Creative Collaborative Comedy

Students and library users in general, regardless of their knowledge of the particular classification system being used, can, without hesitation, direct you to the section in their school and public library housing their favorite books.  If they have not been taught fiction is alphabetical, they still know where to look.  Without mastering the Dewey Decimal Classification they can find the shelves holding the animal books.

If their resident librarian is nearby, they will tell them they can find their favorite books in any library if they know a few simple facts.  Fiction books are generally alphabetical by the author's last name.  It really is as easy as ABC.  Nonfiction books are found in numerical order.  It's as simple as first counting by hundreds.  For most early library users the best practice is to memorize their favorite nonfiction number.  For those animal books it's 590.

Some books break the mold when determining where they are to be shelved.  It can be tricky to decide whether it's fiction or nonfiction.  It can be much harder to figure out if it's really about the subject noted in the title.  This Is Not a Normal Animal Book (A Paula Wiseman Book, Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, November 7, 2017) written by Julie Segal-Walters with pictures by Brian Biggs is one of those books.  And it's rip-roaring hilarious!

Animals can be classified into groups by
their unique traits.

Here are some examples of
each category:

This is a straightforward introduction starting with a cat but when the narrator (author) adds

If the cat laid an egg . . .

everything begins to get a little crazy.  The other narrator (illustrator) has a completely different approach to the topic.

He first features the cat laying an egg because that's what the text said.  After the author shouts out the intended reply, the illustrator complies with a yellow note taped to the page showing a hen with an egg.  Each time the story continues in the voice of the author, the current animal switches activities changing it into another animal.

This, of course, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to the illustrator.  How can hopping on a lily pod make you a frog?  What do frogs and honey have in common?  The illustrator, in full mad-scientist mode, starts inventing creatures and names until the author puts a halt to it with a more detailed description of traits.

As the author continues with explicit characteristics, the illustrator voices his disapproval.  His artistic interpretation is being called into question.  The book comes to a screeching stop when the author names an animal the illustrator does not want to draw.  After failed attempts at how-about-this, a compromise seems to be reached.  No. Yes. What?!


This is one of those books when you read and read it again and read it still one more time, it becomes funnier and funnier.  You wonder how much laughter filled the room when debut author Julie Segal-Walters was writing this book.  The pacing is impeccable as the frustration on the part of the author and illustrator, within this narrative, heightens as they start to feel the process deteriorate.  The illustrator is struggling with the presentation of a mammal, bird, amphibian, insect and reptile.  As the author's final two choices are noted the illustrator's responses are guaranteed to have readers rolling on the floor with uncontrollable giggling.  Clearly this author and illustrator do not share the same vision.  Here is a passage.

If the bee slithered and hissed . . .
Oh, come on.
it would be a snake.
A plain green garter snake!
With a stripe down its back!
Look. You write the
words YOUR way.
I'll draw the pictures
MY way.


By all the extra elements on the front and back of the unfolded dust jacket you can't help but notice someone, the illustrator, is making adjustments.  The bright yellow background helps to draw the reader's attention to those changes.  On the back, to the left, on a white background a photograph of the selected amphibian is attached to a portion of the insect with scotch tape.  Crayon drawings visualize other attempts.  As on the front a crayon is shown along with an eraser.  The book case is bright yellow, front and back.  The title is Animal Book.  Beneath it is a hen.  This is utterly plain and simple.

On the opening and closing endpapers an assortment of orange wide-eyed animals are placed on the yellow background.  The animal shown at the end of the book is placed under the text on the initial title page, a foreshadowing of the last straw.  On the more formal title page the illustrator is back making humorous alterations.  A full color display of animals, several from each group, is shown on the first single page image.

In the following illustrations Brian Biggs moves from single page pictures, page edge to page edge, pages with notes taped to the page, crayons, photographs, paper cut-outs and jelly and other revisions to two pages of what can only be named as pure confusion or playful peevishness.  The font style changes between the voice of the author, normal typeface, and the illustrator, hand-written in crayon.  As the exasperation on the part of the illustrator grows so does the text and image sizes.  The author's annoyance escalates in the form of single words followed by periods and the use of exclamation points and capital letters.

