When it comes to john boyne Hamm's success in creation, many comments will mention that his experience of attending Xiashan School at the age of 12 has had a profound impact on his life.
In an interview with Marcus, Berningham also talked about the "children succeed through love, not the suppression and punishment of authority" implemented by President Neil of Xiashan School. His "Uncle Gan Series", Uncle Gan is more or less Mr. Neil.
His life experience is very rich. He refused to do military service when he was young, so he went to Scotland, Italy, Israel and other places to do alternative service. After that, he entered the Central College of Art in London, where he met his wife Helen Orsenbury.
Many masters who are engaged in children's book creation seem to have strayed into the world of children's books, and then they are locked in the fate of being partners with children's books all their lives. So is Burningham.
The concept of "children first" has always been in Burningham's picture books. His picture book seems to be a "parent book", which allows us to "see" children more clearly. When treating children, we should remember what we believe in "understanding, trust, equality and freedom" and warn us not to be self-righteous, talkative and boring adults.
John Burningham has published more than 20 works in China. We have only read these, so we can't say that we know much about this great picture book creator. Great creators are amazing. Every book on the shelf, even Sally, Away from Water, which I thought a three-year-old child couldn't understand, fascinated little people.
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Boring adults and interesting children
John Burningham's picture books are full of boring adults and interesting children. Sally is away from the water, has Sally taken a bath, and Edward, the scariest boy in the world, all of which have a nasty adult.
Especially in the Sally series, the adults in the book have been whispering: "Sally, don't get your shoes dirty", "Sally, stay away from the water", "Sally, have some water", "Many people don't have a bathtub", "Look at the clothes lying all over the floor", "Sally …" I have done this many times since I became a mother.
The composition of Sally series has the author's obvious intention. The painting on the opposite page is completely different. The page spoken by adults has simple lines and monotonous colors. Pages describing children's world appear in the form of colorful oil paintings. The worlds of adults and children are juxtaposed in sharp contrast.
In Edward's The Worst Boy in the World, Edward kicked something after getting up in the morning, which is considered to be the rudest boy in the world. Edward is sometimes noisy, and a voice will say, you are the noisiest boy in the world; Edward sometimes bullies children and will be said that you are really the worst boy in the world; Edward sometimes chases animals and is criticized as the most unloving boy in the world. Edward sometimes dirties the room and doesn't remember to brush his teeth, so he will be considered the dirtiest boy. ...
So, day after day, week after week, month after month, Edward really became more and more unclean, barbaric, messy, sloppy, noisy and rude.
I read it to Eva many times and found that on every page where adults criticized Edward, adults looked down on children and stood above them. In the first half of the book, Edward gets smaller every time he is criticized, until he becomes very small ... The second half of the picture book is Edward after being affirmed and encouraged, with warm and bright colors.
In this book, we can see the influence of John Burningham in Summerhill School. In an interview with Marcus, he also said that the idea of Mr. Neil, the founder of Xiashan School, is that children succeed through love, not through the suppression and punishment of authority.
We may have been treated like this; We may be adults who judge Edward.
I often say such unreasonable things. Seeing picture books lying on the ground, toys scattered all over the floor, and messy clothes, you can't help but label and say some heavy words.
Between adults and children, john boyne Ham never hesitates to take the side of children. As a stronger and more powerful adult, you should be careful about the way you treat your children and remind yourself not to be such an annoying adult.
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? Creating picture books with the mood of "five-year-old children"
John Berningham's picture books are full of imagination and unconstrained style. He said that he has a "five-year-old child" in his heart, so his picture book makes the child feel close. When I first started reading Bao Er, the first picture book written by John Berningham won the British Children's Picture Book Award and the Kate Greenaway Award. Baby Avocado, Magic Bed, Secret Zoo, Tug-of-War Competition, Picnic and Children in the Clouds have all been seen once, and I will watch them several times. This seems to be a very useful criterion to judge whether a picture book is good or bad, and whether children need to reread it.
Baby Avocado is a magical story about a baby who loves avocado. Ha's baby is very thin. Ha's mother gave birth to another baby. I hope he can be stronger. But the baby doesn't like it. No matter what his mother does, he won't eat. Her mother is very sad.
One day, Ha's brother and sister found an avocado and asked his mother to give it to Ha's baby. Habao loves avocado so much that he can't control it once he eats it. He eats an avocado every day, thus becoming a Hercules baby. The little avocado who loves avocado drives away the thieves who broke into the house in the middle of the night and bullied the bad classmates of their brothers and sisters; Help mom carry heavy objects ... Avocado babies are getting stronger and stronger, and they eat avocado every day.
Is this a picture book promoting avocados? I learned later, because a child in Ham, john boyne loves avocados. Coincidentally, hamburgers are the same. In order to increase her familiarity with this picture book, I replaced avocado with avocado that Hamburg is more familiar with. When we were eating, we read the fragments in this book, which made hamburgers that don't like vegetables eat a lot of vegetables.
Maybe every child fantasizes about having a "secret zoo" at home.
Magic bed. George bought the bed from the second-hand market. I took him all over the world when I recited the mantra at night and experienced many interesting things. In the secret zoo, Sylvie's room has a secret passage leading to a mysterious zoo, which is also Sylvie's secret paradise. In Children in the Clouds, Albert went hiking with his parents. Albert accidentally fell from the mountain and was caught by the children in Yunshan. He walked and swam in the clouds with the children on the clouds, and finally returned to his home.
