Author: Rebecca Resinski

A writing-intensive seminar course for 10 students.  The reading list included:

ON INTERPRETING PICTUREBOOKS

Molly Bang, Picture This: How Pictures Work
Lawrence R. Sipe, “The Art of the Picturebook”
Chris Raschka, “Point of Departure”
David Wiesner, “Point of Departure”

PICTUREBOOKS and BOOKS WITH PICTURES

Guy Billout, Thunderbolt and Rainbow
Becky Bolton and Louise Chappell, Myth Match: A Fantastical Flipbook of Extraordinary Beasts
M. Charlotte Craft and Kinuko Y. Craft, Cupid and Psyche
Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire, D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths
Demi, King Midas
Sara Fanelli, Mythological Monsters
Karrie Fransman and Jonathan Plackett, Gender Swapped Greek Myths
Neil Gaiman et al., Fables & Reflections, “The Song of Orpheus” and “Thermidor”
Bob Graham, Rose Meets Mr. Wintergarten
John Harris and Calef Brown, Greece! Rome! Monsters!
G. Brian Karas, Young Zeus
Erroll Le Cain, illustrations for Cupid and Psyche
Marianna Mayer and Kinuko Y. Craft, Pegasus
Christopher Myers, Wings
Anders Nilsen, Rage of Poseidon
Levi Pinfold, Paradise Sands
Rachel Smythe, Lore Olympus (volume 1)
Juliet Rix and Juliet Snape, A-maze-ing Minotaur
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are
Valerie Tripp and Teresa Martinez, Goddesses and Gardens
Hervé Tullet, Press Here
Ann Turnbull and Sarah Young, Greek Myths
Victoria Turnbull, Pandora
Marcia Williams, Greek Myths

And relevant ANCIENT WORKS throughout the semester as we focused on Zeus’ rise to power; Pandora; Midas; Daedalus & Icarus; Phaethon; Theseus & Ariadne; Pegasus; monsters; Orpheus & Eurydice; Cupid & Psyche; Demeter, Persephone, & Hades.

Elle McNicoll, Show Us Who You Are

Twelve-year-old Cora is autistic. Her friend Aiden has ADHD. When a car accident leaves Aiden in a coma, the company run by Aiden’s father gives Cora the opportunity to interact with a holographic digital clone of her friend. While the seeming replica provides some comfort at first, Cora comes to realize that behaviors related to Aiden’s ADHD have been removed from the digital version. She learns too that the company’s interest in her stems from her autism: they are studying Cora so that they can figure out how to “correct” the clones of neurodiverse people, making them “normal.” Throughout Show Us Who You Are, there are clear points of contact between the novel and the myth of Persephone and Hades. The noun “Cora” is a version of “Kore,” which means “Maiden” and serves as an alternative name for Persephone. Aiden’s name echoes Hades’, and his dog Cerby recalls Cerberus. The cloning company is called the Pomegranate Institute. At other moments, however, Show Us Who You Are upends narrative expectations we might have based on our own knowledge of the Greek myth. And that seems to me to be part of the program. Show Us Who You Are is an explicit anthem for neurodiversity; it may also be an implicit manifesto for the creative transformation of traditional stories. Why should retellings be “normal?” What might we see, learn, or think about if we break them out of their inherited patterns? How does continued adherence to expected or “normal” patterns limit not only stories but ourselves as well?

David Macaulay, Rome Antics

David Macaulay’s 1997 picturebook love-letter to Rome has been reissued! In Rome Antics Macaulay follows the flight of a messenger pigeon from the outskirts of the city to an apartment inside it. Luckily for us, the pigeon decides against a straight route, weaving instead through Rome’s streets and monuments. Though Macaulay provides some sentences of narration, the images, in Macaulay’s black-and-white signature style, take pride of place. Sometimes we are positioned as street-level onlookers, and we see the pigeon’s aerial acrobatics traced in red; other times we are positioned as the bird herself, and we view the city’s architecture from dizzying, unusual, and striking perspectives. There is a basic plotline, but it’s hardly necessary: the journey is sufficient unto itself. Macaulay’s book bears witness to Rome’s layers and juxtapositions as the pigeon’s path crosses ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and modern buildings and mixes monumental encounters with everyday scenes. Materials at the back of the book include a map of the bird’s flight and brief profiles of the places depicted. Readers interested in antiquity will find information about the Appian Way, Aurelian Wall, Porta Ostiense, pyramid of Caius Cestius, Arch of Constantine, Colosseum, Forum, Temple of Hercules, Pantheon, and Ponte Fabricio. For readers who have travelled to Rome, Rome Antics is an opportunity to pay it a joyful armchair revisit. For those who haven’t, Macaulay offers a whirling introduction to the city and its sights.