The Mail online’s photo seems more like a normal photo that has not been done professionally, however, if we look closer we can see that in fact, there is a professional photographers name printed at the bottom and that many of the elements in this photograph could have been set up. The photograph itself seems a very natural, informal shot showing an average man and his son celebrating the dad’s achievement, but if we look closer we can see many elements of the photo that give us hidden messages. For instance, the shed that is behind them could just be something that was behind them when the photograph was taken, but I think that the person who took the photo has directed them to stand in front of the shed. The photo of the boy and his father could have been taken anywhere: in the house, outside facing the house or maybe even in front of the apple tree that they have in their garden that features in the book. But no, the picture was taken with a shabby old shed in the background and in my opinion I don’t think it was by accident. Personally I think that the picture was taken so that the shed was in the background to show/ imply that Scott and his family are normal and there could also be a link to the other great Children’s author, Roald Dahl, who wrote his books in a run-down shed and this could imply to the reader that Scott could be a famous Children’s author as he has great potential. The second thing about the photo is that Scott and his son Jake are wearing very casual clothing (hoodies and jeans) and that they complement each other well. Jake is wearing a dark blue hoodie with lighter blue jeans and Scott is wearing a lighter blue hoodie with dark jeans, they are like a mirror image of each other, and this implies to the reader that the father and son are in harmony and that they have a strong bond. These colours are also chosen as it makes the bright red book stand out more when placed against a darker background. Also, Scott is lifting Jake up as if Jake is on a pedestal and this shows that Scott treasures Jake and is very proud of him, which the many adults who are on the Mail online’s website would be able to relate to as they would have children of their own.
Next, I am going to look at the language in the texts. The main difference between the texts is the form that they are written in; the Scholastic book clubs text is an interview whereas the Mail Online’s text is an article. The Scholastic’s interview questions for Anthony Browne are very well organised and allow him to elaborate on his answers and go into much more detail than he would be able to if the questions only allowed yes or no answers. Therefore, the interviewer delves much deeper into Anthony Browne’s true emotions so that we can see how he really feels about the topics discussed. This does not mean, however, that he answers all the questions as fully as others, because when we look at the interview we see that in fact he answers questions about himself in depth whereas questions about others he answers in short, basic sentences. This shows that Browne is very self-indulgent and maybe even feels a little threatened by other Children’s authors so he promotes more himself and his books more than others and theirs. This also gives rise to the idea that Anthony Browne may have come prepared for this interview and may have had set answers to the questions he is expecting to be asked as he knows from experience what kind of questions will be asked. This is even more apparent when we see no hesitation from him in the answers to the questions he is asked, for example, “Which picture books and illustrators have inspired you the most” and he answers straight away in a matter of fact way, “Maurice Sendak with Where the Wild Things Are, and Chris Van Allsburg with The Mysteries of Harris Burdick” which suggests to me that he has been asked this question before and has given this answer many a time before. Also, and perhaps more blatantly obvious, is the fact that although he makes a comment about the last question he does not actually answer it. When the interviewer asks Browne, “Which emerging illustrators do you admire at the moment and why?” he does not give a name/s as he did before about the established illustrators but avoids the question in a way that seems to many people like he is still answering the question, “It’s exciting to see so many good new illustrators emerging in this country, and what I’m always most impressed with is the development of a personal point of view of the world shown through the pictures and the words”. This makes me think that he wasn’t prepared for that question and that he hasn’t been asked it before but still managed to fashion an answer that was kind of acceptable. What we can also pick from this is the fact that Anthony Browne’s knowledge may be out of date; as I said earlier on, there was no hesitation and a straight answer for the question on established illustrators but for the younger generation of illustrators he had no clear answer. This means that the website would then automatically try to make this webpage cooler for the younger generation to pull them in and enlarge the website’s audience and they have done this by using instant gratification. Instant gratification is where the website is using more advanced technology to compete with video games, we see this when we have the hyperlinks to different pages and the, “Join for free” link attracts the teenage readers attention and then impresses them with its use of modern technology. This means that a positive tone is set before the reader actually starts reading Anthony Browne’s interview so that they will feel that it is cooler than it actually is.
In some ways, however, the two texts are similar as both imply that Scott McIntyre and Anthony Browne are only writing Children’s literature for altruistic purposes (for the Children) and not just for themselves and definitely not for the money they will make out of selling the book. Anthony Browne says, “I wanted to put as many layers in my books as possible so that they could be appreciated at different levels at different stages of development. I like the idea of the readers seeing more each time they read them. I do think however, it’s quite a good idea to interest the adult who may be reading to the child, a bored adult communicates that boredom to the child” and Scott McIntyre says he, “picked up his pen after being disappointed by the Children’s books he read to Jake (his son)” and wanted to, “write something more fun” but he also incorporated an aspect of challenge into his books as there is a spider on each page of the book that you can try and find so we can see that he thinks that the most important part of reading is the fun but that he also recognises that the different Children in the target audience for his book are at different stages of development and so will be able to cope with different challenges. This addition may also interest the adult as well as the child so we can see from this that Scott McIntyre and Anthony Browne are on the same wavelength and that although they are at different levels of writing (Anthony Browne is a professional, whereas Scott McIntyre is an amateur) the base ideas that they both have show that in fact they are not that different at all and that there levels are around about equal.
Mail Online’s text analysis-
The texts about them may be very different as one is personal (the Mail Online’s) and the other is more Academic (the Scholastic book club’s), but the actual people are very similar and have a lot in common not in personality but in writing style. The texts are in different styles and differ in their levels of formality but the base is that the two texts were created to entice the reader. However, this is done in different ways; the Scholastic’s interview is made more to promote the Children’s laureate from 2009-2011, Anthony Browne, and the Mail’s article is more just of an article to make ordinary folk feel good by voicing the story of Goldsmith, Scott McIntyre.
Approx finished word count = 2,500
