Voices in the Park

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The father searches the classifieds looking for a job, which will allow him to provide for his family. But because economic power is so connected to being a man, the fact that he has no hope of conforming to society’s expectation of ‘Man’, this exclusion has ostensibly afforded him a different kind of freedom. He can sit in a park during the daytime and spend time with his daughter. 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. Anthony Browne is the new Children’s Laureate and one of the foremost makers of picture books. He has spent many hours watching gorillas in a wildlife park and if you’re familiar with his stories you’ll know they often feature apes playing the role of humans. He is also famous for his surreal and playful illustrations. The books are part of a game he plays with the readers. In his illustrations he draws on famous works of art but he also hides surprising images so that a tree takes on the shape of a hat or footprints become leaves. However, Voices in the Park is more than surreal entertainment. It is rich in many layers of meaning, and I have known children avidly discuss the story for over an hour. Activity one: In the beginning Could you create your own story in which different people have different points of view about the same event?

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. This is also probably a joke directed at himself, since the author/illustrator has a decorative ‘e’ at the end of Brown.) CHARLES SMYTHE Another picture book with a different structure, different art style but identical message is Who Wants To Be A Poodle I Don’t by Lauren Child. I don’t buy the binary that some picture books are didactic while others are not. All stories contain a message, even if that message is conveyed by what they leave out rather than what goes in. More useful: to draw a distinction between implicit and explicit messaging. Discuss the use of colour within the illustrations. How do the changes in colour reflect the changing emotions of the characters speaking? From the cover illustration and from what I’d read about the story, I thought I’d love this book, but I have mixed feelings about it.Notice how the children are given different types of names. The rich boy’s name is the name of royalty, of public school educated white boys, typically. Charles is being acculturated into a patriarchal system in which he will enjoy power but also be repressed by its expectations. Below he literally and metaphorically stands in the shadow of the (bowler hat wearing) patriarchy. He already understands the gender hierarchy and that he is at the top of it. He is initially dismissive that he has to play with a girl, and then he accepts that she is good at using the play equipment. Note the distinction between sexism and misogyny: Charles may have had the sexism removed, but there’s no indication that he’ll be free of misogyny just because he’s learned girls can be good at things, too. ( Sexism and misogyny are not the same — and the difference matters.) SMUDGE SMITH Australia’s first Postmodern picture book is thought to be The Watertower, written by Gary Crew and illustrated by Steven Woolman (1994). See also Caleb, by the same duo. Unfortunately these books are a little difficult to source now. Mrs Smythe intends to go to the park to give her dog and son some fresh air and exercise. Mr Smith seems to be at the park because it is a pleasant place to sit and read the classifieds, quite possibly nicer than his own kitchen. THE BIG STRUGGLE The third voice is the little boy from the first story. He is also a sad child looking for a friend to play with at the park. Again you are going to ask the same two questions. “Who is talking in this story?” and “Who’s voice is missing?” The reason we keep asking these questions is to get the children to focus on who is telling the story so we can have more discussions once we have read all four voices. Read The Fourth Voice Voices In The Park was awarded the Kurt Maschler Award (1982-1999), which specifically rewarded British picture books demonstrating excellent integration between words and pictures. The prize covered picture books and an illustrated book for a wide variety of ages, and Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland appears to be a particularly satisfying text to illustrate because it was won twice, by two different illustrators.

In their independent activities, children further apply their inference skills to answer questions in role, or complete a table detailing who thinks what about who! In the alternative suggested activity, children are challenged to create a short role-play on the premise of one of the children going to tea at the other's house, and how the characters would interact with one another. how the characters are shown – what do the colours and images suggest to you about the characters – what do they make you feel?; write letters to an agony aunt or hold an ‘advice surgery’ for each character to discuss their problems;Orana : journal of school and children’s librarianship. Australia : Library Association of Australia, School & Children’s Libraries Sections 1977 – 2005 includes information about this picture book.

Identify the different nouns / adjectives / verbs / adverbs / connectives / punctuation used in the story. Why have these been used in particular places? 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 Think about the hopes and dreams of the different voices who are speaking. Could you describe these to a friend?

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dramatise the text and present the story as a mini play in four parts – present this to other classes; Use the story as a starting point for learning about the first / third person and how they are written. After reading and discussing both chapters as a class, children put themselves in the shoes of each character, and complete thought bubbles for different scenarios from the book, or write short diary entries. Alternatively, children are challenged to create freeze frames of different scenarios, and infer what each character is thinking and feeling. drawing inferences such as inferring characters’ feelings, thoughts and motives from their actions, and justifying inferences with evidence Everyone in this story is each other’s opponent, except for the dogs, whose easy friendliness juxtaposes against the reserve of the human characters — each at a different point on the ‘reserved’ spectrum.

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.Smudge mistakes mini-misogynist Charles for a wimpy one, who gradually warms to her. I believe this is how the reader is supposed to interpret Charlie’s character arc too, but I keep thinking about the distinction between sexism and misogyny, and how Browne only subverts one of those aspects for his boy character. DESIRE The text can be a very useful example for children to look at, as a model for writing in different perspectives and as a model for how to effectively create links between the text and illustrations. Notice the ‘a’ in the circle etched into the wall behind him: A symbol for anarchy since the 1970s. Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is sceptical of authority and rejects all involuntary, coercive forms of hierarchy. In this sense, Voices In The Park has an anarchist message. Anarchism also calls for the abolition of the state, which it holds to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful.