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Author
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Comment
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sara
lindsey
Registered User
(3/31/05 10:59 pm)
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LRRH Caldecott Winners
Hello everyone!
As many of you may have seen before, I am writing my senior thesis in Art History on the illustrations in contemporary picture book versions of LRRH.
In the chapter I am working on now I am looking at Trina Schart Hyman's Little Red Riding Hood (1983), which won a Caldecott Honor Medal, and Ed Young's Lon Po Po (1990), which won the Caldecott Medal.
Hyman's book takes its lead from the Grimms' tale, which was apparently a great childhood favorite, while Young adapts an Asian variant of the LRRH tale.
I especially love Young's dedication: "To all the wolves of the world for lending their good name as a tangible symbol for our darkness."
So, I was curious what all the brilliant members of the board thought about the "shift" in fairy tale picture books - the move from a highly-detailed, pictorially realistic, good-old-fashioned, misogynistic Grimm tale to a softer, feminist, non-Western approach...
Thanks,
Sara
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(4/1/05 8:24 am)
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Re: LRRH Caldecott Winners
I'd start by saying that lots of old-fashioned fairy tales (however you characterize them) are still being published in picture books--at a recent visit to my local Barnes and Nobles I found at least several new installments of old tales, told pretty straight. That said, there have been several published that are humorous--retellings which assume the reader already knows the story. The Three Little Pigs is told from the point of view of the wolf. Cinderella become Cinder Edna. I think they have become popular mainly because humor sells, and editors are eager to publish it. The phenomena of making fun of old tales is not new, but perhaps the target audience is: humorous retellings were jokes for adults, and are now aimed for young kids. Why now? I'm not sure. Perhaps because the tales saturate children's early stories and videos, and even a three-year old can tell you the story of the Three Little Pigs. To make it fresh, you change the premise while adding fun and humor.
Then, as you point out, there are also retellings set in other cultures. I think, in part, it is also a reaction to the saturation of some of the basic tales in today's market. It's a way of looking at them in a fresh way. After all, it's isn't children writing them, but adults who don't want to replicate what's already out there. There was also a push for more diversity in the kind of tales being told in many mainstream publishing houses as a result of the (accurate) criticism that the books published tended to leave out large segments of our diverse population. Whether the houses have been successful in opening their markets, I don't know, but it has allowed non-Western tales to be told--much to the benefit of people interested in them.
My two cents.
Best,
Alice
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Erica
Carlson
Registered User
(4/1/05 10:43 am)
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Re: LRRH Caldecott Winners
A few fragments of thought:
Feminists in the late 60s, 70s, and 80s moved to create collections of traditional tales that featured strong heroines, in addition to creating their own original stories. It would be fascinating to see how this movement is reflected (or isn't) in LRRH illustrations. When do you see the shift you've described taking place?
(If it would be useful, and if you haven't already read it, Kay Stone's article "Feminist Approaches to the Interpretation of Fairy Tales" gives a good and succinct overview of how women have approached fairy tales in recent decades, though its emphasis isn't on illustration.)
It occurs to me that, since some of the more empowered Western versions
of LRRH are also graphic and, um--earthy--they aren't natural choices
for children's books. A book titled Little Red's Striptease
might cause several parents dismay...
Librarians and educators (at least the ones I talk to) are pretty happy about the increasing availability of books that provide access to stories and art from different cultural groups, so long as the stories are treated respectfully. Since fairy tales are often used as socialization tools with children, it's nice that the books being published are reflecting the fact that not everyone is white.
Best,
Erica
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Terri
Windling
Registered User
(4/1/05 10:49 am)
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Re: LRRH Caldecott Winners
Sara, have you read Little Red Riding Hood Uncloaked: Sex,
Morality, and the Evolution of a Fairy Tale by Catherine
Orenstein? Orenstein doesn't talk much about picture book versions,
but it's an interesting look at the history and evolution of the
tale (geared to lay readers rather than fairy tale scholars).
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 4/1/05 10:50 am
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DerekJ
Unregistered User
(4/1/05 2:14 pm)
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Re: LRRH Caldecott Winners
>>In the chapter I am working on now I am looking at Trina Schart Hyman's Little Red Riding Hood (1983), which won a Caldecott Honor Medal, and Ed Young's Lon Po Po (1990), which won the Caldecott Medal.
