The Heart and the Bottle

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7096916-the-heart-and-the-bottle

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/05/14/oliver-jeffers-the-heart-and-the-bottle/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/03/children-picturebooks-ahlberg-gravett-jeffers

https://vikkivansickle.wordpress.com/2010/03/06/a-lump-in-my-throat-the-heart-and-the-bottle/

https://www.thelittlereadingroom.com.au/book-review/the-heart-and-the-bottle/


- tackles a gritty realistic subject matter (the loss of a loved one)
- uses ambiguity to allow the reader to explore the narrative to their own level of emotional development
- is not as open to interpretation as the giving tree. It uses ambiguity within the narrative (you are never actually specifically told about the death of a loved one). The overall meaning of the book is still relatively clearly defined

Essay review feedback

Today we had a feedback session where we swapped essays and discussed how they could be improved and if they were easily understandable from a fresh perspective. The focal points of my feedback are:

- break page ten down into smaller more concise paragraphs (clearer for the reader and makes identifying repetition easier)
- include supporting images where beneficial (not just in case study and reflective section)
- remove unnecessary information, specifically in introduction
- some terms need to be explained (Hawthorne effect)
- clarify 5 characteristics of complexity in children’s books (could include in appendix)

I found this feedback very useful. Not just changes to make but how they can be implemented effectively. I plan to apply these changes then identify a third case study. Through roughing out images for the practical section of the project I feel I could start working on the reflective practice section of the essay and add to it as my work progresses further.

Scale

I want to use some complexity in the images. By this I mean the words and illustrations will work together and the images will purposefully be ambiguous on certain pages to encourage though and discussion about the ideas in the narrative.

Digging

roughing out ideas for book pages. the little girl taking on the task by dressing as a her with armour and weapons, unfortunately she is not a hero and her weapons are sports gear highlighting differences between myth and realistic scenarios and outcomes. She is accompanied on her adventure by her imaginary friend  to help demonstrate the discussion of ideas to aid learning.

Imagination

Scare the birds away

This is one of the first of the trials of Hercules I decided to work on. A few of the original trials involve killing animals but I though this wasn't really appropriate for children (not without addressing issues surrounding killing animals for food or sport specifically). I changed the story from killing the birds to scaring them away from the farmers freshly sown fields. This is not far away from the original story as Hercules only killed some of the birds and the rest fled. The last three images in this publication depict the simple sensible way to complete the task, I though of a few different ways i could alter the narrative to include the theories from my research:

- The girl completes the trial but it is really easy and she feels no sense of accomplishment. Mixture of emotions
- The girl comes up with outrageous ideas to scare the birds away that all fail and she resorts to the simple approach of a scarecrow

This lead me on to the idea of exploring multiple ideas through imagination (counter-factuals) then thinking about how those ideas would pan out given her own life experiences and knowledge. The ideas could be rested out in the form of a conversation with an imaginary friend.

Zeus/Farmer

I thought about depicting the parent/farmer in the narrative as Zeus to link back to the original story of Hercules. the idea was to have the adult setting the tasks dressing in a dressing gown with a big beard to resemble the Greek god. I tested the idea of having two different narrative being played out on either side of each double page spread. Half the image would be an fantastical epic adventure and the other would be a more mundane realistic version. The idea is that I could show the differences between the heroic characters and narrative of the original text and the nuanced, realistic characters and situations of my version. I could use the juxtaposition to explore complexity in narratives, ambiguous, thought provoking situations and the use of relatable scenarios.

Back to the storyboard

I want to chose one of the trials of Hercules to concentrate on
Try to fit in the ideas and theories from my research without losing the focus of the original story

Hydra

Original story
Accompanied by nephew, charioteer
Lured the hydra from its lair with fiery arrows
Hydra helped by giant crab
When one head was chopped off two more took its place
Did not get credit for the task because he had help
Some though it was over exaggerated and the hydra was a water snake

New
‘Go and get me some worms so I can go fishing’
‘Be Careful though they can get pretty big’ joking
Kid worried thinks about the giant worms
Teams up with imaginary friend to think of ways to complete the task
Imaginary friend proposes fantastical solutions
‘Hercules’ explores how the ideas would play out (badly)
They make a choice and go to catch the worms (hydra)
Confronting fears
Lure out worms
Find out they’re tiny (kind of cute)
Conflicted about using worms for fishing?
Claims she couldn’t find any worms?
Puts worms in a tank to keep as pets (play with scale)
Failed the labour/task?

