The Art of William Steig

from The Agony in the Kindergarten, Duell, Sloane and Pierce,1950

Thanks for joining me in this fourteen-day long celebration! I’ve taken the liberty of wishing Bill a happy birthday – I never met him, but I hear that’s what he liked to be called by friends, and, well, it’s his birthday!

Publisher: Godine, 1984
Ages: 4-8yrs
Themes: creatures, volcanoes, flowers
Opening: .
Summary: (from Amazon) What would happen if every creature on land and sea were free to be as rotten as possible? If every day was a free-for-all; if plants grew barbed wire; if the ocean were poison? That’s life on Rotten Island. For creatures that slither, creep, and crawl (not to mention kick, bite, scratch, and play nasty tricks on each other), Rotten Island is paradise.But then, on a typically rotten day, something truly awful happens. Something that could spoil Rotten Island forever. Out of a bed a gravel on the scorched earth, a mysterious, beautifly flower begins to grow…

I like this book because: What could be more fun for kids than to get ugly, then uglier, mean then meaner along with horrific creatures and to have it all consume itself? I think this book in particular demonstrates well how Steig fed the child within himself and without letting his adult brain lead, wrote a story for adults. Enough, just go read it!

Resources/activity: this is one for the writers – young, old, and in between: let the child within write whatever it wants, whatever pleases, and whatever you do, have fun! Nothing would please the ‘birthday boy’ more! For a fine lesson in sentence transformation, check out Renee’s guest post with Michelle – HERE. For more PPBF picks, go to Susanna Hill’s blog – HERE

Today’s tidbit: Check out this birthday post from 2011 from the wonderful father, picture book maker, and creator of the Happy Birthday Author blog, Eric Van Raepenbusch – HERE. (Photos Eric posted of his kids jumping in a leaf pile inspired the sketches for the blog banner above)

Rotten Island, Godine, 1984

I hope you’ve already hit your libraries and your local independent booksellers in search of some of the titles shared during SteigFEST, but I have ONE REMINDER: savor them slowly, like chocolate (which Steig loved – actually, all sweets!), taking note of Steig’s shaping of beautiful phrases. And when you find a delectable mouthful (you MUST read Steig aloud) share it!

from The Agony in the Kindergarten, Duell, Sloane and Pierce,1950

Further reading:

The Art of William Steig

The World of William Steig

The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker

Heart and Humor: The Picture Book Art of William Steig

The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1984
Ages: 6 and up
Themes: humorous books, word puzzles
Opening: C U N 10-S-E. (answer: See you in Tennessee)
Summary: (from my library catalog) Letters, numbers, and symbols are used to create the sounds of words and simple sentences which U R expected to figure out with the aid of illustrations.

I like this book because: I LOVE PUZZLES. Doesn’t everyone? The intended age level was 6-9, but that’s preposterous! I bet my gray-haired uncle would have enjoyed this too (okay, he went gray at 21, but I didn’t know him then). According to a contribution to THE ART OF WILLIAM STEIG by his daughter Maggie, Steig played a drawing game called ‘Five Lines’*, in which one person draws five random lines on paper and another adds to them, creating a face. Try it!

Resources/activities: read together with Steig’s first picture book from 1968: CDB!; have each student come up with one image and word puzzle, or let them work in teams. Play Five Lines*, mentioned above.

Today’s tidbit: From KidsReads.com: “Steig passed his father’s ideas about art and work on to his own children by encouraging them never to take nine-to-five jobs: his son Jeremy is a jazz flautist, daughter Lucy a painter, and Maggie an actress.”