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Voices in the Park

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Let’s take a close look at Browne’s illustrations. The seasons are different for different characters, even though it’s the same bench.

Children will have much to discuss as they dig deeper into Anthony Browne’s multi-layered narrative, says Pie Corbett... Voices In The Park is loved by teachers because it requires students to read pictures as well as text, and offers a lot to talk about. There’s a sparse loneliness to Anthony Browne’s work, like looking at a Hopper painting. Even when characters share the same arena, they aren’t necessarily understanding one another. I prefer Browne’s picture books as daytime rather than before-bed reads. FOR FURTHER INVESTIGATION Could you create your own story in which different people have different points of view about the same event?The fourth, and last, voice is the little girl that belongs to the sad father. I will note that the author uses the word “twit” to describe the angry women, so if you would rather avoid that, just change the word to “lady”. But I like to use that as an opportunity to discuss wording and what that word means. Again you are going to discuss who is telling the story and who’s voice is missing, if anyone. PLEASE NOTE: These resources were all genuinely created in real-time for my classes over the last two years. As a result, the units of work differ in content and structure. Please use the individual prices as an indication of the resources included (or simply look at the individual products). For example, Voices in the Park is a very comprehensive unit as we used this book for several weeks. It contains mini-lessons, literature circle task cards, printables, assessments and shared reading lessons. The "Piggybook" resource, on the other hand, is very simple because we only used this for shared reading without integrated resources. Hats also denote socioeconomic status. In this case, the hats are ‘bowler’, and therefore stand for a particular social class. The boy is being trained by his mother to present a certain, repressed side of himself to the world. Instead of running around like his labrador, he sits sedately by his mother’s side. Eventually the repressive bowler hats disappear from his view as the girl, Smudge, brings out his ura. Since Voices In The Park was published, the fedora has garnered a reputation for being 1. a more fashionable update on the bowler and 2. a worrisome signal that the wearer may be a m*n’s r*ghts activist. Both are symbols of patriarchy, or aspirationally so. Men’s hat advertisement 1909 SETTING OF VOICES IN THE PARK

Surreal‘ in everyday English means ‘I didn’t understand it’. But in relation to works of art, surreal means literally ‘over and above’, ‘more’. The word refers to art which makes use of paradoxes, riddles and allusions. Something in the work is ‘superimposed’ over the naïve reading. ‘Surreal’ means the viewer must contribute to derive meaning. Look at the illustrations and you’ll find bowler hats in trees and so on. What do hats symbolise in this particular story? Hats typically function as a mask — something you wear to present your omote to the world, hiding your ura (to use Japanese terms). The omote is your public self; the ura your private self. Orana : journal of school and children’s librarianship. Australia : Library Association of Australia, School & Children’s Libraries Sections 1977 – 2005 includes information about this picture book.This ending reminds me of a later (wordless) Canadian picture book called “ Sidewalk Flowers” in which a generous girl also ends up with a flower at the end. The flower clearly symbolises innocent friendship in this story but I think it does a little more: A girl who ends up with a flower at the end of a story keeps some of her power/agency, in contrast to Giving Tree plots, in which femme characters are idealised as entirely self-sacrificing. The Laughing (actually Sad) Cavalier and a weeping Mona Lisa sit in a puddle of ‘tears’. The Laughing Cavalier (1624) is a Baroque portrait by the Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals. The title is an invention of the Victorian public and press, dating from its exhibition in the opening display at the Bethnal Green Museum in 1872–1875, just after its arrival in England. The unknown subject is in fact not laughing, but his enigmatic smile is amplified by his upturned moustache. The Mona Lisa painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance. This is probably the most famous painting in the world. Like the man in the Hals painting above, Mona Lisa is said to have an enigmatic smile. I think Browne has chosen these portraits because their facial expressions can belie a number of similar emotions, dependent upon the emotion of the viewer at any given time. Also, both are well-known for their eyes which ‘follow you around the room’. Look at the illustrations of nighttime scenes. Could you create your own pictures which feature silhouettes of people / objects? Anthony Browne has avoided making commentary on race by giving the humans the bodies of gorillas. This is one reason ( among many) why illustrators/storytellers utilise animal bodies when telling stories about humans. This illustration is from the eye-level of a child. Smudge sees the park as her personal carnivalesque playground, hence the fruit in the distance. Einari Wehmas (Finnish, 1898-1955) In The Park 1920-1. Note the similar palette of yellow and orange juxtaposed against green. MRS SMYTHE

