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. To start your critical literacy session with the kiddos, I suggest that you read the book and have the discussions anytime but bedtime. We read them during our calm down time of the day which is after lunch. Sit down in a cozy spot and pull out the book. Read the title of the book and ask your child this question: This is also probably a joke directed at himself, since the author/illustrator has a decorative ‘e’ at the end of Brown.) CHARLES SMYTHE Look at the facial expressions and body language of the characters in the illustrations. Can you draw the same person with different expressions / body language to show their changing emotions? Stories in which an ensemble cast get an equal voice are generally stories about a society, and this is true in this case as well. One major weakness of our society is the class divide. There is of course much that can be said about that, and how economic stratification has a ruinous effect on us all, especially on poor people.

The flower functions as a reward for openness and kindness. Notice that the motif of the flower has been foreshadowed in the illustrations, encouraging readers to wonder what it means. EXTRAPOLATED ENDING Draw a map showing the different places featured in the story. Use this to show the route taken by each of the voices that day.Importantly, the story is atemporal by design. Is this sky one of the evening, morning? We don’t know. Once the characters assemble at the park, the seasons keep changing according to whose story it is. This makes use of the symbolism of seasons, of course, but also lends a universality to this story of humanity and hierarchy. This is the equivalent to WEEKS of literacy teaching and learning - we spent ten weeks in total looking at the work of Anthony Browne using these resources.

Discuss the use of colour within the illustrations. How do the changes in colour reflect the changing emotions of the characters speaking? Metafiction is a type of fiction which draws attention to its status as a work of art. We know as readers that we’re being played with as a reader. But we go along with it. The update is deliberately staged and artificial. Walking in the park I saw – an autumn tree burst into flames, a cloud become a swan; a bench grow crocodile’s feet; the children’s slide stretch into a rainbow; grass grow tongues and whisper secrets, a statue wave its stony hands, the boating pond turn into glass and shatter into a thousand slices of ice…. Activity six: Making it your own The children are most likely to say we are missing the little boy’s voice. They may also say the dog. You can ask the kids what you think those voices would say. Read The Second Voice Although the parallactic plot structure combined with surrealist illustrations are unusual in picture books, the message of this story is not unusual for the category: Don’t suppress children’s natural inclination to have fun. Don’t pass on your own class prejudices because we really need to stop perpetuating the idea that some people are more worthy than others.The story starts with an upper-class mother and son who walk their dog to the park and meet other people who are depicted as coming from a lower class status. What I found interesting within the story is that this can be a realistic occurrence that can happen daily. I consider the characters can also relate to the reader quite accessibly. In my opinion this is done through a good use of language and wonderful illustrations that pose extraordinary features. Although many may find these as unusual, I believe the use of these types of pictures as appealing. 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. I have used this book over two weeks in my classroom. This bundle contains an in-depth guide to the text, including: