Last weekend I participated in two group activities at a children’s classic literature reading workshop in Hefei, and it was quite rewarding. I’ve been busy ever since I got back to Beijing, but I’m taking a moment today to jot down some notes.
The Rainbow Fish Group held its first formal discussion on the afternoon of August 21st in the conference room on the second floor of Tunxi Road Primary School. The books discussed included: *Where the Wild Things Are*, *The Zhu Family Story*, *Feifei is Angry*, and *Tuesday*.
I am very grateful to Ms. Ziyouzizai from Shuguang Primary School. She bravely fired the first shot and was clearly well-prepared. Her speech truly gave me a glimpse of hope. Ziyouzizai systematically reviewed *Where the Wild Things Are*, and her statement that “fantasy is an essential path to mental maturity” resonated deeply with me. An American independent researcher (also a mother of two) also made a similar point in her book *The Magic of Children’s Books*. It’s not easy to grasp such depth. Many people often see having fantasies as an obstacle to mental maturity, unaware that prematurely abandoning fantasy only results in a cold, impersonal world—in Ende’s writing, even a world on the verge of destruction (*The Neverending Story*). Ziyouzizai’s analysis of the work also revealed a clue: the protagonist, Max, gradually reaches the pinnacle of power and desire fulfillment in his wild fantasies, but then he suddenly realizes that these are not what he ultimately wants. He longs to return to the haven of love, and when he does, his mother’s love melts his heart.
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The wild beasts have begun!
Mr. Qingfeng, a teacher from Tunxiao Elementary School, then commented on *The Wild Things*. His speech was long and brilliant, but indeed very long, so I had to interrupt him midway. Mr. Qingfeng had come very well prepared: he had bought a copy for himself to share with his sixth-grade daughter, read it more than six times, reminiscing about his childhood as he read, and even found the film adaptation, *Where the Wild Things Are*, to share with his daughter… Perhaps because of this, the book seemed to offer him endless topics of conversation; he could even talk about the eight methods he had figured out for making bait when he was a child! —If you understand the book deeply, this is not surprising at all. Sendak spent eight years from conception to completion of this book, and it had a lifelong and lasting impact on the illustrator himself. This picture book truly possesses a unique magic; the collections of papers discussing this book by various researchers could stack up to be taller than Sendak himself!
Teacher Qingfeng focused on exploring the connection between the wildness in *The Beast* and his own childhood memories. He described it as a “wild” work, where the young protagonist typically speaks only single words. Using this wildness to observe childhood (including his own childhood memories), he discovered a connection between this destructive force and creativity. He argued that if this wildness isn’t guided but excessively suppressed, it actually stifles creativity. Qingfeng’s thinking was quite expansive. Two examples he gave left a deep impression on me: one was a mother’s way of disciplining her son on a bus; the other was the moderately thick adobe houses built by Native Americans (to be honest, I didn’t initially understand the logical connection between these examples, haha). He emphasized the “degree” in guiding children; tolerating wildness means maximizing their creativity. What Qingfeng was most proud of was that Max’s wildness in *The Beast* paled in comparison to his own childhood wildness O(∩_∩)O haha~
Another teacher from Tunxiao Elementary School offered another perspective. He argued that *The Beast* initially depicts a boy’s extremely repressed and unreleased emotions, evident in the shadows and frame size of the illustrations. The protagonist then enters a fantasy world, gaining power and release within it, ultimately achieving inner peace. This is reminiscent of works like *The Angry Soup*, which essentially helps children learn how to manage their negative emotions. This teacher’s cross-disciplinary connection is quite interesting. Other books in this category, such as *Fifi’s Angry* and *Angry Arthur*, are also interesting and insightful when observed together.
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Changes to the frame size of Where the Wild Things Are
Xiaoxing’s teacher, Happy Bird, added a few more points. She pointed out that the relationship between the text and illustrations in “The Beast” is particularly noteworthy, especially the subtle variations in the size of the picture frames, which demonstrate remarkable craftsmanship. Regarding the story as a whole, Happy Bird believes the true core is the line, “He wanted to be where someone loved him most.” She believes the entire story’s emotions originate from this line and ultimately converge there. —This insight also deeply moved me!
