Personal Reading Program 1

The two books I have focussed on this week are:

Margaret Wild and Anne Spudvilas, Jenny Angel , and

Michael Rosen and Quentin Blake,  Michael Rosen’s Sad Book.

This week’s textbook reading discussed the need to expose children to complex themes on the journey towards understanding ‘big ideas and complex thoughts’ in an ‘intellectually honest form’ (pp. 489 & 494).  Both of these picture books deal with the death of a family member (drawing on each author’s own experiences) and the emotions and behaviours that may accompany such life experiences.  These are sensitive accounts that I found evoked powerful emotions and could justifiably be described as enriching the life of the reader.

In Jenny Angel Wild conveys hope, courage, denial and ultimate acceptance as a young girl seeks to protect her brother during the course of his terminal illness.  Mention of every-day activities such as doing the dishes, an English test, playing netball and swapping sandwiches at lunchtime would help children identify with Jenny and empathise with her experiences. The story-line is reinforced by the gentle watercolour illustrations by Spudvilas.  I especially appreciate the way she has tenderly portrayed the relationship between the children as well as that of Jenny and her mother in the final image (the shooting star adds to the poignancy of the captured moment). It is neither a simplistic nor superficial treatment of the subject. Two of Wild’s other picture books, Old Pig and The Very Best of Friends are also powerful representations of similar themes.

Rosen’s account is an honest and at times humorous account of his grief at the loss of his son, Eddie.  He makes strong links between emotions and behaviour and the complexities therein.  This is exemplified by the juxtaposition between an illustration of the author grinning and the opening line:  ‘This is me being sad’.  He writes in a matter-of-fact way about the ways that he tries to mask his sadness to make it more ‘acceptable’ to others, and reflects on some of the ways he tries to cope with his deep sadness.  It offers children (and adults) a rare and insightful window into grief – a subject that is so often treated as taboo in our society.  The illustrations by Blake could almost be a stand-alone telling of Rosen’s story:  The blank space after a series of illustrations portraying Eddie’s growing-up; the series of images in which the sunlight disappears to shadow; greys in the darkest times and colour for the happy memories … and the single candle in the concluding image.