Hyman's book takes its lead from the Grimms' tale, which was apparently a great childhood favorite, while Young adapts an Asian variant of the LRRH tale.
So, I was curious what all the brilliant members of the board thought about the "shift" in fairy tale picture books - the move from a highly-detailed, pictorially realistic, good-old-fashioned, misogynistic Grimm tale to a softer, feminist, non-Western approach...<<
Before beating up too much on the Hyman version, might want to read the intro or do similar homework:
This was the most personal "pet-project" of all of Hyman's illustrated Barbara Rogasky retellings--Hyman always said (and in her autobio) that she had an obsession with LRRH when she was six, always acted out the story, had her mother sew her own hood, etc., and that was one of the more formative periods in her life.
As a result, the character illustrations in Hyman's book are all family-album depictions: That's lil' Trina as Red, her own grandmother as the Grandmother, etc.
The best PB Grimm retellings come from those who want
to retell them, and Hyman's LRRH is still held up as the poster
example--
And whereas Young got the Caldecott for Neat Art-School Collage Illustrations, Trina got hers for showing what a labor-of-love could do.
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(4/1/05 4:18 pm)
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Re: LRRH Caldecott Winners
I think it's also important to look at the artists and their tools. During the Victorian period block printing was the most popular method, nowadays computers are the primary tool.
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sara
lindsey
Registered User
(4/1/05 7:48 pm)
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Re: LRRH Caldecott Winners
Thanks, everyone, for your thoughtful and insightful responses.
Terri-
LRRH Uncloaked is my "bible" for this thesis - I've read parts of it so many times that I could probably recite it! Catherine Orenstein is absolutely wonderful with regards to both her writing and her visual analyses...
Derek-
In no way did I mean to belittle Hyman's book! I actually enjoy the TSH LRRH more than Young's Lon Po Po and I have read both TSH's Self-Portrait, her "Cut It Down" essay from Haase's Reception of Grimms' Fairy Tales, her "Zen and the Art of Children's Book Illustration" essay for the Zena Sutherland lectures, and anything else I could get my hands on. Also, this book was not a Barbara Rogasky retelling. Hyman retold the story, which she said was easy, since all she "had to do was say 'by heart' the Grimm version that had been embedded in [her] mind so long before." The fact remains, though, that the Grimms' tale is sexist. There's just no way around it. Hyman actually calls her a "less-than-clever trusting little twit of a heroine." I am interested in what her illustrations say about the story, about gender, etc. I hope (idealistic though it may be) that illustrators are awarded the Caldecott for something more than technical skill. As Sandra Beckett says, picture book retellings of fairy tales have to potential to "transfigure traditional motifs in order to convey new messages, reach new audiences, and reflect new cultural contexts." I am investigating the ways in which Hyman and Young tell their own stories and, since they have both been given high honors for their stories, what these stories say about society, children, fairy tales, etc. and how they have changed in the past decades.
As for media, I know that TSH was very anti-technology and I am pretty sure that Ed Young's pastel/watercolors for Lon Po Po were made without any sort of computer interface. I mean, I'm sure that the books were formatted on the computer to prepare them for printing, but I don't actually think that any of the illustrators I am writing about are digital artists.
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Terri
Windling
Registered User
(4/3/05 9:10 am)
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Little Red Riding Hood
Sara, I like the Orenstein book too, and often find myself recommending
it -- yet I have qualms about it. I was sorry that she missed so
many modern re-tellings of LRRH, primarily ones published under
a fantasy label, such as Nalo Hopkinson's brilliantly disturbing
Riding the Red, Kathe Koja's I Shall Do Thee Mischief
in the Wood, Wendy Wheeler's Little Red, Miriam Grace
Monfredo's The Apprentice, and a host of others. Also Gillian
Cross's hard hitting YA novel Wolf, which was a
Carnegie Award winner for heaven's sake.
Orenstein did, at least, reference an early Tanith Lee story (Wolfland)
[probably because Jack Zipes had previously included it in his Trials
and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood], but I was
left with the distinct impression the big movement of adult fairy
tale re-tellings in the fantasy genre over the last 20 years somehow
escaped her. Which weakened the book for me quite a bit.
