Sunday, September 6, 2015

Caldecott Evaluation: The lion and the mouse by J. Pinkney

Jessica Drinks (LIBS 642)
The lion and the mouse by J. Pinkney

GRAND CALDECOTT EVALUATION

                Jerry Pinkney is both the author and illustrator of  The lion and the mouse.  The book’s cover measures approximately 11 by 10 inches.  It has a very large illustration of a lion on the front of the book and the mouse on the back.  Interestingly, there is no title on the front cover.   Both of the size of the cover and lack of a title made me immediately pay attention to the large drawing of the lion on the front.  Once I opened the book, the title, author/illustrator’s name, and a short summary are located on the front dust jacket design.  The endpapers are completely covered by even more amazing illustrations—a full safari scene in the front with lions, elephants, zebras, and giraffes and a family of lions with their cubs giving the mouse family a ride on the back.  The inside of the back endpaper houses the “artist’s note” that explains the story’s basis in the Aesop fable.  The large number of illustrations really caught my attention and drew me into the story before I even began “reading” it (I put reading in quotes since it is a wordless book).
                The illustrator uses both watercolors and colored pencils to create the illustrations, which are done in a very realistic way.  The use of watercolor gives a lot of movement to the drawings and the use of white in the background instead of sky blue is very calming.  In the beginning of the book, the large illustrations take up two pages.  The use of such large illustrations suggests that the author is drawing the reader into the story with the sizeable, detailed pictures.  On some of the pages the illustration is very large and in your face, such as when the lion is caught in the trap.  This causes a heightened sense of danger for the reader.  On other pages, the illustrations are drawn inside panels, suggesting a sequence to the action for the reader.  The panels show that the reader should follow the movement from left to right, the way you would read a comic book.  The story of “The lion and the mouse” is a classic Aesop’s fable.  While the giant, majestic lion and the tiny, scampering mouse feel like opposites of the animal kingdom in a written version of the story, they are equal in heart in this wordless book.  The illustrator uses the cover to draw both animals the same size, suggesting that they are both worthy of being saved by the other.
 The cover shows both the lion and the mouse in an outdoor, wild environment, so I knew immediately that it wasn’t a story inside a zoo or other enclosure.  As soon as I opened the book, the inside illustrations show a large scene of the African grasslands with multiple examples of animals native to Africa (giraffe, zebra, elephant, etc.)  Because the cover shows both the lion and the mouse, we immediately recognize them as the main characters.  Even on pages with other animals in the drawings, the lion and mouse are always the main focus, either because of their size or location on the page.  For example, when the lion is caught up in the trap, there are howler monkeys in the background, shouting out.  But the lion takes up the majority of the page so that the reader knows the monkeys are not the focus.
                As far as visual elements go, Straight lines in the drawings give the pictures height, such as mouse balancing on tall grasses when he hears the lion’s roar after being captured.  The wavy lines on the lion’s mane and mouse’s fur give much realistic detail to their appearance.  Cross hatching gives depth to the drawings, such as in the grasses underfoot.  Curved lines give movement to the illustrations.  The illustrations are done in a very muted, realistic color palette.  The color fills the page, not just with the main characters but also the detailed backgrounds.  The realistic coloring makes the reader wonder if this story could actually happen in real life.  Some of the pages include illustrations completed inside square panels.  The use of these panels almost acts like a frame around the illustration, giving it emphasis.  The drawings of animals are done in natural, curvy shapes without jarring, harsh straight lines.  There is so much texture in the illustrations that some of the pages almost feel like photographs!  The illustrator showed so much detail and texture in the environment (grasses, rocks, trees), animals (fur, eyes, faces), and supporting details (rope, net).  The rope looks braided and tangled, not flat.  The lion’s mane is large and fluffy.  The tree bark is uneven and rough as the mouse scampers across it.
                The use of panels in the rescue sequence draws attention to the plot of the lion.  In the first panel, we see the mouse climbing grasses, going about his daily routine.  The text “RRRROOOOAAARRRRrrr” is shown above his head.  The next panel shows the mouse running along the branch in search of the lion.  The next panel shows the mouse pausing and looking up, trying to find the location of that distressed call.  The fourth panel shows the mouse discovering the rope that holds the lion in the trap.  This arrangement of panels gives a sequence of movements to the story in the way that a single drawing could not do.  We follow along with the mouse as he suddenly becomes aware of the lion’s distress and then finds the lion in his predicament.

                In my opinion, the most outstanding feature of this book is the fact that it’s wordless.  The illustrations make words unnecessary in this story.  The detail of each illustration leads the reader through the story without being bogged down by dialogue.  And honestly, while animals can communicate within species, animals from different species don’t usually communicate.  So I found this story to be realistic, even though it’s based on a fable.  The very few times that text is used in the book show the importance of those instances, such as the “RRROOOOAAAARRrrr” across the top of two pages when the lion is first trapped and the tiny text that shows “squeak, squeak, squeak” in the mouse’s den.


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