I vividly remember how I painstakingly pondered the translation of this sentence when I first translated this book (about six years ago), because it was so crucial! At the time, I translated it simply for my own amusement, to tell my daughter, and to read to my mother, who was over seventy. The original sentence was “(he)”.
wanted to be where someone loved him best of
I prepared several different translations for the phrase, and while it could have been more fluent, I felt that if it were too fluent, readers might simply pass it by and overlook it. So, I ultimately chose this translation, which isn’t quite as smooth to read but has a clear meaning. I believe it will leave a deeper impression on readers. Later, when I told stories to children, I often paused at this point, and I couldn’t help but curiously ask them, “Do you know where ‘someone loves themselves the most’?” They never let me down, and almost always answered without hesitation, “Home!” Although I’ve heard this answer many times, I can’t help but feel excited every time.
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He wants to be where someone loves him the most…
Teacher Dayu from Shuguang Primary School guided everyone through a detailed explanation of “The Story of the Zhu Family.” Everyone shared a self-sufficient interpretation process, moving from primarily interpreting the illustrations to combining them with the text, and finally connecting them to their own life experiences. Teacher Dayu was extremely attentive, explaining many details, making it difficult to summarize here.
Regarding the ending of “The Story of the Zhu Family,” where the mother repairs the car, several different interpretations have been offered: It emphasizes that roles within the family can be interchanged, with men doing “women’s work” and daughters doing “men’s work”; the car is used as a metaphor for this modern family, which initially experienced some problems, but the mother ultimately fixed them…
Teacher Wu from Taihu Road continued this discussion, pointing out that renowned authors like Sendak and Anthony Browne often leave unexpected endings in their works, enriching the possibilities for interpretation. Therefore, we don’t necessarily need to find a fixed answer.
Ms. Yu from Shuguang then shared her page-by-page interpretation of “Tuesday.” She pointed out that the book’s creative technique is what the painter Zhu Chengliang (the illustrator of “Flame” and “Reunion”) called “movie-making.” The book creates a very eerie atmosphere from the cover and endpapers. It uses seemingly realistic illustrations to tell the story, constantly raising questions (surprises) in the process of development, then giving answers, and then raising surprises again… The rhythm of the storytelling is well controlled, sometimes tense and sometimes calm.
However, for a book that tells a story almost entirely through pictures, the workshop participants didn’t seem to quite connect with it, finding it difficult to resonate. Regarding David Wiesner’s works of this type, we can also look at *The Three Little Pigs*, *Dream Factory No. 7*, *The Secret of the Sea*, and *June 29, 1999*. Delving into these works can help us quickly improve our ability to read stories from pictures. Relatively speaking, children are more adept at this and more enthusiastic.
Teacher Liwo Qianxiao from Tunxiao shared her interpretation of “Feifei is Angry.” Her experience as an early childhood educator gave her a unique perspective. She pointed out that while the illustrations weren’t her favorite style, the book clearly depicted the process of a child throwing a tantrum, from initially hoping to get attention and becoming genuinely angry, to venting through crying, shouting, and screaming, until it abruptly ends. This is a general overview of how children express their emotions. Several teachers also offered their opinions on how to handle such situations, with most agreeing with the “cold treatment” strategy adopted by the adults in Feifei’s family.
During his sharing session, Teacher Dayu carefully read through “Feifei is Angry.” He said the illustrations in the book reminded him of Wang Guowei’s “When I observe things, they all take on my own color.” This association greatly inspired me. Indeed, applying this phrase to the picture book, the American female illustrator’s creative process becomes clearly discernible. Using Western principles, this is the richest analysis of art psychology by Arnheim; from an Eastern aesthetic perspective, it represents a profound understanding of a higher realm. Teacher Dayu’s ingenious use of this phrase in his analysis of this picture book has left a lasting impression on me and also reminded me of the interesting term “mental imagery.”
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Feifei slammed the door in anger and left. The trees were all dyed red, leaning and about to fall, with sharp edges.
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After the rage, Feifei was depressed and dejected, and the hillside, trees, flowers and leaves seemed to change accordingly.
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Feifei regained her composure. This was probably the reverse effect of “seeing things through my own eyes, and seeing them through my own eyes.”