One of my favorite, of numerous, illustrations is when the cat is bending over and looking at the egg.  The look of puzzlement on its face is enough to summon spontaneous grins, if not outright laughter.  This is one of the gifts Brian Biggs gives to readers; the comic expressions on the animals' faces when they notice the odd situations.


If you're looking for a book about the collaborative and creative process AND animals, This Is Not a Normal Animal Book written by Julie Segal-Walters with pictures by Brian Biggs is an excellent title.  It is read aloud gold which urges the use of voices for each character.  The Facts about Animals page at the end does give a fact about each animal but the illustrator has other thoughts which appear in orange crayon.

Insects
Insects have three-part bodies and outnumber all other animals.
They have VERY stinky feet. 

I can't imagine any collection, professional or personal, without a copy of this book.

Please visit the websites of Julie Segal-Walters and Brian Biggs to learn more about them and their other work by following the links attached to their names.  Teacher guides at Julie's site are here.  Julie is a featured guest writer at Picture Book Month's website in 2017.  At author Vivian Kirkfield's site, Picture Books Help Kids Soar, Julie Segal-Walters is interviewed.  At Brian's site there are several posts about this title.  You can view interior images at the publisher's website.

At Scholastic's Ambassador of School Libraries, John Schumacher's blog, Watch. Connect. Read., the cover reveal for the dust jacket is featured with an interview with Brian Biggs.  On the same date, educator extraordinaire, Colby Sharp, chats with Julie Segal-Walters at SHARPREAD with her case cover reveal in one of his 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 interviews.  Both Julie Segal-Walters and Brian Biggs visit with teacher librarian Matthew Winner at All The Wonders, Episode 401.

To Wednesday

At puppy Xena's first visit to the vet we were told as a sporting dog she needed long walks every single day.  So we did. In sickness and health (mine) not a day was missed.  There was also a great deal of running, swimming and hole digging (hers).  That's a lot of miles covered over fifteen years although during the last twelve months the walks became strolls and were shorter with lots of sniffing and pausing on her part.

All that walking for humans does not equal the same degree of senses used as it does for dogs.  Although there is quite a bit of seeing, smelling, and hearing what seems to happen the most is time for thinking unless you are taking a trip through your neighborhood.  That changes the entire experience.  Ideas Are All Around (A Neal Porter Book, Roaring Brook Press, March 1, 2016) written and illustrated by Philip C. Stead is about an author in search of an idea.

Today
outside my house
the sunflower opened up.

"Hello, Sunflower!"

After reflecting on the fact this is the only sunflower to be standing tall and blooming from an entire packet of seeds past their prime, we know this author needs a single thought to grow a story.  The dog Wednesday does not want to spend the day inside while her human explores their mind for the special something to start their writing.  Off they go on a walk.

Like a gardener holding an envelope labeled ideas, images and encounters with wildlife, strangers and welcoming residents are collected as this writer and Wednesday roam along familiar paths.  A painted turtle soaking in the sun on a log in the river is greeted by name before vanishing beneath the water.  On the other side of the river a treasured friend shouts a hello.  A memory surfaces about a long ago incident involving paint, an accident and a blue horse.

A line of ducks, graffiti words and a long-legged bird taking flight are duly noted.  As a train passes speculation quickly follows about where it might be going or where the tracks lead in the other direction.  A line of people hungry for breakfast, cloud watching and a probe into the past about the purchase of a typewriter occupy the neighborhood travelers.

Familiar birdsong interrupts the author's musings before Wednesday races after a squirrel.  Finally settling down for a chat with Barbara, the early morning greeter, things seen and remembered are woven into the comfortable conversation.  Soon

CLAK-CLAK-CLAK
CLAK-CLAK-DING!

is heard.


As each separate observation is revealed Philip C. Stead adds several sentences, statements or thoughts creating a gentle storytelling rhythm.  It's a rare gift for readers to see how his mind measures and assesses each one.  Dialogue is threaded through the narrative.  Most walkers can attest, especially those walking with their canine companion, speaking aloud or silently in your head is frequent, freeing and fun.  We feel our kinship with this man and his dog growing as the walk and story progresses.  Here is a sample passage.

