A12 THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2021
© 2021 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 37, No.
o. 8
David Wiesner has illustrated more than 20 award-winning books and has won the Caldecott Medal three times. Many of his books have no words but the highly
hly
creative illustrations spark the imagination and take readers on amazing adventures. Can you number these David Wiesner books in alphabetical order?
I Got It!
Tuesdays
Mr. Wuffles
Free Fall
Children are born curious.
From their earliest days, sensory exploration
brings delight and wonder. New discoveries
expand their minds. When they unlock the
joy of reading, their world widens further.
Magic happens.
Kid Scoop opens the doors of discovery
for elementary school children by providing
interactive, engaging and relevant
age-appropriate materials designed to
awaken the magic of reading at school,
at home, and throughout their lives.
For more information about our literacy
non-profit, visit kidscoopnews.org
Flotsam
A new book from David Wiesner
Q: Is the story Hurricane based on your childhood?
Did you have a cat named Hannibal?
Q: After reading Sector 7, I wanted to know if you
grew up in New York City?
A: Yes, Hurricane is the only one of my stories that actually
happened to me. Playing on that tree was the best! I had a cat,
but her name was Fuzzy (really). I changed the name to fit in
with the adventuring nature of the kids.
A: I grew up in New Jersey, not too far
from New York. I really enjoyed
going into the city. I loved the
architecture—especially the
Empire State Building. It was great
to be able to use it in my story.
I designed the Sector 7 factory in
the sky by looking at a lot of
New York City buildings. I then
created a place with bits of many of them all together.
To make the pictures, I used old photos of my house, cat, yard,
bedroom, etc. for reference. So, what you see in the book is
where I lived and grew up. The kids are not me or my brother,
although I used our names. I used the kids of some friends as
my models.
Q: Why do Tuesday and Sector 7 have very few words and
almost all pictures?
Q: Why do you draw fish in many of your stories?
Is it your favorite animal?
A: A wordless book offers a different kind of an experience from one with
text, for both the author and the reader. There is no author’s voice telling
the story. Each viewer reads the book in his or her own way. The reader is
an integral part of the storytelling process. As a result, there are as many
versions of Tuesday, Sector 7, Free Fall, and Mr. Wuffles, as there are readers.
As the author of a wordless book, I don’t have to concern myself about
whether the reader’s interpretation of each and every detail is the same as
mine. My own view has no more, and no less, validity than that of any
other viewer.
A: I don’t have any fish for pets. I like the way fish look and I like
to draw and paint them. They appeal to me visually. They are
very strange and fantastical looking, so I use them a lot
when I make pictures and stories.
Q: How do you come up with the ideas for
your picture books?
A: Tuesday came about because I was asked to create a
painting for the cover of a magazine for kids. I was told
that I could do whatever I wanted, but they let me know that
there were a lot of articles about frogs in this issue. Frogs are very cool looking—
soft, round, lumpy, and really goofy-looking. I wanted to draw them.
I got out my sketchbook
and began to draw frogs.
I then drew one on a
lily pad.
The shape they made
together, the round blob
of the frog on top of the
circular, saucer-like bottom,
made me think of
something else that had
the same shape—a flying
saucer. And then I thought,
“why not make the frog and lily pad fly around, like a flying saucer?”
Q: What is your favorite movie and
what makes it your favorite?
For the cover, I showed a group of frogs rising up out of a swamp,
heading off to some kind of mischief. I liked the
frogs as characters. They had distinct
personalities. I wondered what
happened before and after this scene.
I then began to create the story that
would become my book Tuesday.
In David Wiesner’s book Art & Max, two
lizards have a crazy adventure of drawing
and painting each other. Draw a picture of
your best friend in the space below, and
use lots of colors to create some wild art!
A: 2001: A Space Odyssey is my favorite movie.
It is a very complex story and it is told
almost entirely with images. I learned a
lot about telling stories visually from that
movie.
Kid Scoop thanks David Wiesner and
the students at Bahia Vista Elementary
School in San Rafael, CA who came up
with these great questions for
Mr. Wiesner.
HURRICANE
CALDECOTT
WIESNER
TUESDAY
WUFFLES
AUTHOR
FROGS
WORDS
FUZZY
MEDAL
STORY
PAINT
FISH
DRAW
CITY
In this hilarious gem from triple
Caldecott winner David Wiesner,
it’s big sister to the rescue when a
new baby is delivered to a family
of robots and the adults are
flummoxed by technical
difficulties.
A new baby’s arrival is a big
moment in any family, even a
family of robots. Award winner
David Wiesner captures the
excitement and fanfare when
baby Flange appears—as a crate
full of components. The adults
bungle the process of assembling
Flange, with catastrophic results.
Big sister Cathy, with her handy
toolbox and advanced knowledge
of robotics and IT, hasn’t been
allowed to help, but in the ensuing
chaos she calmly clears up the
technical difficulties and bonds
with her new baby brother.
A shout-out for girl scientists
and makers, Robobaby is an
eye-opening and engaging blend
of the familiar and the fantastic.
Picture Story
Cut out a photo
from today’s
newspaper. Cut out
the photo only—no
caption or words.
Glue the photo to a
piece of paper and
then make up and
write a story to go
with the photo.
Standards Link: Reading
Comprehension: Follow
simple, written directions.
S P D R O H T U A A
W O R D S U F R S S
This week’s word:
F T A K E R I S T E
ADVENTURE
U N W S O R S M O L
The noun adventure means
an exciting, possibly risky,
journey or experience.
Z I D G A I H G R F
Z A S I N C I T Y F
Y P A T L A D E M U
I W I E S N E R O W
N T T O C E D L A C
Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognize identical
words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns.
Looking for an adventure,
I decided to ride the double
loop rollercoaster at the
amusement park.
Try to use the word
adventure in a sentence
today when talking with your
friends and family members.
Picture This
Find a photo in the newspaper. Write about
what you think happened before the photo
was taken and what might have happened
after. Read the story to see if you were right.
ANSWER: Unquestionably!
Standards Link: Writing Applications: Students write phrases
that describe concepts.
Write an ad to sell your
favorite book. Make it sound
exciting or fun, but don’t
give away the ending!