Mercer Mayer is an American artist and short story author who was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on December 30, 1943. He grew up in Honolulu, Hawaii, and attended art school in Honolulu and New York City. He has written over 300 short stories, some with the help of his current wife, Gina Mayer. The stories I have chosen to analyze are part of his “Little Critter” series. These stories include “Little Critter’s The Fussy Princess,” “Taking Care of Mom,” “I Was so Mad,” “The New Baby,” and “A Very Special Critter.” All of these stories were a big part of my childhood and hold a special place in my heart.
Mercer Mayer’s writing style for all of these books is along the same line as far as vocabulary and transitional phrases. The books are designed for children; therefore, the writing style is simple. Mayer was first and foremost an artist, so he used pictures to describe the message he was trying to convey just as much as he used his words. Each book, excluding “The Fussy Princess,” generally have three lines of text per page and around twenty five pages. “The Fussy Princess” is an exception on length; it was a special edition book and had paragraphs of text on each page instead of the standard three lines. No matter what “Little Critter” story is being analyzed, they all generally follow the same pattern of writing style; a problem is introduced, something funny happens as a result of that problem, the problem is resolved (usually by an adult), and then the lesson is learned. These books were all meant to convey certain life-lessons and morals, which is what Mayer strived for. Another facet of Mayer’s short stories include the characters he used.
Throughout his “Little Critter” series, Mayer used multiple characters. Every...
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...ictures as well as words; the pictures show the true emotions of the characters and the words convey the messages. Mayer is a simple writer who has complex meanings behind his sentences and is not extremely descriptive in his wording because of the pictures he draws. Although his books are simple, there is so much more to them than meets the eye.
Mercer Mayer is a short story writer and illustrator who constantly strives to convey important life lessons to children through his works. His writing style is simple yet effective and his stories have been entertaining and teaching children since the 1970s. Mayer is extremely talented, having over 300 children’s books currently published. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading his stories since I was a child myself. There are many lessons to be learned in life and Mayer does a fantastic job of teaching them through his works.
From an early age the artist felt ostracized from nature and his only connection to wild life was through the natural museum of history and his uncle’s house, which was filled with taxidermy. His parents were divorced and his father suffered from alcoholism. His tough childhood forced Walton Ford to find humor in the challenging aspe...
The two stories “War” and “About Effie” from Timothy Findley’s Dinner Along the Amazon are both told by the same child narrator, Neil. In each of the stories Neil attempts to make sense of a mystery of the adult world. In “War” Neil tries to understand the adult world of war, and explain why it seems that his father has betrayed him, and in “About Effie” Neil tries to understand the mystery of Effie’s strange need to wait for a man in a thunderstorm. Neil reaches an understanding of each of these mysteries in a similar way: through observation of non-verbal clues from adults. However, Neil’s own attempts to communicate non-verbally through his behaviour are unsuccessful. Taken as a whole, these two stories show how very important non-verbal communication is in child-adult relationships.
One of the first stories is about Harold Morton. Harold was a fifth grader who is a little small for his age and has a constant twitching eye. In the beginning of Rose’s session with his second group, Harold would not start writing when Rose showed the group three different
As a child, Judy had a large imagination; and loved to play. Judy always had an adoration of books; she relished the texture, scent, and everything about them. There was one thing though, Judy wanted a book about a child that she could relate to. When Judy was about ten years old, she had to leave her New Jersey home for Miami, Florida, along with her Mother, Nanny Mama, and David. They were going to Florida for the winter because the cold weather in New Jersey was bad for David's health. Doey had to stay in New Jersey to manage his dentist office. Judy wasn't so sure about Miami, plus she was worried about her father because he was forty-two and all of his older brothers had died at that very age. At first Judy wasn't so sure about living in Miami, it was so different. Judy soon made friends with a few girls that lived in the same apartment building as her. They did everything together. They hung out at the beach, did ballet lessons, and went to the same school. Judy left Miami and went back to New Jersey for the summer. The n...
Many of Margaret Wise Brown’s most famous books have animals as the main character. For example, Runaway Bunny and Goodnight Moon, two of her most popular books, feature rabbits as the main characters. Further, in Goodnight Moon, the animal’s behavior is parallel to that of humans. For example, the motherly figure on the rocking chair is reading to the young rabbit as many parents do to their children. Additionally, Brown adds a humorous element as the young rabbit seems to have pets.
Margaret Wise Brown is an exceptional author that has written many children’s picture books. She has created a style of writing that children can relate to on each of their own level. Each book has a simple and easy structure of writing accompanied with defining illustrations.
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer An Introduction to Short Fiction. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 1999.
Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer – An Introduction to Short Fiction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Print.
Dubliners is a collection of short stories that encircles around men, women, and children focusing on every aspects of their lives within the Irish capital of Dublin. These series of short stories were considered to be a masterpiece that was published by James Joyce in 1914, one of the most influential writters during the twentieth century. Joyce's unique style of writing is clearly displayed throughout the stories. This book consist of fifteen depressing and unhappy tales that form a sequence of desire for escape, diminishing faith, and missed opportunities among the characters. These themes are the cores of Dubliners that apply one way or another. The arrangements of each and every story appears to resemble the cycle of human life, commencing from childhood all the way to adulthood and beyond. Despite the differences, there were numerous amount of common and recurring themes found between the stories. Escape has played a crucial role in Dubliners, acting as one of the central themes presented within the stories "An Encounter", "Araby", "Eveline", and "The Dead". The protagonist of each story had made attempts to escape their tedious lives in Dublin and change was demanded, however they were all unsuccessful until arriving at the sense of realization. Having gone through traumatic experiences, only to discover that everything that they thought was possible were nothing more than a mere dream.
Children literature is a term that refers to the texts written for children. The artist uses creative ways to ensure that children are provided with educational books, touching on a variety of themes. This paper will include comparison of two characters from the two texts, “Hana's Suitcase: A True Story,” authored by Karen Levine and “Charlotte’s Web,” written by E.B. White, with the aim of understanding ways in which problems are solvable as indicated by selected characters.
"Everyone is influenced by their childhood. The things I write about and illustrate come from a vast range of inputs, from the earliest impressions of a little child, others from things I saw yesterday and still others from completely out of the blue, though no doubt they owe their arrival to some stimulus, albeit unconscious. I have a great love of wildlife, inherited from my parents, which show through in my subject matter, though always with a view to the humorous—not as a reflective device but as a reflection of my own fairly happy nature.
Norton, D. E., & Norton. S. (2011). Through The Eyes Of a Child. An Introduction To Children’s Literature. Boston, MA, 02116: Eight-Edition Pearson Education
Charters, A. (2011). The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction (8th ed.). Boston: Bedfor/St. Martin's.
...h the message is conveyed. Potter’s juxtaposition of picture and word also rewards the reader for trusting the evidence of his or her eyes, rather than simply submitting to the authoritative voice.
His writing is easy enough for children to understand but the text itself holds a variety of different themes. Lewis Carroll’s writing style in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is detailed and humorous. He describes every event that Alice endures and the struggles she faces while still having a humorous tone that gives the novel dimension. For example, while describing Alice's entrance to Wonderland, Carroll gives a vivid image of what she saw such as the hallway lined with doors and the different people and animals she saw including the White Rabbit, the Caterpillar, and the chesire cat. Lewis Carroll also has a way of incorporating cleverness into this novel. His use of puns and confusing homophones such as the mouse in the story describing his “long and sad tale” which Alice assumes is about his physical tail and not a