We are continuing to study the work of Mo Willems and are discussing why he illustrates the ways he does. Why does he sometimes put us in various positions, such as looking at a character from above, looking from behind, seeing a character from the side, etc.?
We think that he often shows his character, The Pigeon, straight on because he wants to talk directly to the reader.
In his Goldilocks book, he shows us looking down at Goldilocks climbing up a ladder so we can see how high she is and what's at the top that she wants.
Sometimes we see the pigeon from the side so we can see his emotions more.
In the Knuffle Bunny series, Mo often puts us on the same level as the children in the story so we feel more like them.
We also think that having a variety of positions for your reader makes your book much more interesting. Here are some photos of us thinking and some of our work on position.
We did an experiment at our desks. We sat in our chairs and looked at them like normal, straight on.
Then we decided to try a different position and look from below. We still see our desks, but differently.
Then we stood up high and looked down. We could only see the tops of our desks.
We got down to look at the sides only.
Then we got together and studied how Mo Willems puts us in different positions in his books.
Cheyenne drew someone panicking from the side. She said she drew her so the reader saw her from the side so you could see her hands up by her face better.
Payton drew a very tiny person up in the stands. He's so tiny because he's very far away from us.
Kaydin's reader looks down at his table from up high so it can be seen that he has LOTS of French Toast on his plate!
