fourteen: the black book of colours by menena cottin

The Black Book of Colours by Menena Cottin

London: Walker, 2010

Review published 2010 at CMIS Resource Bank

The Black Book of Colours captivates everyone who gets their hands on it. Ask yourself on finishing: do you really see our world, or have you become blind to its brilliance?

Thomas is blind, but that doesn’t mean he misses out on the rich rainbow of colours that fills our world. His mother has worked with him to identify the smell and feel of colours, the taste and the sound of colours. The Black Book is presented from Thomas’ third person viewpoint, incorporating Braille text with white typeset text on the left of each completely black double spread, with raised black line drawings on the right.

Evocative text describes colours through sensory imagery to allow sighted readers to understand how blind and low vision people may experience colour.

Red is sour like unripe strawberries and as sweet as watermelon. It hurts when he finds it on his scraped knee.

The Black Book will have many applications in the classroom, from disability awareness to history (of Braille), art class and English. Students may make their own sensory picture story books or use vivid imagery to describe colours. Scratch and sniff strips, siren sounds, fluffy feathers and sandpaper are found in various tactile toddler books to link words and senses. The Black Book uses descriptive language to bring those senses to life. It targets sighted people to develop understanding of a blind or low vision person’s life experience. On a more complex level, tolerance of others’ viewpoints could be taught – we all see things differently.

Readers may begin to imagine what it is like to read by touch, but decoding these line drawings is surprisingly difficult. Their structure is not truly tactile as outlined by IFLA.

For futher literacy extension, students may develop their own black boxes in the style of Vision Australia’s Feelix kits. Such kits may contain the storybook with typewritten and Braille text, an audio version (or the children may read to a visually impaired student), and a variety of tactile props to support the story. Props for The Very Hungry Caterpillar could result in quite a feast!

thirteen: the river by libby hathorn and stanley wong

The River by Libby Hathorn & Stanley Wong

Curriculum Corporation, 2001

“The story is about a treasure!  You’ll see…”

What is Xian’s treasure, and what does it mean to Hong?  Stanley Wong’s design expertly sets the scene with his brushstroke title, Chinese lettering and faithful depiction of scrolls, furnishings and landscape.  Single spread illustrations cover each page with the two interwoven stories differing in layout.  The use of frames for today’s indoor urban scenes is perhaps a metaphor for its controlled nature, where Hong’s father is single-minded:

“Hong! You haven’t done your homework… get on with your duties!” 

Rural China (of 50-60 years past) is depicted in sprawling landscapes that reach the edges of each page.

Children enjoy The River for its adventure and introduction to Chinese culture.  Insertion of three panels within the larger illustration (p. 30) cleverly shows action essential to the plot.  The blue and white pot (of the past) is placed near the blue and white iMac computer on the next to last page suggesting a coming together of past and present (as is the theme of Xian’s treasure).

Libby Hathorn clearly has a strong interest in presenting Asian stories.  Notes mention the Vietnamese story on her website which readers will want to explore.  In this book, Hong is gifted the story of The River and the reader shares it with her. 

Xian’s remembrance of home, “Keep to the river. Remember, it’s your friend,” sets the linear path that she must follow from her old life (when her mother dies) to the future with her grandparents. 

Two notes of incongruity in this family tale concern Xian’s father not being mentioned, and

the incident with the boy and girl which happens in her grandparent’s village, her safe haven.

Hathorn presents a good adventure, but it did not flow as strongly as the story’s river.  More exploration into Hong’s family life would have served the story better.  We are left wondering why Ming gave her story to Hong and not her own granddaughter.

If the reader can ignore these small points of discontent, they will indeed have found a treasure and will perhaps be inspired to ask about their own family’s stories.

nine: mouse noses on toast by daren king

Mouse Noses on Toast by Daren King,

review published in Allen & Unwin Teachers Reviews, 2007 online

Mouse Noses silly title grabbed us, rewarding us with an introduction to Paul Mouse and his wonderful assortment of friends. We met Sandra, the houseproud Christmas decoration, shaggy sheepdog Rowley Barker Hobbs, and the Tinby; a sort of monster, though smaller than a monster and a lot more fun to be around. What happens when they venture beyond their overgrown garden home? Paul Mouse has a cheese allergy; if he stood near a tasty cheddar his bottom would turn blue, the fur would fall out and his tail would curl up like a question mark. Paul is forced to sit on a cheddar chair early on, so spends the book running about trying to hide his bare blue bottom. But Mouse Noses is not all about Paul’s blue bottom, or about how he conquers his allergy. While treating themselves to a posh meal after Paul’s ordeal, the friends discover humans eating a prized dish – mouse noses on toast… with whiskers or without! The mouse population is horrified. The Tinby incites them to action. Mouse Noses to their middle primary classes and discuss political action, belief in a cause, friendship and conquering fears, or they may turn blue with laughter. Mouse Noses will leave readers feeling cheerful and triumphant. But will they eat mouse noses with whiskers, or without?

 

The promise of

These pocket-sized political activists, led by cowardly Larry, march across the restaurant floor chanting protest songs and waving cardboard signs proclaiming ‘Hands off our noses!’ Their crusade takes them to the Prime Minister and out of town to sabotage the Mouse Noses Abattoir. What happens there can only be revealed by reading right to the end. Despite my humanness I was cheering for the mouses! David Roberts’ delightfully whimsical line drawings complement King’s story perfectly. Teachers may read