Picture Book Scale: The Art of Bullshifting and the State of the Contemporary Picture Book, last added: 11/29/2011
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Wow, Candace, what a great essay--and I love the bull scale! (Only, being in the ocean poems business myself these days, I am now picturing a bull covered with fish or dragon scales...) Anyway, I had read the Silvey article and liked it, partly because I'm into the relatively wordy subgenre of fairytales, but your paean to poetic picture book texts really makes sense! So perhaps it depends on the kind of story you're telling... :)
Thanks for the always thoughtful response, Kate! And I'm definitely looking forward to that poetry collection of yours:-)