"H-e-y-y-y-y, Barbara!" I call out.
"Maybe we'll stop by later!"
"Okay!" she says. ""I'll make coffee!"
Then comes a line of ducks
floating downstream.
"Hello," I say.
"I don't have any ideas today."
If the ducks have any advice
they keep it to themselves.


A gorgeous blend of artistic techniques, monoprinting, cardboard printing, painting on paper and applying pressure to the back, drawing in crayon on brown paper and cutting out the forms and pictures taken with a Polaroid camera, are used to render the illustrations in this book.  Across the dust jacket large brush strokes and swirls of blue paint form a horse with the other guide, the real dog Wednesday, running alongside in perfect unison.  On the book case an array of Polaroid pictures, seventeen, in rows of three on a background of white give us a first peek at them before their appearance on the interior pages.  The title text occupies one of the spaces.

Sunflower yellow covers the opening and closing endpapers.  Snapshots of Wednesday are shown before the story starts, one on the dedication.

Wednesday dedicates this book 
to the neighborhood.

A heavy matte-finished paper is an ideal canvas for the visuals placed together by Stead.  The cadence of page turns is altered by image size and the use of the Polaroid pictures.  To begin a single page illustration is on the right, a Polaroid on the left.  This slightly shifts with the addition of text on the right.  Then it's art above and below the text extending over two pages before a big beautiful blue horse appears on a double-page spread.  The layout and design are exquisite working in harmony with the words.

I can't help it.  One of my favorite illustrations is at the beginning of the book.  It's of Wednesday sitting on grass with a torn right edge overlapping green and white polka-dot paper.  She's looking right at the reader in all her shaggy-haired, loving wonderfulness.  A bright yellow circular sun is painted on white behind her head; most assuredly a halo for a guardian angel.


An author who needs an idea and a dog who needs a walk trek through their neighborhood, each happy with the results in Ideas Are All Around written and illustrated by Philip C. Stead.  It's a gathering of tiny kernels ready to sprout into stories after planted in a creative mind.  This book is a garden in full splendor.

To learn more about Philip C. Stead and his other work please visit his website by following the link attached to his name.  To access The Stead Collection pages please follow this link. A sweepstakes is being held in relation to this title.  Information can be found here.  To view eight interior images, including my favorite one, please go to the publisher's website. A teacher's guide for many of the Stead books and a wonderful activity kit for this title are available there also. Reading about the evolution of this book through a guest post by Stead at author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast is a marvelous.  On March 11, 2016 Philip C. Stead was a guest on the podcast Let's Get Busy, Episode 243. 

Happy book birthday to Philip C. Stead's Ideas Are All Around! https://t.co/7u0ERAUIaf @MacKidsBooks

— John Schu (@MrSchuReads) March 1, 2016

For The Love Of A Dog #4

Once you have bonded with your canine companion, you become the definition of two hearts beating as one.  You learn to read each other's intentions, moods and patterns.  A wise vet told me a happy dog is a tired dog, so Xena and I spent hours outdoors.  We ran or walked from four to five miles per day along the lake shores, down country roads and through the woods, no matter the season or the weather.

During those excursions as I watched her I became more aware of my surroundings in a sensory way; acutely aware of sounds and smells and not relying strictly on sight.  You are able to let your mind wander on little or large things.  At the end of the day or during quiet times of reading or writing, your dog brings a peaceful presence into the room; a muse for many.

Shortly after she was four Xena had her first seizure.  I had finished working in my study in the loft.  I was a couple of stairs ahead of her as we descended.  She started to falter and tumbled.  I caught her before she fell any further but after that episode, she never followed me there again.  Before Wi-Fi, when I still worked upstairs, she would get as close to me as she could, waiting for me next to the bottom step.  Knowing she was there kept me centered.

