Picture Book Club replay
Reading Angry Arthur, written by Hiawyn Oram and illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura
Hello!
I’m coming to you with the replay of November’s replay. The selection this month is Angry Arthur, written by Hiawyn Oram and illustrated by Satoshi Kitamura.
It was a really interesting one. It felt like at first, because the metaphor is so obvious (boy get’s angry, boy destroys world) it was kind of difficult to find the subtexts and details that I love examining in Picture Book Club. How else does Kitamura extend the metaphor? What are things that immerse you in the world? How does the page turn enhance the story, how does the colour palette help emphasize the story. I love digging into these details, and as we delved into the book, we found lots of interesting details to explore. I hope you found it as interesting as I did.
I do a read-along at the beginning of the meet-up, but if you want to buy the book, may I recommend you get it through these sources:
• Shelf Editions run by the brilliant
• Storytellers Inc. run by the fabulous
Picture Book Club is for paid subscribers. I have just hit the fairly significant milestone of 2000+ free subscribers! Thank you to everyone who has subscribed. For those of you who choose to continue as free subscribers, thank you! I try and post regular content for my free subscribers. I have collated all my free posts on my home page, and you can see them all in my free posts section here. To celebrate this milestone, I am offering 20% off paid subscriptions until Monday 2nd December the end of the week! I am extending this offer, as I posting this a little bit later than planned. I would love it if you would consider becoming a paid subscriber. Every one means a lot to me, and I think it is very good value for what you get (two meet-ups per month, plus behind the scenes videos when I have the time and capacity!). With this offer you can get EVEN BETTER value and subscribe for £3.60 £4.50 per month, or £36 £45 per year. I only do discounts a few times a year and this will be last one for quite a while, so if you are on the fence, now is your chance.
Here are some prompts for you to think about in advance of watching the replay.
Question prompts:
How effective is the use of page turns in the book?
Look at the balance of page/double page spreads. How does the book use this to enhance the storytelling?
How about the use of panels and vignettes?
How does pace work in this book? How does Arthur’s anger build in the book, and how is this shown through words, pictures and composition?