Digital Roughs

Complex book

 I would like to leave the story open ended or with unanswered questions about the characters emotions to encourage further discussion and imagination. While trying to achieve this the story has begun to feel too complicated and lose its structure, I need to keep storyboarding and find a balance that works as an intriguing narrative that is easy to understand and appropriate for its target audience of children.

Book trials and ideas

Digging the garden

“Look our for worms” - farmer
Girl starts to think about big scary worms chasing her
Gets kitted up with armour ( household objects)
Sets our on adventure to dig the garden
Finds out worms are tiny
Digs hole ( worms as spectators)
Hard work- sense of achievement

“Scare the birds away from the fields” - farmer
“What scares birds?” - little girl thinking
Sees the farm cat walk past
Idea- a giant cat robot - thought bubble of what that would look like
Start to try and build robot out of things found around the farm
Farmer “ what are you doing? You just need to put the scarecrow out”
Sulking, girl trudges out with the scarecrow
Had to clean up the mess from making the robot
Nonsense of achievement

Capture the boar/pig
Goes out with farmer to capture the pig
Fells a connection with the pig and wants him to be free
Thinks about the pigs life being free (fun activities)
Decides to leave the gate open
Feels like she did the right thing

Stealing apples
Agree to do it
Takes the apples
Feels guilty and returns them to the owner
Goes to the shop and buys more apples to give to the farmer
The farmer is happy
Girl feels like she did the right thing
Later farmer is eating an apple and noticed a sticker on it
Angry/happy?
Little girl conflicted

Sections end in questions
Promotes conversation
Keep emotions nuanced

Last pages
Conversation with parent about the trip to the farm
Comic strip?
Kid acting out her experiences

Practical tests

I tested out some more ideas for pages of the book. I was looking at including some elements of  ancient Greek art to create more links between my reimagined story and the original Trials of Hercules. I have also been experimenting with scale used to illustrate juxtapositions between the epic mythological trials of the little girls imagination and the mundane everyday tasks that she carries out. 

Essay progress- case studies

I have been working on the two case studies that I had already chosen and think i will need at least one more to complete the chapter. Through these two case studies I have explored

- ambiguity
- complexity
- realistic narratives
- conversation and play in response to children's books
- relating case studies to specific theories of complexity in children's fiction
- appropriateness if subjects for target audience
- responses to books with realistic narratives

Updated

I am going to make some additions to this section, two pieces of research that I had already looked at that I think will benefit the essay. So far I have looked at books that in one way or another demonstrate the theories related to my research but their are similarities between all three. I want to include a study I found into illustrated narratives used within healthcare to help children understand the situation. They found that the illustrated narratives were more effective that simply explaining the process. This will not be a study of a specific text but instead an application of narrative with a clear goal. The other piece of research i want to include is an interview with Anne Fine who is a well known author. 

Essay progress- Introduction

In my original introduction I repeated the research question, I don't think this is needed and gets the essay off to a repetitive and messy start. I have also not introduced the practitioners and theorists in in my first draft, I think I should refer to them briefly as a way to introduce they to the reader and to clearly explain what they are about to read. The introduction should

- briefly introduce the reader to the aim of the essay
- introduce the reader to the practitioners and theorists that make up the research
- give an overview of the layout of the essay to make it easier to understand

Story Plan And Links to Theory

Things to include
- visual links to original story
- complexity in achievements and reaction from parents/gods
- emotional complexity. Not happy when tasks are too easy, feelings of achievements, relationships, learning, disagreeing with parents
- open ending. Happy or sad? Try and make the story a subject for further discussion
- make the narrative relate to the life of a modern day child/ the audience
- do not preach moral lessons- attempt to stimulate important though processes and discussions
- emotions to convey fear, happiness, sadness, frustration, conflicting emotions, pride.
- themes - defiance, conflict, victory, growth, self knowledge.

