David Wiesner
Paper 1 - Leslie Barrow
As Bob Dylan once said, “the times, they are a-changin’.” This statement applies to almost all facets of our lives in the twenty-first century, including children’s literature. Many authors have led the transition of this genre. One such author is David Wiesner. He has helped change the face of children’s literature from the simple presentations of “Mother Goose” poems and fables to thought provoking works in which children immerse themselves.
To understand the messages in David Wiesner’s writing, we must first understand David Wiesner. Born February 5, 1956, in Bridgewater, New Jersey, Wiesner was the youngest of five children. As a child, his parents and siblings supported his artistic habits. Throughout school, Wiesner developed a reputation as “the kid that could draw.” His teachers quickly recognized his gift and channeled his talents. After graduating high school in 1974, Wiesner enrolled in the Rhode Island School of Design. In 1978, he received his Bachelor of Fine Art in Illustration. After graduation, he worked illustrating magazine covers before other writers recognized his talents in 1981.
David Wiesner brought Nancy Luenn’s words to life in her 1981 release The Ugly Princess. This led to other opportunities to illustrate other author’s works such as Dennis Haseley’s 1986 book Kite Flier. In 1987 Wiesner took his illustrations to the next level. Collaborating with his wife, Kim Kahng, he retold and illustrated his first book, The Loathsome Dragon. However, it was not until his second release that Wiesner moved to the forefront of children’s literature. (http://www-personal.ksu.edu)
In 1988, David Wiesner released his second work, Free Fall. This book garnished the honor of the 1989 Caldecott Medal. (http://www-personal.ksu.edu) Wiesner had become a leader in the field of children’s literature. Free Fall re-introduced a method into young reader’s books that had been prevalent for years. Wiesner told the entire story without using words. It was not like the average picture books however. Wiesner gave readers a chance to interpret the story in their own way. Pictures took the place of words. In the book Free Fall, a young boy falls asleep while reading a book about a castle and, in the process, “falls” into a wonderful imaginary world. Inside the boy’s room, you see crescent rolls on a plate, a toy wizard’s hat, toy dinosaurs, small figurines and many other items. As the child goes thorough his dream world, he encounters each of these items in a new and different manner. The boy awakes to discover that he is no longer reading about a castle but visiting one. In a sequence similar to Gulliver’s Travels’ giant interactions, the child encounters “people” equal in stature to that of his figurines. An actual wizard now wears the wizard’s hat. A small dinosaur befriends the boy and serves as a method of transportation. During his travels, our young character encounters mountains shaped like the crescent rolls that he snacked on earlier. Free Fall allows the readers to submerse themselves in the illustration and live the story. It was a break through in the field of children’s literature. At the time, Wiesner did not realize that he was not only developing his own trademark, writing with few or no words, but he was also developing a theme that would prove prevalent in his future works. The reader was taught that the world around us is not as others perceive it but as one’s self perceives it. Also present was a storyline that would repeatedly resurface in future works: The central character was leaving his own world, attempting to discover a new world. In doing so, he was pictured flying around on some type of flying apparatus: A Sycamore leaf. (Wiesner, David. Free Fall.)
