Voices in the Park

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Stories come in a variety of shapes. Most picture books have a linear storyline. The structure of Voices In The Park is rare. Impressionists have a word to describe it — ‘ parallax‘. (Note, too, that some of the illustrations include Impressionist techniques, at least in comparison to Browne’s signature work — the spots of colour on the orange cover trees are a good example.) What I did like were the four voices, the four separate perspectives. Woman, man, boy, girl, all different in the (basically) identical setting. The larger units of work are "Voices in the Park", "Gorilla", "Silly Billy" and "Zoo", which all contain literature circle task cards, linked Creative Arts activities, step-by-step shared reading guides and much more. The father’s walk home will show his emotional state much improved, like the cheerful night before Christmas. Street-Lamp-Flower-Voices-In-The-Park What is the reason for a parallactic plot structure? In literary parallax, the message is implicitly this: The truth does not exist. A person’s version of the truth depends on their perspective. This is a defining characteristic of the literary Impressionists. That said, I think Anthony Browne has used parallax to a different end in this instance. I believe he conveys an unambiguous message: Repression of children is bad; playing is good; friendship across socioeconomic boundaries is good. He uses parallax to avoid hitting readers over the head with this ‘message’. A strong message like that could easily seem didactic. When readers put pieces of a puzzle together for themselves, they are more likely to agree with the storyteller’s message, regarding it as self-evident.

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.

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I have used this book over two weeks in my classroom. This bundle contains an in-depth guide to the text, including: Use the story as a starting point for learning about the first / third person and how they are written. You don’t have to spent too much time on the answers. Simply get the kids’ talking about the voices and who isn’t heard. Read The Third Voice Fruit Shaped Trees. 10 June 2009. 17 Aug. 2010 < http://static.guim.co.uk/ sys-images/​arts/​arts_/​pictures/​2009/

The fourth, and last, voice is the little girl that belongs to the sad father. I will note that the author uses the word “twit” to describe the angry women, so if you would rather avoid that, just change the word to “lady”. But I like to use that as an opportunity to discuss wording and what that word means. Again you are going to discuss who is telling the story and who’s voice is missing, if anyone. The exception to ‘all on one level’ is the see-saw scene, but the nature of a see-saw is that people take turns being up and down. Effectively, this is an egalitarian metaphor. In this image, the poor girl is higher than the rich boy. Life can thrust us out of riches (more frequently than it thrusts us into them.) Socioeconomic circumstance should be considered, like life, like health, a temporary state which can change suddenly at any time. There is some disagreement about the origins of the numerous variations of the name Smith. The addition of an e at the end of the name is sometimes considered an affectation, but may have arisen either as an attempt to spell smithy or as the Middle English adjectival form of smith, which would have been used in surnames based on location rather than occupation (in other words, for someone living near or at the smithy). Wikipedia How are the names symbolic? The homophonous names show that they are all equally human. ‘Smith’ is more common/popular than ‘Smythe’, suggesting some pretension on the part of the rich family.Surrealists put disparate objects together. In doing so, they help their audience to see objects we usually take for granted in a new way. The word for this is ‘ defamiliarisation‘. Could you create your own story in which different people have different points of view about the same event?

Anthony Browne is a highly acclaimed and multi award winning author and illustrator whose books are known and enjoyed for their surreal illustrations and thought-provoking themes.

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The fourth character, Smudge's font is a more fun type of font that would resemble the voice of a playful child. Just like her father's font, hers is also portrayed in bold. Rather than it giving her a deeper voice, it looks more hearty and playful. Browne had carefully chosen these fonts to portray an attitude to give the reader a glimpse into the four voices of the characters in the story. Looked at as an artistic element, the textual font is composed of lines that suggest the strength of each character’s personality, the mood of each character, and the mood they suggest to other characters.