The two books that were read for this week's blog post were: drawn together and I Talk Like A River. Both books are written from the perspective of the authors and both are considered to be narratives.
Before we dive into this week's books let me introduce you to the authors and illustrators.
drawn together
drawn together is authored by Minh Le (pictured right) and illustrated by Dan Santat. This book connects to the personal experiences of both the author and illustrator because they both had grandparents that spoke a different language than English. Minh Le's grandparents spoke Vietnamese and Dan Santat's grandparents spoke Thai. Both the author and illustrator understand the frustrations that come with a language barrier, but in the story, we come to find out that love is a universal language.
Author Website: http://minhlebooks.com/drawntogether
Read Aloud by the author :
Illustrator: Dan Santat
Illustrator Website: https://www.dantat.com/
Other works authored/illustrated by Dan Santat ( pictured below)
I Talk Like a River
Author: Jordan Scott (pictured right in the picture below)
Illustrator: Sydney Smith (pictured left in the picture below)
Illustrator Website: https://www.sydneydraws.ca/
Winner of the Schneider Family Book Award
A New York Times Best Children's Book of the Year
I Talk Like a River is a beautiful story that details the speech struggles of a young boy. Jordan Scott always has the words he wants to say in his mind, but they never come out quite right. He struggles because he doesn't speak like other kids, and they notice his speech differences. One day Jordan's dad takes him down to the river after a bad speech day and compares his speech to the unpredictability of the river and the bubbling, churning, whistling, and crashing of it. Jordan finds peace in the comparison and learns to embrace his differences.
Video message by the author and illustrator:
Part 1:
I want to focus on this week’s blog post primarily on drawn together by Minh Le and Dan Santat. I felt personally drawn to this story because of my own personal experiences with language barriers. I will intertwine my personal experiences into this blog post while discussing the literary and artistic elements of this book.
The author and illustrator of drawn together did an outstanding job at “building content through showing, not telling”. This is a narrative writing strategy that is discussed in Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children’s Literature, K-6 (pg. 104) This book perfectly embodies the concept of showing and not telling because the main characters are not able to “tell” each other their stories. They try to talk to each other using their voices, but they are separated by a language barrier. The main character, a young child, speaks English, while his Grandpa speaks Vietnamese, so there is little communication between the two main characters and in the book overall. However, even though the main characters aren’t able to voice their stories, they are able to draw them. The two main characters draw artistic representations of themselves, a dragon, a battle, the dragon forming into a bridge, and the grandpa and grandson being reunited.
Their drawings represent so much more than a simple “doodle”. They tell a story; their story. The young grandson draws himself as a modern-day magician -warrior, while the grandpa draws himself as a more traditional Vietnamese warrior. They begin to draw a world in which “words can’t describe”.
Their drawings represent so much more than a simple “doodle”. They tell a story; their story. The young grandson draws himself as a modern day magician warrier, while the grandpa draws himself as a more traditional vietnamese warrier. They begin to draw a world in which “words can’t describe”. Their drawings are filled with the artistic representation of both of their drawing styles. They are able to stand in the middle of their drawing world and realize how much they have created together. The most important part in this story is when the grandson and grandpa are separated by an overlook that is guarded by a monster. This monster can represent the language barrier between the grandpa and his grandson. However, when they switch writing tools and look at the world from each other’s perspective, they are transform the monster, something that they once feared, into a bridge. This bridge symbolizes their connection through drawing that has brought them together. You can tell that the author perfectly showed this by having their individual drawing styles "take over" parts of their original drawing style ( pictured right). It is important to notice that one drawing style does not completely change and morph the original illustrations of each character'a drawing, but it adds to it.
Even though there is little dialogue used in this story, the author and illustrator “ build content through dialogue”, another strategy mentioned in Mentor Texts (pg. 106). From the beginning of the story, the only dialogue used is small phrases from the grandson and his grandfather. I know from watching the author read-aloud his story that they are so close to matching the questions and phrases that they are asking each other, but because of the language barrier, they aren’t able to understand (pictured left)
It is obvious that both grandfather and grandson are frustrated because of the language barrier, but they are able to learn a new language through drawing which connects them. Their drawing connects them in a way that “after years of searching for the right words, we find ourselves happily, SPEECHLESS.” Love is a universal language and both characters are able to grasp that concept.
Using both of these strategies and approaches could teach students the importance of using illustrations to help guide their audience/readers. Often students neglect to create more details in illustrations because the focus in schools is typically on the writing itself. However, based on drawn together it is apparent that drawings can have the same impact as words. Even if students do not see themselves as “artistic” they are still able to create details within their illustrations that convey the story’s message.
Part 2:
For my own narrative writing, I decided to use drawn together and I Talk Like a River as a mentor text. I wanted to use the artistic style of drawn together and the style of a graphic novel. While reading drawn together and I Talk Like a River, I enjoyed how Minh Le and Dan Satnat told their story by “showing, and not telling” in the beginning part of their book; it was also an overall message of this story to portray the language barriers. I also enjoyed how I Talk Like a River zoomed in on certain parts of the main character’s eyes ( pictured above) I felt that we could see into the feelings and emotions of the main character. I used both of these artistic media to enhance my narrative writing.
I retold a narrative I have written in my writer’s notebook. I wanted to “show, but not tell” while also including “dialogue” that adds to the story. I don’t want to show the entire story because it is a bit lengthy. I didn’t realize how much focus it took to create my written narrative into a graphic novel-type story. However, I truly enjoyed the experience because I focused on certain “scenes” that would create the beginning, middle, and end of my narrative.
Beginning (pictured below): I represent my restless slumber by “showing and not telling”. I focused on my face and my eyes. I wanted to truly emphasize the restlessness that I was facing. I used writing from my first-person point of view in the very first scene of my story. I didn't want to incorporate dialogue just yet, but I wanted to give my readers a little bit of a back story.
Middle (pictured below): I wanted to begin using a small amount of dialogue because it makes sense in the story. Everything is quiet in my house, so I am tiptoeing. But, when I reach my parent’s door I can hear them snoring and my mom tells me to “count sheep” to help me fall asleep. I wanted to put her dialogue in a different handwriting form. Her voice is different than mine, so the dialogue that represents her voice should be different as well.
Ending: If I was using this example as a mentor text for my students, I would want my students to come up with their own version of the ending, using the strategies of "show, don't tell" and using dialogue to enhance the story. Every child would have a different depiction of what would happen next... they can make their own satisfying ending. Have I already created my own ending? Of course. It is my story after all. However, if you're reading this blog post I want you to create your own ending.
Pictured below is a snippet from the beginning of my narrative. My writing is a mess... that is because I am a writer after all :)
In my opinion, using illustrations to show and not tell was an amazing experience. I had to focus on the little details that made my story what it was... and boy was it challenging. However, I love a good challenge. I focused on my eyes to illustrate how frustrated I was to be awake and emphasize that I was 100% awake in the middle of the night. I created frames in the spread that were just colored in black; I wanted to represent the overall darkness of the hallway. I also created frames that showed my feet tip-toeing down the hall, so I didn't wake the whole house up. It was difficult to portray this using a drawing... I am bad at drawing feet. However, my toes are stubby, so it adds a part of me to the story.
I want my students to focus on the parts of their story that they can "show and not tell". Many people (myself included) get lost in their words... I start to go down a rabbit hole and often times it is too late for me to pull myself out by the time I realize I'm going down it. However, focusing on which elements I want to illustrate and which I want to represent with dialogue helps A LOT. I can't wait to use this strategy with my students.
Comentarios