Monday, June 8, 2009

Mentor Monday--Animals Can Do the Strangest Things!

Some stories simply have to be told with animal characters. Why? Because the plot involves actions that are deemed too silly or too dangerous for a "real" child. For instance, you can't have a human preschooler cross a busy city street without an adult, but, you can have a little talking cat do it. Or, you wouldn't have a human child mistaking a beach ball for a seagull's egg, but you can have a silly monkey do so.

Think about the Frank Asch books with Bear. The endearing little character hears the moon talk to him in Happy Birthday, Moon, he plays hide-and-seek with the moon and worries when it doesn't come out from behind a cloud in Moongame, Bear makes popcorn ON A STOVE in Popcorn, and he takes a rocket ship to the moon so that he can taste it in Mooncake. Try any of those story lines with a human character and you'll be thrown right out on your ear!

--Diane

3 comments:

Sally said...

ah, but Diane - would Popcorn be published if it were submitted today?? Even with a bear protagonist?

Diane said...

I think that Bear could be made parentless and as an ageless bear could do the whole popcorn thing since it's such a fun idea--a house full of popcorn--that kids would still love it. So, yes, I think Popcorn could be published today with minor tweaking.

Jet said...

Nice little Mentor Monday post, D!