Inside Picture Books

Rating:
Summary: Way Too Deep Into Picture Books
Review: This book is directed at mothers, fathers, grandparents, teachers, therapists, and scholars. It is obvious to the reader that Ellen Handler Spitz is a scholarly woman herself. The technical and foreign words she chooses to use are confusing and perhaps overwhelming to many readers. Spitz brings forth a wide variety of classic children's literature and then gives the reader her very own perception of these books. She also offers her thoughts on the way that children may interpret these stories as well.
Spitz dives right into analyzing everything about these books, from colors schemes used on the covers and in the illustrations, to the underlying meanings of and sexual overtones within certain aspects of the text itself. Her thoughts are far-fetched and hard to digest. For example, she describes Miss Clavel from the Madeline series as a phallic symbol. She goes onto describe how Maurice Sendak's "Mickey" character from In The Night Kitchen is obviously making vulgar gestures within the pictures of the story, and how that entire book revolves around a Holocaust theme. Her colorful descriptions became amusing after a while.
Spitz discusses books openly, bringing the reader all of the supposed vulgarities that are seen within their pages. Her perspective soon became one of perversion and disgust for me.
Ellen Handler Spitz does succeed in one thing though. This author inadvertantly forces the reader to go to the public library to read or re-read certain classic mentioned. I know I did, I just had to find out if these disgusting things were that obvious. They were not. Spitz makes it seem impossible for children to simply enjoy a story. I found it rather unsettling that she could read so far into the books that she could hardly find anything pleasant about them.
I would recommend this book to teachers, not for its content but merely for the "Picture Books Cited" listing in the back. That would be a great resource to have.

Rating:
Summary: Analizing Children's Picture Books
Review: This book is very informational and goes into great detail about particular children's picture books. Although it was informational, I did not particularly care for this book. I feel that this book analyized the meaning of stories too much. For example, when Spitz discusses "In the Night Kitchen" she talks about the underlying Jewish meaning behind it. I do not feel that children analyze books as much as Spitz does. Since picture books are supposed to be writien for children then we should look at it fromm a child's perspective, not from an analitical adults perspective.
Although this book did not leave out anything, I feel that it was too long and drawn out. Spitz could have gotton the same information to the readers with a shorter and easier text. While reading this book, I often became distracted and uninterested. I feel that if the words were simpler my focus would have been better throughout the book.
I am a student studying to be an elementry education teacher. From my perspective, along with many of my classmates, I wold not waste my time or money on this book.

Rating:
Summary: An exploration of the impact of reading to children
Review: This isn't a survey of classic picture books but an exploration of the impact of reading to children. Well-known picture books are included in the analysis, but the heart of the title lies in its discussions of how adults build connections to children and childhood through such books. An involving discussion.

Rating:
Summary: Too Analytical
Review: Through personal experiences, and thorough analysis, Ellen Handler Spitz creates an informational reading providing us with her opinion of the hidden affects that picture books have on children. In reference to books about pets dying, war, bedtime books, and more Ms. Spitz analyzes various aspects, from the color and content of the cover, to the text, to the illustrations. Ms. Spitz commenced the book with an acknowledgement to the readers relating to our childhood experiences with books which really grasped my attention. She then lost my attention by following this recollection with a long drawn out explanation of her objectives of this book, and some personal experiences. From this point on I found it very difficult to get myself into this book. Ms. Spitz frequently used such an array of technical words that I found myself spending more time looking up words than I did reading the actual book. I feel that she read too much out of the content of these children books. Through the text and the pictures, books do give messages to children, but for her to say for example that the cover of the book The Accident "...with its conspicuous border, signifies, I venture, that death is a finality" is getting too psychoanalytical for my liking. (Spitz, 81) I also did not like how she would analyze illustrations with out having the illustration included for emphasis as to what she was referring to exactly. I would not recommend this book to anyone. I feel it ruins the fun that is meant to be had from reading books.

Rating:
Summary: Get's you thinking
Review: While reading this book written by Ellen Spitz, one theme is carried on throughout her work. Children's books can and do have a profound affect on children, not only when they are young, but also when the reader gets older because we are now able to appreciate the sometimes complex themes that are read in children's books. Throughout this book, we hear Spitz's thought on a wide variety of books that I'm sure were either her favorite books as a kid, or books that she enjoyed reading to other children.
Chapter one of the book started off very well. She told of a few books that students of hers at Harvard told her about. My favorite story was about a child who loved the story of The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. This teenage boy at the time overheard his mother reading his favorite story to his younger brother. As Spitz put it best, "Teenage machismo proved no match for a spotted brown Rabbit with floppy ears, a Skin Horse, and the Boy who loved them"(p.3). This teenager, at the time, couldn't resist not hearing the story. He ended up going in the bedroom and laying on the bed with his brother and mom and listening to the rest of the story.
One thing that Spitz could have cleared up for the reader a little bit was the relationship between the author and the illustrator. For example, Spitz did a review on the book "The Accident," by Carol and Donald Carrick. From what Spitz wrote, she could almost predict what could happen in the book by looking at the cover. After reading the book, I could see how she saw the things she did in the cover. But my question is, was that planned out between the author and illustrator, or was it a coincidence. She also kind of contradicted herself by saying that the cover signified death, and then the next line, she said the cover had a calming effect. Either way, she gave good insight, but that author-illustrator relationship would be nice to know.
This book would be helpful for a variety of people. Knowing that this book is more of a scholarly read, I wouldn't recommend this book for the person who just feels like sitting down to read for entertainment, because this won't do it. On the other hand, if a parent or teacher wants to dive deeper into what picture books do for young children and investigate different themes in those books, this is the book for you. For any educator, investigative parent, or anyone interested in picture books, I recommend you read this book in order to broaden your thought processes about certain topics.

Rating:
Summary: Reviewer Praise for "Inside Picture Books"
Review: Why do "Madeline", "Goodnight Moon", "Where the Wild Things Are", "Courduroy", and other picture-book classics continue to enthrall young children? And what about the new versions of the Little Black Sambo story? What do these books say to kids about race, ethnicity, and gender? Should preschoolers hear stories about sadness and loss? Without jargon or pretension, Spitz celebrates the story and art in these books while discussing their effects in terms of psychology, aesthetics, morality, and culture. In the style of Robert Coles, her interest is in the imaginative life of children, rather than in explicit self-help messages, and even readers who have known the books forever will find surprising things to think about. Parents and other adults who read aloud to kids, as well as children's literature professionals, will enjoy what Spitz shows about the power of these deceptively simple images and the pleasure of sharing them across generations.--Hazel Rochman, ALA Booklist, 5/15/99