During the discussion of “Feifei Gets Angry,” Teacher Wu offered another perspective. He believes that the emotional adjustment process depicted in this picture book is an experience most adults have had. Could this book reflect an adult way of thinking, making it more appealing to adult readers and less likely to be loved by children? This is indeed a question, and we can observe children’s reactions when we have the opportunity to share it with them.
On the afternoon of August 22, the newly formed Flying Pig Group held its first preparatory discussion in the conference room on the fourth floor of Weigang Primary School. The book discussed was “The Story of the Zhu Family”.
As a preliminary discussion, the main focus is on the process of getting to know each other and trying to read a book together. The discussion is roughly divided into two parts: the “Who am I?” game; and reading and discussing “The Story of the Zhu Family”.
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“The “Who Am I?” game is derived from picture books like “I Don’t Know Who I Am” and “The Zhu Family Story.” In “The Zhu Family Story,” the father and sons of the Zhu family gradually transform into pig figures before finally reverting to their original forms. The illustrator Anthony Browne successfully and magically depicted this transformation process—the development of events, the characters’ personalities, appearances, and actions—achieving a consistency between concept and image. The “Who Am I?” game first requires participants to associate themselves with another type of image (such as an animal), ideally associating their entire family with one or more images (just like the illustrator in the picture book), striving to make the associations plausible. Then, the host, without revealing their name (or not signing at all), randomly reads out an image, and everyone tries to guess “who he/she is.”
Before starting the game, first-time participants often find it extremely difficult, with almost no chance of guessing the answer. However, the reality is that as everyone relaxes during the game, most of the mysteries are naturally solved. The most interesting part is that seemingly absurd and illogical answers become perfectly logical after being explained by the participants. This “unexpected yet reasonable” dynamic is the kind of fun that skillful storytellers bring to people. Such games are actually about experiencing this psychological process of creation and interpretation; as readers, what we read in the work is clearly ourselves!
In that day’s game, Principal Jin from Taihu Road was undoubtedly the champion of the riddle-solving competition. As soon as a certain image (especially a group of images representing a family) was read aloud, she could accurately call out the answer. I think this is partly due to her exceptional understanding of her colleagues, and partly a demonstration of a special kind of visual thinking ability.
Many sparks flew during the shared reading and discussion of “The Story of the Zhu Family,” but I was focused on participating in the reading and didn’t take any notes. So here I can only record a few of the most inspiring and memorable moments for me.
In the first picture, we see a very modern and seemingly happy home, but the text mentions the wife, which is not shown in the picture. The way the father is standing is somewhat similar to the way the father is standing on the page in “My Father” where it says “My father is as tall as a house”.
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The first one
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Compare the illustrations in My Dad
In the second double-page spread, the two sons are shouting, “Mom, where’s breakfast?” with their mouths wide open. The text says the father is also shouting, but his face is obscured by the newspaper, while the people in the newspaper (including a gorilla) are also shouting. Several interesting observations are made here: the faces of the people shouting in the illustration resemble pigs (especially the noses); several food containers have images of pigs; and the gorilla is reminiscent of Anthony Browne’s other book, *The Gorilla* (in fact, the shouting people in the newspaper also remind me of the famous painting *The Scream*). But what surprised me most was a teacher’s suggestion that the people shouting in the newspaper (not Mr. Zhu) imply that the idea that “women should make breakfast for men” is a voice of public media, belonging to the mainstream social consciousness! —This interpretation is truly unexpected, yet it makes perfect sense. Anthony Browne may genuinely be targeting a traditional mainstream consciousness, rather than an “isolated phenomenon” in certain families.
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The second picture
In the third double-page spread, everyone noticed the somber colors and that we couldn’t see the mother’s (Mrs. Zhu’s) face. Particularly noteworthy was a teacher’s observation that the mother appears to take the bus to work, as the shadow of a bus stop sign can be seen in the small image in the lower right corner, and Mrs. Zhu is likely searching for her bus pass (or change) in her bag. This discovery helped me solve another mystery: the two small white shapes on the right side of this image. The lower one is clearly a pig’s face, but what about the upper one? It now seems likely to be the image of a car steering wheel, suggesting that the mother could actually drive herself to work (this naturally echoes the mention of a car on the first page and the repair of the car on the last page).
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The third picture
In the fourth double-page spread, the teachers made two discoveries I hadn’t noticed before. One was the color of the child’s clothes versus the color of the father’s (Mr. Zhu’s) socks—the former was red, and the latter was blue. It’s unusual for an adult man to wear bright blue socks, and in this picture book, red and blue clothing likely symbolize importance. Following this line of thought, in the sixth illustration (watching TV after dinner), the father’s blue socks and the red of the lamp above the TV stand out. And as the story progresses to the fourteenth double-page spread (Dad cooking with the children, Mom is also happy), the father’s blue has changed to kitchen gloves, the child’s red to an apron, and the mother is wearing large patches of red (a sweater) and blue overalls (a car mechanic’s uniform)!
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The fourth picture
Following this line of thought, in the fourth double-page spread, the child occupies red, the father blue, but what about the mother’s color? Actually, the mother isn’t in the picture, but logically she must be present. At this point, the reading teacher at Weigang Elementary School made a very insightful discovery: the sofa Mr. Zhu is sitting on!—The sofa’s pattern immediately evokes the pattern on the mother’s pajamas in the book *My Mother*, and that book also depicts a very similar sofa (on the page “As Comfortable as a Sofa”). This discovery provides two clues: first, the sofa appearing in the fourth double-page spread and several subsequent illustrations is likely a symbol of the mother; second, the mother’s original dominant color was yellow (sometimes also pink).
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The sofa in “My Mom”
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Picture 6 — Please note the sofa, Dad’s socks, and the lamp on the TV.
The changes in the pig’s image in this book are relatively easy to notice, and most people have probably noticed them, so I won’t go into detail here.
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Picture 8 (Look at the changes in the pig shape)
The story unfolds on the eleventh double-page spread, where Mr. Zhu is with his two children, sniffing food on the floor, when Mrs. Zhu walks in. Everyone immediately notices that the mother’s silhouette is that of the Virgin Mary. However, following the earlier clue that “sofa = mother,” we also discover that the sofa on this page is deliberately left empty, with no one sitting on it (compared to the fourth and sixth double-page spreads). This likely hints at the mother’s absence, suggesting that the family has lost its support.
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Picture 11 — Look at the empty sofa and mother’s shadow
The thirteenth double-page spread depicts a father helping his two children with chores. The picture is refreshing and brightly colored, showing that they are good at doing chores and that chores can be enjoyable. The color contrast is obvious compared to the earlier illustrations of the mother doing chores and the father helping the children with chores after the mother leaves. Furthermore, there is no hint of a pig on this page. When the detective held up the book to show everyone the pictures, from a distance, I vaguely saw what appeared to be the outline of a face in the right-hand picture; the two beds were the eyes, and Mr. Zhu and the ironing board looked like the nose and mouth. Of course, this could also be a complete illusion.
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Thirteenth
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Picture 14 — Pay special attention to the relationship between red and blue and pictures 4 and 6
However, Teacher Shu from Weigang also raised a different point of view: Could things really change completely just by the mother leaving? Haha, everyone agrees that reality isn’t like that, and the general advice is not to leave so easily (after all, harmony and stability are important). This is a children’s book (still containing fairy tale elements), and the story expresses a viewpoint. While it may not offer specific and effective solutions, the important thing is that it reminds us never to give up hope.
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Regarding the last picture, “She fixed the car,” the interpretation by the Flying Pig group was strikingly similar to that of the Rainbow Fish group the previous day. However, a teacher from Taihu Road gave a slightly joking interpretation that amused everyone: if we consider the red car as the school, then Mrs. Zhu, who is repairing and driving the car, represents the female principals! Any interpretation is possible! O(∩_∩)O Haha~
Together, we read books, we learned about each other, and we learned about ourselves.
Related links
[Sharing] How to Build a Picture (Unveiling the Secrets of Picture Book Narrative)
[Study Group Homework] Some Experiences on Getting Started with Picture Books
[Study Session Topic] How to read stories from pictures in picture books?
[Postscript] Why I Like Where the Wild Things Are
[Reading Notes] Letter from the Editor of Where the Wild Things Are to the Painter
Artists who tell stories for children (VIII) — Sendak’s story
Argentine Primera División was compiled on August 26 and 27, and the chart was added on August 31.