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Children's Literature Essay The paper examines the book "The Hello, Goodbye Window" written by Norton Juster and Illustrated by Chris Raschka, analyzes the techniques and elements of art used by the illustrator and proves that the illustrations are worthy of the Caldecott award. It is very difficult to make illustrations for childrens books, as illustrations for children require a real talent. When the child is bored, and doesnt like to watch TV, or play with friends, he takes the book into his hands and starts reading. An interesting and good reading captivates a child; it makes him to forget about all his problems and bad mood. When the child takes the book from the shelf, he looks through the book, and turns the pages over, as he wants to find something interesting and worthwhile spending his time, - a nice story, an interesting fairy-tale created by a talented author. Yet, what else can prompt a child that a book is interesting and worthwhile reading?
Naturally, these are illustrations that are able to make the book even more interesting. When you look at "The Hello, Goodbye Window" illustrated by Chris Raschka, you suddenly remember the words told by Alice from Wonderland: "Nobody needs the books with no pictures!" Sure, this is true, as nobody can imagine "The Hello, Goodbye Window" without colorful pictures made by, probably, the most talented illustrator Chris Raschka. The illustrations for the book are made by the artist-illustrator. Illustrator Chris Raschka evidently spent plenty hours while working at the book. His work was really complicated, as he had to show his vision of this amazing children's book. Along with the other things, Chris Raschka had to introduce the reader into captivating and breath-catching world full of adventures, fairy tales and miracles, and, at the same time, not to impose his vision on children too much in order to leave space for childrens fantasy.
Illustrations made by Chris Raschka can hardly be compared to the illustrations created by the vast majority of children's artists. Really, there are plenty of illustrators; all of them are different, as well as their books are. Some of them evidently lack fantasy - they create dull drawings and make them look similar. These illustrators seem to be too lazy to provide readers with a chance to find a miracle.
Their drawings are schematic and laconic. Some illustrators are too kind their illustrations are bright and nice, but too obtrusive. Their evil characters are too evil, while kind characters are too kind, and the beauties are too beautiful. These books also seem to dull and boring, as the reader can hardly imagine a beautiful captivating story. Some illustrators act like copyists (nowadays there are plenty of them, indeed), as they clone similar characters of fairy tales, children's books, anime, children's films, animation films at the pages of magazines and books for children. These illustrators are successful enough, as they earn money, but they do not bother about the children, who read their books.
Yet, it is not as sad as it may seem. There are illustrators from the capital letter of the letter I real and talented masters, artists, illustrators, who respect both the author and their small readers. These people are both courageous and careful at the same time. Chris Raschka belongs to this kind of illustrators, as, while looking at the pages of the book "The Hello, Goodbye Window", you feel that the book, due to his hard and intensive labor, gets double force and presents an amazing gift of unforgettable hours of travel into the most interesting and captivating worlds of imagination of the Author and Illustrator. When you look at the colorful illustrations made by Chris Raschka, - a smiling girl in green and red dress, a fat cat, a man looking out of the window and waving his hands, - all these details create an impression of the miracle and cheerful joy that has no end. The book immediately involves the reader into the girls world and offers the small reader to look at the world from the girls point of view.
When you look at the pictures, you understand that Chris Raschka is a clever and kind man that has a charm of his own; and, probably, the most important thing is that he is extremely talented person. He created dozens of illustrations for this colorful book, and each of these illustrations strikes by an unusual brightness of Chris Raschka's creative self-expression. All his life Chris Raschka serves the childrens needs. He created a lot of pictures for children audience. It is he, who invented and drew a curious girl from the book, her fussy and funny grandparents, and all other characters from the book "The Hello, Goodbye Window." Chris Raschka's illustrations offer the young reader to make the first step into the world where the fussy, curious, smiling, and naughty girls lives. Yellow and green cheerful tones create an impression like you are watching into an endless sky full of bright stars, or sitting somewhere at the bank of the river, or in the meadow full of summer flowers, - somewhere, where everything is alive and bright.
The drawings are hand-drawn, and the illustrator uses watercolor, oil pastel, and pencil in order to make the illustrations brighter. Chris Raschka is one of the most talented and creative illustrators, as throughout the book his color palettes change, and techniques evolve, composing an integral whole with the authors idea. His homemade-craft technique attaches an additional charm to the book, and the book becomes even more expressive than ever. His unmistakably recognized style is often called as quirky and satisfying. His ink-and-watercolor illustrations are underwhelming.
Chris Raschka's interesting techniques allow the readers to enter a girls world, where everything is mixed together in a whimsical combination, - absurdity, devotion, curiosity, joy, happiness, - the life. Raschka's illustrations remind the adults that they live in an interesting world, although it seems that they have already forgotten about it, because they are always busy with something, always in hurry, and always too busy to turn around and to discover the world around them. The world of Chris Raschka reminds us that the child treats everything like a great discovery; the miracles are thought to be an ordinary thing, something natural, and something that should be treated like it stands to reason. By the great power of his illustrations, Chris Raschka allows adults to have a look into the children's world, and, at the same time, offers children to have a look into the world, where the adults and children are happy.
The world of illustrations presented by Chris Raschka to his young readers is unusual and fascinating. This world and this window attract children like a magnet. It captivates and astonishes by freedom, and an endless flight of the illustrator's imagination. When you read the book, you cannot avoid the desire to look at the pictures again and over again. Every time you look at them, you find new details and new meanings, standing still from admiration and delight from Chris Raschka's unsurpassable talent of illustrator. In conclusion it may be said that the illustrations in this book are evidently worthy of the Caldecott award.
Works Cited Juster, Norton and Raschka, Chris. The Hello, Goodbye Window. Michael Di Capua Books, 2005.
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