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Pig Tale by Helen Oxenbury (1973) Analysis
Pig Tale is a 1973 picture book by Helen Oxenbury. I’ve already taken a close look at The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig, which is one of my favourite picturebooks of all time. That was written by Eugene Trivizas and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, probably because she already had a reputation for […]
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The Useless Donkeys by Lydia Pender and Judith Cowell (1979) Analysis
The Useless Donkeys is a 1979 picture book written by Lydia Pender and illustrated by Judith Cowell. At first I thought The Useless Donkeys was going to be a more realistic, earlier version of Walter The Farting Dog in which an adult threatens to get rid of a family pet, but over the course of […]
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Jack And The Flumflum Tree by Julia Donaldson and David Roberts Analysis
Jack and the Flumflum Tree is a picture book by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by David Roberts. The title suggests this may be a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk but it’s not really — this is an original tale based on mythic structure with elements of Little Red Riding Hood (the sick grandma) and pirate […]
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The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko Analysis
The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch is another feminist picturebook from the 1980s in which a scruffy princess does not end up marrying the prince. In fact, it must be one of the earliest of its kind. It’s published in 1980 and remains one of Munsch’s most popular books.
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That Is NOT A Good Idea by Mo Willems Analysis
That is NOT A Good Idea is a picture book written and illustrated by the Mo Willems team. This is a funny book which makes use of silent film techniques.
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Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole Analysis
Princess Smartypants is an example of a children’s picture book which uses gender reversal to tell a story that would never really happen. What if women of high socio-economic status could choose their own marriage/non-marriage partners? The ending plays into the stereotypically MRA fear — if women were allowed autonomy they may choose not to include men at all. […]
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Madeline And The Gypsies by Ludwig Bemelmans Analysis
Madeline and the Gypsies is one of the sequels to Madeline a classic picture book by Ludwig Bemelmans. Ludwig Bemelmans named his fictional little girl after his real-life wife. Although if you know any Madelines, you may find her name is spelt (more traditionally) with an extra ‘e’, as was Madeleine Bemelmans’ name. This series […]
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Bossyboots by David Cox Picture Book Analysis
I was very wary picking up a book called Bossyboots to read to my daughter. ‘Bossy’ is a heavily gendered word. There’s no way a book called ‘Bossyboots’ would ever star a boy. So the first thing I checked was the year of publication. 1985, I thought. Well, this could be a good thing. Overtly […]
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Girls Who Love Dogs In Children’s Literature
What if you have a canine loving girl and she would like to see herself reflected in literature? Well, girls and dogs have in previous eras and in other cultures been seen together quite often. OLD SCHOOL KIDLIT ABOUT GIRLS AND THEIR LOVE FOR DOGS The 1940s gave us George and Timmy, though Enid Blyton […]
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Leaf by Stephen Michael King Picture Book Analysis
Leaf by Australian storyteller Stephen Michael King is a wordless book comprising pictures and onomatopoeia. How does one write flap copy for a (largely) wordless picture book? The publishers of leaf have obviously done a test read with a young reader called Amelia and they quoted her response for the flap. This story reminds me […]
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Eric by Shaun Tan Picture Book Analysis
Eric is a miniature, post-modern picture book by Australian author illustrator Shaun Tan. This simple story says big things about cultural difference. The character design of Eric looks to me a little like Vertebrae C6, which could lead me in the direction of an absolutely ridiculous reading, but we shan’t be doing that today. NOTES […]
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More! by Peter Schossow Picture Book Analysis
Peter Schossow’s picture book More! is wordless in the same way Robert Redford’s All Is Lost is wordless: Both contain one spoken word, imbued with huge weight accordingly. Gecko Press brought this book from German to English in 2010, and have also translated another of Schossow’s works: My First Car Was Red. Even a ‘wordless’ picture […]
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The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan Analysis
The Rabbits by John Marsden and Shaun Tan is an example of a modern environmental picture book, which critiques the historical environmental disaster which was the introduction of rabbits into Australia. Much has already been said about that. John Marsden has done a couple of interesting things with the traditional story structure, especially in the […]
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A Squash And A Squeeze Analysis by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler Analysis
A Squash and a Squeeze is a 1993 picture book written by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Sheffler. The plot is very old. A Squash and a Squeeze was published in 1993, when Donaldson was 44. It was not expected to be a big seller. For one thing, it was in rhyme, which publishers at […]