I continue to find it...ironic...that the very scholars lamenting that fairy tales have been unfairly ignored and denigrated through the years, particularly as women's fictions, unconciously repeat this pattern when they ignore all the writers who work with this material today but do it under a Fantasy or YA publishing label. Maybe it's just me, but I see some similarities between the women salon fairy tale writers of 17th century France, for instance (publishing work beloved by readers, ignored or dismissed by the literary establishment of their day) and writers like Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen, Delia Sherman, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip (etc., etc., etc.) writing adult fairy tales today that are beloved by large numbers of readers but largely ignored in academic surveys of adult fairy tale fiction.
Elizabeth Harries' Twice Upon a Time: Women Writers and
the History of the Fairy Tale, is another book that is
flawed in this way. Yet it seems to me, in my work as an editor,
that the genre/mainstream divide is getting smaller, as more and
more writers (and readers) cross over the line in both directions.
I hope academics catch up and realize this, and that future fairy
tale studies aren't flawed by such blind spots.
Sorry, Sara, this is a bit off-topic for your survey of LRRH picture books! Just wanted to express my reservations about the Orenstein book -- although I quite enjoyed it otherwise.
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 4/3/05 9:41 am
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(4/3/05 1:23 pm)
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Re: Little Red Riding Hood
I wonder Terri, if it is so off topic. Could the growth in adult fairy tales published in the last few decades have had an effect on what is being written for children? After all, since adults write the picture books, they are probably influenced by what they read, including adult fiction.
Best,
Alice
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sara
lindsey
Registered User
(4/3/05 1:25 pm)
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Re: Little Red Riding Hood
Terri-
I completely agree with you. My feelings about LRRH Uncloaked
are rather like my feelings about The DaVinci Code. As
an Art History major, I am well-disposed towards anything that gets
the general public thinking more about art. It was an enjoyable
read, but it definitely had its - ahem - problems... I think that
it's the same with Orenstein's book. It was fun, cleverly written
and easy to read, and it probably reached more people than the average
book of fairy tale criticism. Of course, I also liked the way she
introduced each chapter with a LRRH-related image! I think her book
was particularly useful to me because my thesis readers aren't fairy
tale scholars, so it served as a guide on how to introduce people
to the LRRH tale.
By the way, have you read Sandra Beckett's Recycling Red Riding
Hood? I'd be interested to hear what you think of it.
Sara
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sara
lindsey
Registered User
(4/3/05 1:46 pm)
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Re: Little Red Riding Hood
Whoops - I posted before I read Alice's post. I sure hope
that Terri thinks so because my next chapter - if I ever finish
this one! - looks at sexuality/gender roles in LRRH picture books.
Sarah Moon (1983) - Little Red Riding Hood
Beni Montresor (1989) - Little Red Riding Hood
Jean Claverie (1994) - Le Petit Chaperon Rouge
I don't think that these books would have been possible without
the feminist/revisionist movement. I think Moon's book, in particular,
owes its existence to Zipes' Trials and Tribulations of LRRH.
And, of course, it was banned from many schools and libraries. Honestly,
if Trina Schart Hyman's LRRH was banned in the 1990s for showing
a legal adult having - gasp! - a glass of wine then Moon, in the
1980s, never stood a chance. Her book is now recommended for ages
14+, not exactly your typical age range for a picture book. So then
we are faced with the question of why it's a "picture book"
in the first place. Obviously it's a book with pictures, but does
that immediately make it children's fare? Or is it the fairy tale
subject that makes it "juvenile"?
I think Selma Lanes hit the nail on the head in Down the Rabbit
Hole (1971) when she wrote that, "the floodtide of talent
channeled into the stream of children’s books, particularly since
the close of World War II, has assuredly brought with it an increasing
number of works of superior graphic quality and immense virtuosity
on the part of the artist. But often, too, there is little that
speaks directly or even specifically to children. … It is a children’s
picture book only because the genre has increasingly become a catch-all
for gifted artists whose work is difficult to categorize" (48-9).
Okay, back to writing!
Sara
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