Every story has ups and downs, and the little baby is pulled tightly. The story is imaginative and incredible; Adults will think, huh? How is that possible? It's ridiculous, and this is exactly the story that children like.
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Warm "Uncle Gan"
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There are many comments that john boyne Ham is like a child's "Uncle Gan", a gentle and tolerant elder image. In the series "Going to the River with Uncle Gump" and "Going for a Drive with Uncle Gump", John Berningham appeared with the children.
Swimming with Uncle Gump is also the work of John Berningham, who won the Kate Greenaway Award.
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He is Uncle Gump.
Uncle Gan has a boat and his home is by the river.
One day, Uncle Gan is going to cross the river with a punt.
The two children said, "shall we go together?"
Uncle Gan said, "It's good, as long as it's not noisy."
The rabbit said, "Uncle Gan, can I go with you?"
Uncle Gan said, "Yes, but you can't jump around."
The cat said, "I really want to be a boat."
Uncle Gan said, "Yes, but you can't chase rabbits." .
The dog said, "Can you take me with you?"
Uncle Gan said, "Yes, but you can't mess with the cat."
The pig said, "Uncle Gan, can I go now? Please, please. "
Uncle Gump said, "Come on, but you can't swing back and forth."
The sheep said, "Is there a place for me to sit?"
Uncle Gan said, "There are vacancies, so we can't baa."
The chicken also said, "Can we go, too?"
Uncle Gan said, "Yes, but you can't flap your wings."
The cow said, "Can you make room for me?"
Uncle Gan said, "Yes, as long as you don't step on anything."
The goat said, "Uncle Gan, can I join you?"
Uncle Gan said: Welcome, but don't kick around.
At first, everyone was happy.
But after a while,
The goat kicked around,
Cattle step on things,
The chicken flapped its wings,
Sheep baa and bleat,
The pig swayed back and forth,
The dog angered the cat,
The cat went after the rabbit,
The rabbit is jumping around,
The children made a scene,
The boat turned over. ...
Everyone fell into the water.
Uncle Gan swam to the shore with goats, cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats, rabbits and children, then climbed ashore and let the sun dry his body.
Uncle Gump said that we had to walk home through this meadow. I invite you to my house for tea.
After drinking tea, Uncle Gan said, "Goodbye, come to the river next time."
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Go for a ride with Uncle Gan is a similar story (both translated by Taiwan Province children's literature writers). The dogs, cats, pigs, rabbits, goats and chickens in the story are just like children. They are playful, curious and naughty. Although they promised to say "I promise", there would be a lot of trouble every time they joined together.
Peng Yi said in the introduction of Swimming with Uncle Gan that children grow up in the repeated process of "order → destroying order → restoring order (or forming a new order)".
But will the adults in the same trade go on the rampage because the children break the order, and let the children lose the opportunity to learn to establish order?
Uncle Gan didn't. He tolerated all the consequences of his children and invited them to play together next time. If you grow up with such adults, will you have happier children and happier future adults?
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About life and death
Mother gave birth to a baby, about the birth of life. Young people are full of curiosity about the baby in their mother's belly, but they also have a lot of worries. Finally, welcome the arrival of this little life with great joy. When we read this book, we found that its painting style is different from that of john boyne Ham.
It turns out that this book belongs to John Berningham and his wife. His wife, Helen Oxenberg, is also a creator of children's books and a famous British illustrator. Some of these paintings were created by her. It seems that children are naturally interested in the topic of life. After watching "Mom is going to have a baby", Hamburg asked me to tell the story of her birth. From the light in the child's eyes, we can see that she likes the story where I come from. .
This book is also very suitable for families expecting a second child.
Recently, Hamburg likes "shit and fart, dead ..." She imitated Qiao Hu's word solitaire game and created her own solitaire game, for example, Laura-shit-and then ha ha ha ha burst out laughing. She asked me to tell the story of "Flog is dead" (Flog series doesn't tell the story of Flog's death).
So, I briefly reviewed Frogger's life. After he spent the spring, summer, autumn and winter with his friends, he finally passed away happily and peacefully. She has a puzzled expression on her face. I guess maybe this "death" doesn't seem to be the same as the "shit" she thinks. I asked her, do you know what death is? The answer of the three-year-old baby's cow's head and horse's mouth.
Grandpa is based on John Burningham's father-in-law, and the story is affectionate and warm.
In the picture book Grandpa, John Burningham also used different styles of folio painting, with a single line on the left and light lead on the right; On the right is the daily life of grandparents and grandchildren: playing with flowers and plants in the greenhouse, playing house, playing on the beach and so on; On the left is an unrelated conversation between two people.
Later, grandpa said, I can't go out to play today. It can be seen from the picture that grandpa is ill. The little girl said, Grandpa, let's go to Africa to play tomorrow, and you will be the captain. Say that finish this sentence, turn a page again is the little girl's lonely eyes, an empty chair in front of her. At the beginning of the picture book, in grandpa's garden, the little girl asked, grandpa, will earthworms go to heaven?
The whole article omits "Grandpa said" and "Little Girl said", but uses two fonts to express the dialogue between Grandpa and Little Girl. On the last page, Hamburg will ask, where is her grandfather? I collected my emotions and said calmly: Her grandfather passed away.
Hamburg: Did you just go to heaven? Will you fall if you go to heaven? Oh, I don't think so. There are children in the clouds. They'll catch grandpa, right? Will grandpa live there in the future?
Yeah, that's right
Since john boyne Hamm, we have learned a little about life and death.