The Giving Tree

http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2012/05/18/top-100-picture-books-85-the-giving-tree-by-shel-silverstein/#_

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-giving-tree-tender-story-of-unconditional-love-or-disturbing-tale-of-selfishness.html

These reviews of the giving tree highlight the contrasting opinions readers have of The Giving tree. I want to use these to highlight the problems with using ambiguity within children's books. The book is still one of the best selling children's books of all time but has polarised opinion of the meaning behind its narrative. Leaving the meaning so open means that the narrative can be seen in a number of ways, in the case of this book the relationship between the characters has been seen as selfless love from parent to child and also as an abusive relationship. One of the other books I have looked at, The Heart and the Bottle also uses ambiguity but only is smaller elements of the story. It manages to keep the overall meaning clear.

Progress Turtorial

Things discussed today
- work on case studies use the two already selected and find more
- analyse case studies in relation to theory
- start work on introduction - could help refine main body
- make stronger links between practical and theory
- storyboard practical ideas to gain greater understanding of what i want to do and test out ideas that work as a book

Things to do
- start writing both introduction and case studies- email to Pete on 17th
- Start roughing up storyboards for practical work
- write practical plan/brief to clarify links to theory

key essay information

I have just read back through the main body of my essay and made some notes on key points to triangulate within the essay and apply to my practical work


 -Interest in moral values through fiction since the end of World War 1
- Teachers, parents and publishers - fiction "mould children's characters" (assumptions)
- Number of studies conducted between then and 1970 but all flawed in different ways
- Initial change in attitudes, no change after 2 weeks, when retested (no discussion)
- Discussion found to make attitudes even more favourable than reading alone
- Play- stories are the input and discussion/play are methods of assimilation
- Play not just assimilation- form of experiment- counterfactuals, multiple outcomes
- Children can understand complex ideas presented in books- what is appropriate
- Read aloud discussion important, improves comprehension and critical evaluation
- Importance of what we read not just how we read
- Texts that support complex interpretations, "subtle and multifaceted"
- Characteristics- 3 from Aram and 5 from Hoffman (compare)
- Structure, language and characters
- Realistic' Open to interpretation - leads to discussion- leads to play
- Parents least supportive of structural complexity
- Parents who take part in interactive reading with children more often shared views of experts
- More positive towards complexity in children's books
- More experience of the effects of complex narratives?

1970 review

http://ascd.com/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197011_kimmel.pdf

This review from 1970 looks at a number of studies that's purpose was to determine whether children's books can change children's values. The review states that researches have been interested in this subject since the end of the First World War but that crating an effective study into it was proving extremely difficult, the studies were "few, open to question, and sometimes contradictory".
This review is a useful insight into previous attempts to gauge the influence on children's books prior to the focal point of my research.

This review acts as a starting point for my essay, it contains a number of similar studies into the influence of children's books. The methodology of the studies have some key differences. One retested the participants to see if there was any lasting effect on their attitude toward the subject to the books and found and influence the books had was gone, another included discussion into the subject matter after reading and found that this made the subject of the books have a greater impact on the readers attitudes. It is unfortunate that there is not a study that did both as later studies highlight the importance of discussion and play based on reading in allowing readers to assimilate the subject of the book into their own views. In my essay I want to compare thee findings of these earlier studies with more recent research as well as give a basis for attitudes towards children's books. Assumptions about the influence of children's books have been made from before these early studies up to present day. I would like to look more into what determines attitudes throughout this time and how these attitudes can change the application of shared reading between parents/teachers and children.

Peer review 1- Response

After the peer review today I have decided what I should change my research question to. It does not change the focus of my essay, it is more the question being brought back into line with where my research has taken me. I had already decided I needed to change the question but today helped me to clarify the direction of my work, what I need to refine and how my practical work relates to my essay.

Question

'What light does recent research throw on how children's emotional, intellectual and moral development is influenced by fictional children's books'

Peer Review 1