Explore each of the illustrations. Is there anything interesting / unusual in each one that makes you want to look further? Could you create a picture with something interesting / unusual to make people look more closely? The four different voices present very different perspectives. The illustrations are full of surreal detail. This is a book to read again and again to find something new in each reading and a book that can prompt conversations about emotions, different points of view and prejudice. Could you turn the story into a radio play with different children playing the role of each voice in the story? Doonan, J. (1993). Looking at pictures in picture books. 1st ed. South Woodchester (GB): Thimble Press. Each character has their own battle: For Mrs Smythe, the battle is in getting her dog and son under control. The dog might as well be her son. “Sit”, she tells her son.

I use surrealism a lot is because I was very affected by surrealist paintings when I was young. I also believe children see through surrealist eyes: they are seeing the world for the first time. When they see an everyday object for the first time, it can be exciting and mysterious and new. Anthony Browne from from the Teaching Books interview What are more interesting to note is the implications of the division of class in these illustrations. In the illustrations for the first voice, there is one frame where it shows Smudge's father in worn clothes, reading a newspaper while sitting on a park bench. Behind him is a dog waste disposal and garbage littered on the ground. Then, there is a lamppost that divides the frame between him and Charles’ mother. She is standing there, dressed in more expensive and fancier clothes with all of her jewelry on. Notice behind her, there is no garbage at all. The grass all around her is nice and clean. This illustration shows the social class divide, comparing the surroundings of someone that is of lower class and upper-class drawn together in a public park. That lamppost serves as a device to show a comparison between the two next to each other. The line of the lamppost works again in showing the divide between the perceptions of the world from the point of view of Charles and Smudge in an illustration placed in the third voice. By placing the line between characters resemble some type of separations in this book whether it is in relation to relationships or social class status. Re the story, I think the different perspectives of the characters could lead to some interesting discussions and introspective mulling. But I thought some of the choices were a bit odd if the audience here is young children, such as the despondent man looking at the job ads despite feeling hopeless. The best parts of this story are the illustrations. I think the term that would be used to describes them is postmodern, the surreal way they weave popular works of art, distort the landscape and portray adult and child-like themes is stunning. The more you look at the pictures the more you find hidden. For instance one illustration displays a snowdrop disguised as a lamp post and 'The Laughing Cavalier' dancing down the road with 'The Mona Lisa' evoking feelings of joy. Bowler hats are also hidden in many of the illustrations reminiscent of Rene Magritte. The friendship between the children is blooming, but Browne highlights the difference in class between the two families. There’s the very working class Mr Smith (indicated by clothing, speech, home), and the wealthy status of Mrs Smith. Metafictive Devices

Voices in the Park” is a very well written picture book for children. This book written by Anthony Browne allows the reader to see life through four different characters within this story. How can you tell who is telling the story? (This is where you can notice the font change as well as how the story is being told) As father and son walk to the park, they are downcast. The father “needed to get out of the house”. They live in an economically destitute area, and pass a man sitting on the street asking for money. “Millions of kids”? The kids that Santa gives gifts to? There are many millions of poor children in this world.

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Mrs Smythe intends to go to the park to give her dog and son some fresh air and exercise. Mr Smith seems to be at the park because it is a pleasant place to sit and read the classifieds, quite possibly nicer than his own kitchen. THE BIG STRUGGLE Did you learn more about each character as you read the book? How did your opinion of each character change? As part of the textual elements, it is important to notice the different types of font styles to reflect the different voices of each character. To represent Charles' moter, Brownw used a font like Times New Roman. Out of all of the fonts, this one makes the letters look tall, adding tails on to the top and the bottom of the letters. It was a very formal font. This is done intentionally to reflect the "proper" type of font, and suggests cultural refinement. For the carefree Smudge, an example of the Female Maturity Formula, her job is to keep her father, and then the boy, happy. ANAGNORISIS

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