Book study: The scarecrows wedding

This picture book was written by Julia Donaldson and illustrated by Axel Scheffler. In recent times this pairing has become synonymous with the term picture book. The reason I wanted to carry out a case study of this book is that I will be attending a talk by Julia Donaldson in Bath this weekend. Julia will be talking about her latest release What the ladybird heard next, illustrated by Lydia Monks who will also be talking along with Julia. The reason I wanted to see their particular show was to see how they go about it. I've heard that Julia's husband plays music and that it might be a bit of a sing-a-long. This allows me to see how they approach such events and whether it is purely promotion of the book or if there is more to it.

The reason I have decided to do a case study on the aforementioned book is purely because it interests me more. The actual story and amount of writing within the book is fairly large in modern picture books. This will account for the book having 40 pages than the more usual 32. The publishers are probably less hesitant to print such a book as they will expect large sales from this particular pairing of author and illustrator.

Julie is renowned for writing in rhyme or at least rhythmically. She probably uses a system similar to how poets compose their words. The first thing that struck me was the use of first and second names beginning with the same letters. Betty O'Barley and Harry O'Hay are the main characters who are also joined by Reginald Rake. She has cleverly used farm items such as the crop or tools found on a farm within these names. The composition of the writing varies, in some spreads the backgrounds are left clear with a solid area of text, others the text weaves through the page to lead the reader through the story. Where the text overlays the image the text is usually placed with the sky as this is more subtle and less distracting to read from. Examples of these layouts are shown in below (Fig 1).

(Fig 1)

The writing also contains some phrases which are repeated through the book such as, the best wedding yet, The wedding that no one will ever forget. This technique is used by many authors as the child reader can then begin to read out the phrase aloud therefore leading the story rather than being read to by an adult. This immerses the child deeper into the story as they become a part of it.
This is also where an illustrator can really add to a story by adding in little sub stories or things for the child to find within the illustrations. Due to the large amount of text Axel has mainly drawn what lies within the words but where possible he has added little characters into images to give more life to the story, the settings and to give more enjoyment to the reader. Examples of these are shown below (Fig 2) with reference to the additional animals that are not mentioned in the text, the buildings, boats and landscape all used to build a more complete world for each scene.

(Fig 2)

Axel uses a very distinctive style of illustration within picture books. The colours are always very vivid and a strong use of line work, particularly on outlines. The main feature is the expressions he manages to portrait using such a style. This is probably similar in how I perhaps draw naturally although through this project I wish to experiment with a variety of styles to see what I enjoy, what works well and what style may suit the story I am trying to portrait.