Assignment 1 By Sandra Lumbreras

Children picture books: Visual elements Line Shape Color Texture Composition

Line: “This Is Not My Hat” by Jon Klassen The story in “This Is Not My Hat” exemplifies “Line” one of the visual elements of picture books. The pictures on the book are simple, and have motion in it. The story is about a small fish that steals Big Fish’s small hat. As the small fish is talking about the different possibilities of getting away with the hat, Big Fish’s facial expressions express the opposite, when he wakes up and finds out he doesn’t have the hat, sets motion to the mood of the story.

Shape: “It’s A Book” by Lane smith Books that have the visual element of “shape” include geometrical figures like squares, ovals, and circles in the story of the book. In the book “It’s A Book” by Smith, L., The characters in the story were drawn with geometrical figures. The face of the monkey’s head has the shape of a circle, the mouse a triangle and the jackass ears are ovals. Not only that, monkey’s shirt is poke a dots, and the chairs in the story are in rectangle shape. All characteristics of “shape” that convey action in the story.

Color: “Martina The Beautiful Cockroach” by Carmen Agra Deedy One of the elements that spark my attention in the book “ Martina The Beautiful Cockroach” was color. The vivid colors of green, red, yellow, blue, and brown allowed me to see the emotions each character felt in the story. When Martina spills coffee to the rooster you could clearly see the reaction of the rooster, furious, and his true personality, cockiness, towards Martina the cockroach.

Texture: “The Three Pigs” by David Wiesner “ The Three Pigs” exemplify the visual element of texture in that the three pigs in the story are illustrated in a 3-D effect. These effects attract the attention of the reader in wanting to touch it. I like the part where the first pig comes out of the story before the wolf blows off the house and eats him.

Composition: “Where The Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak Composition involves all visual elements: line, shape, color, and texture. “Where The Wild Things Are” has a combination of line, shape and color throughout the story. The pictures on the book are simple, full of expressions, color and some texture. I can tell the story by going through the pictures. I think this particular book has more of the line, shape and color elements, than texture. I did not see the use of 3d and computer graphical effects on the book.

Evaluation criteria Characters Plot Setting Theme Style Illustrations Cultural Markers

Characters: “Olivia” by Ian falconer The characters in the book “Olivia” are a family of pigs (dad, mom and brother and sister) in which the main character is Olivia. Olivia’s character is of a little pig full of energy that likes to run, jump, play, play dress-up, has a great imagination and doesn’t like to go and sleep early. All qualities that parallel with children ranging from ages 3 to 8 years old. The character in the book attracts the attention of young readers since they reflect themselves in the character “Olivia”. I makes it a believable story.

Plot: “The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch In evaluating the criteria of plot I went ahead and selected the book “The Paper Bag Princess” because the pictures on the book give out the plot of the story, climax and resolution. Princess Elizabeth plans to marry Prince Ronald but is interrupted by the dragon destroying her castle, burning her clothes and stealing her prince charming.

Setting: “My Teacher Is A Monster” by Peter Brown The setting set on “ My Teacher Is A Monster” is in the classroom and the park. The picture of a class full of students, chairs and the teacher gives out the setting of the story and the time it is taking place. The scene where Robert sees the teacher in the park sitting in a bench suggests that is after school. Both the classroom and the park are important settings to have for the story to take place.

Theme: “Legend Of The Bluebonnet” by Tomie Depaola The “Legend Of The Bluebonnet” is about an Indian little girl named She who is alone that burns her doll the only possession she has left of her love ones (parents and grandparents) for the spirits to forgive her people and make rain come again. Her sacrifice and unselfishness to give her most valuable possession for the best of her people is a story readers can find meaning of without the necessity to speak of the lesson behind it.

Style: “Mirror, Mirror” by Marilyn Singer Mirror, Mirror by Marilyn Singer is a great example to use as criteria for style. The author uses classical fairy tales in poetry to give reading a different perspective. You are able to read a poem backwards given it a twist to the opposite of what was read the right way. Something the author calls as reverso. Example: A cat without a chair: Incomplete. Incomplete: A chair without a hat. Singer sets her own style and voice in this picture book.

Illustrations: “Where The Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak The illustrations in the book “Where The Wild Things Are” set the mood of the story. Not all illustrations have a reading part to the story but the images itself allow the reader and non-reader to know what it is about. In the part where Max cried, “let the wild rumpus start!” You can see detail pictures on the following pages of the wild things and Max chanting and growling to the moon, climbing trees and marching with Max as their king. A great picture book to read.

Cultural markers: “Martina The Beautiful Cockroach” by Carmen Agra Deedy The book of “Martina The Beautiful Cockroach” a Cuban Folktale presents some cultural markers in the elements of evaluation criteria. As I was reading the book, I came across Spanish words like Caramba and Don Gallo which entails the language the characters speaks. I am not aware of the Cuban culture but from what I read I could tell Martina the cockroach values family and its culture. She listen to her grandmother’s advice of spilling coffee to her suitor’s to find out which will make a fine husband for her.