Through social media I have found I am not alone in having a furry friend who supplies artistic support and inspiration.  A Lucky Author Has A Dog (Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., September 29, 2015) written by Mary Lyn Ray with illustrations by Steven Henry portrays the special connection between an author and her dog over the course of several days.  Everyone has stories to tell. Prepare to find your story.


Early in the morning, people are waking and going to work.

A dog is ready to go to work too.  First their author needs to wake up and get dressed.  After breakfast the best part for the dog is their human works from home rather than leaving.  Ever attentive the dog knows when the author needs a creative push.

Authors can and do write in a variety of places, at times working feverishly or stalling when searching for the correct thought.  Wondering how to further assist the dog stays near, available for action and watching every movement.  As the pile of discarded ideas grows, this is a clear signal for the dog.  It's time to get outdoors for a walk.

As a team, sometimes one searching in one direction while the other looks in the opposite, they seek stories.  They close their walk in dinner time companionship.  As night turns into day, something feels out of the ordinary to the dog.  What's this?  The author is leaving.

It's Author Day at the local school.  The author speaks to the students.  They pepper her with questions and she cheerfully responds encouraging them to become authors.  Guess who's waiting for the author at home, leash at the ready, looking out the window?  Both are very fortunate because...


Mary Lyn Ray begins this story with her dedication:

For all the dogs who,
of themselves, make us lucky
              ---MLR

As she recounts their time together, she does so using an easy, conversational voice.  She alternates between why she is lucky and the dog is lucky revealing how an author seeks a story and how it grows.  During her author visit dialog makes the event relevant and real for the readers.  Here is a sample passage.

After lunch there's time for book signing.

A first grader warns, "You shouldn't do that.
You'll get sent to the principal for writing in books."

A third grader asks, "Why do you always write
about dogs?"


Created in Corel Painter 12 (The final illustrations were based on original pencil sketches.) by Steven Henry these cheerful images begin with the matching front dust jacket and book case.  The dog, head cocked, is looking directly at the reader among the evidence of an author hard at work.  The wagging tail shows an eagerness to supply what is needed at the moment.  On the back, to the left, an interior image and two sentences are placed on a background of white.

The opening and closing endpapers are the same shade as the brown in the dog's collar.  On the title page beneath the same text in red, the author is sound asleep with her dog tucked around her body on the bed.  The verso and dedication pages' text is enclosed in a two-page picture of a New York City street and its citizens going about their morning.

For the majority of the pictures Henry's background is white (on thicker matte finished paper).  He may spread his illustrations across two pages, on a single page or group them in fours on two pages to supply pacing.  At one point urgency is generated by five smaller illustrations together over two pages.

There is softness in his pictures but an obvious energy.  His people are fully engaged in life; perhaps mirroring the ardor of the author's dog.  Readers will want to pause and absorb all the details; a mother in a stopped car giving her child a teething ring, someone new moving in next door to the author's apartment as the dog looks out the window, and all the authors at work have animal company even if it's a stuffed one.  Careful readers will notice the presence of the girl wearing the polka-dotted boots several times in the narrative.  And watch the blue balloon at the end.

One of my favorite pictures is of the author taking a break by walking her dog in the afternoon.  Steven Henry's design and layout is impeccable.  The perspective shifts from left to right drawing our attention to the dog gleefully running down the street.  Who's walking who?  I think I can hear panting and barking.


Not only are we introduced to the practices of an author but we are made aware of the importance of a dog in this author's life.  In A Lucky Author Has A Dog written by Mary Lyn Ray with illustrations by Steven Henry we are welcomed into a wonderful world full of perseverance and exploration.  This title has much to offer for those who know the importance of a canine's place in their lives, for those wondering how the daily life of an author truly is and for those about to have an author visit their school.   Readers are lucky to have this author and her dog.

To learn more about Mary Lyn Ray and Steven Henry and their other work please follow the links attached to their names to access their websites.  Steven Henry visits author, reviewer and blogger Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

. @Loveofxena A Lucky Author Has a Dog looks great! http://t.co/NOuDx3d0BV pic.twitter.com/8ZIajdB6pJ

— John Schu (@MrSchuReads) May 21, 2015