Book Review--Midterm

I forgot to post my Midterm Book Review--So here it is, sorry for the late post.

Willy the Wizard is set over a course of a few days and occurs both at night and during the day. It is about a chimpanzee named Willy who loves soccer, but no-one will include him in the game. He meets a stranger one night on the way home from soccer, who was wearing old fashioned soccer gear and he was very, very good. The stranger gave Willy his soccer shoes. The next day at practice, he wore his new boots, played fantastic, and earned a spot on the roster. However, when he got to the game, he had forgotten his boots because he was too excited. He still played great, even without his shoes by setting up an assist and scoring a goal as well. The book is told in third person point of view. It is specifically in third person omniscient because the narrator is describing what is happening throughout the story to the reader. The underlying theme of this book is that “confidence is the key, practice makes perfect”.
The media and technique used in the illustrations are a combination between colored pencils, pastels, paint, and various acrylic material, to create highly emotional and vibrant pictures that take up the majority of the page. The eye is forced from one point to another due to colors and placement of the page. However, different pictures portray different meanings because of the use of colors, shapes, and textures. The style of art that this book uses represents is cartoon art. The characters are 2-dimensional, and the illustrations focus especially on the aspect of line. Since there are interesting actions and expressions shown by all the characters throughout the story, there are “exaggerated expressions [that] communicate directly and can be understood without words” (43). Such has his expression when he is too excited to go to sleep or when he forgets his shoes. Most of the lines shown in the pictures are thick lines, which represent stability. This book uses mostly geometric shapes but also includes abstract shapes to illustrate action being portrayed within the book that make it seem like the shape has volume or is three-dimensional such as a soccer ball. Browne uses many colors within his book ranging from purple to red but focuses on making them bright on the page. There is also a “range of value, the amount of light and dark, which creates drama and movement” (p. 34).
This book is targeted to First through Third Grade, due to the length of text and complexity of the relationship between the pictures and the text. There was a major overt message in the book which was to never give up and to always have confidence in yourself; to always persevere. It is easy for children to relate this book to their everyday lives and learn a valuable lesson. This children’s picture book is relevant to many social situations that kids face, such as feeling not in the group or that you are not good enough to play