Voices in the Park

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Each character has their own battle: For Mrs Smythe, the battle is in getting her dog and son under control. The dog might as well be her son. “Sit”, she tells her son. For Mr Smith the battle is keeping his spirits up in the very dispriting state of being unemployed and needing a job. Stories in which an ensemble cast get an equal voice are generally stories about a society, and this is true in this case as well. One major weakness of our society is the class divide. There is of course much that can be said about that, and how economic stratification has a ruinous effect on us all, especially on poor people.

I use surrealism a lot is because I was very affected by surrealist paintings when I was young. I also believe children see through surrealist eyes: they are seeing the world for the first time. When they see an everyday object for the first time, it can be exciting and mysterious and new. Anthony Browne from from the Teaching Books interview This is also probably a joke directed at himself, since the author/illustrator has a decorative ‘e’ at the end of Brown.) CHARLES SMYTHE Doonan, J. (1993). Looking at pictures in picture books. 1st ed. South Woodchester (GB): Thimble Press. Surreal‘ in everyday English means ‘I didn’t understand it’. But in relation to works of art, surreal means literally ‘over and above’, ‘more’. The word refers to art which makes use of paradoxes, riddles and allusions. Something in the work is ‘superimposed’ over the naïve reading. ‘Surreal’ means the viewer must contribute to derive meaning.Could you create your own story in which different people have different points of view about the same event? write letters to an agony aunt or hold an ‘advice surgery’ for each character to discuss their problems;

which pictorial ideas are playful and which suggest something meaningful that adds to your understanding; Voices in the Park is a very unique children's book. It tells the story from four separate perspectives about the same day in the park: a woman, her son, a man, and his daughter. The two children play together--creating a friendship--while the two adults keep to themselves. The woman, specifically, is upset by having to share the park bench with the man. The feelings of these characters can be seen in the illustrations. Depending on the perspective, the reader will notice the seasons changing. For example, the trees will appear bare for one character and in full bloom for another. Hats also denote socioeconomic status. In this case, the hats are ‘bowler’, and therefore stand for a particular social class. The boy is being trained by his mother to present a certain, repressed side of himself to the world. Instead of running around like his labrador, he sits sedately by his mother’s side. Eventually the repressive bowler hats disappear from his view as the girl, Smudge, brings out his ura. Since Voices In The Park was published, the fedora has garnered a reputation for being 1. a more fashionable update on the bowler and 2. a worrisome signal that the wearer may be a m*n’s r*ghts activist. Both are symbols of patriarchy, or aspirationally so. Men’s hat advertisement 1909 SETTING OF VOICES IN THE PARK paint pictures of an everyday scene in the local park or playground but change a few objects into something else (a tree might become a face);It’s unlikely these kids go to the same school because of the British public/comprehensive divide in education, but this appears to be a fantasy park. So I hope they do meet each other again. Whether they do or do not, Charles will meet another kid in a park sometime. We simply don’t know if he’ll be more inclined to play with them or more inclined to talk to them, since his mother curtailed their visit this time due to inappropriate fraternising. RESONANCE I love using the work of Anthony Browne in my classroom, and my students thoroughly enjoyed these units of work, particularly the consolidation tasks with Creative Arts integrated throughout. Smudge mistakes mini-misogynist Charles for a wimpy one, who gradually warms to her. I believe this is how the reader is supposed to interpret Charlie’s character arc too, but I keep thinking about the distinction between sexism and misogyny, and how Browne only subverts one of those aspects for his boy character. DESIRE

Mrs Smythe intends to go to the park to give her dog and son some fresh air and exercise. Mr Smith seems to be at the park because it is a pleasant place to sit and read the classifieds, quite possibly nicer than his own kitchen. THE BIG STRUGGLE Identify the different nouns / adjectives / verbs / adverbs / connectives / punctuation used in the story. Why have these been used in particular places? When you read this story again, you can change up the questions you ask the kids. Maybe try discussing some of these:Orana : journal of school and children’s librarianship. Australia : Library Association of Australia, School & Children’s Libraries Sections 1977 – 2005 includes information about this picture book. For Smudge's father, the type is a less formal type of font that is bolded. There is just more of a noticble rounding of the letters, not as rigid as the ones for the font listed above. The informal bold text, along with the type of grammar of the sentences, leads one to conclude he is a working class person. The fact of it being in bold makes one envision he has a deep, rough voice. The father searches the classifieds looking for a job, which will allow him to provide for his family. But because economic power is so connected to being a man, the fact that he has no hope of conforming to society’s expectation of ‘Man’, this exclusion has ostensibly afforded him a different kind of freedom. He can sit in a park during the daytime and spend time with his daughter. Re the story, I think the different perspectives of the characters could lead to some interesting discussions and introspective mulling. But I thought some of the choices were a bit odd if the audience here is young children, such as the despondent man looking at the job ads despite feeling hopeless.

The friendship between the children is blooming, but Browne highlights the difference in class between the two families. There’s the very working class Mr Smith (indicated by clothing, speech, home), and the wealthy status of Mrs Smith. Metafictive Devices The animals still have an animalness about them even though they’re obviously meant to be humans. We associate gorillas with ‘big, tough, strong’, therefore ‘big, tough, strong’ nature of humans which then stand for teachers, adults, big people, bullies. The illustrations are vivid and differentiate between the chapters, for each character. It could be useful to look at this with children and to begin to think about how illustrations can help the reader to understand more about the characters' thoughts, feelings and to try and dig a bit deeper to uncover what the author/ illustrator is trying to tell us through the images. This links to the idea of 'Visual Literacy' and encouraging children to look at all forms of print and communication.The composition tends to symmetrical. Clearly the symmetry serves to emphasise the inherent equality between human beings; in this park, outside the individuating arena of their homes, everyone is on the same level, literally. 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.