Analyzing Picture Books--Grandmother's Pigeon

I've read most, if not all, of Louise Erdrich’s novels. When I saw that this picture book had been published back in 1996 by Hyperion Books for Children, I scooped it right up. I have to admit, I was surprised she had a title out there that I’d missed.

Large, colorful illustrations by Jim LaMarche land on every page. Facial expressions on the characters, as well as the birds, are captivating.

It’s a beautiful story for ages approximately four to eight (in my humble guesstimation) told by a young girl who describes her strange but loving grandmother, and what Grandma left behind when she headed off for a tour by porpoise. What a thing to have on your bucket list.

The book doesn’t come right out and say that Grandma’s stuffed pigeon is responsible for the three eggs that hatch in her old bedroom, but the eggs had to have come from somewhere. With the magical aura that always surrounded Grandma, it seemed not only possible but logical that she’d have a magical stuffed pigeon.

To avoid spoiling the story, one I know adults will enjoy as well as children, I’ll leave off on the plot there. But I will say that Erdrich’s writing is just as magical as the grandmother and pigeon are in her story.

Out of the usual 32-page spread for picture books, fifteen pages have text. Some pages run anywhere from 75 to 150 words with the picture. I would guess there are around 1,200 words in all, possibly up to 1,500. To my delight, that’s a lot more than some of the 400-word picture books more commonly written today.

Erdrich does an excellent job of throwing in a few “big” words to expand a young reader’s mind, or to give a parent the opportunity to sneak in a little explanation while reading to a child. Words like pensively and ornithologist (bird expert) spring up in the book, along with ectopistes migratorius (passenger pigeons). Then, with a beautiful hand at her craft, she weaves in a little history on how the existence of these pigeons phased out.

I think she needed more words in order to tell the story the way she does. She doesn’t leave all the description to the illustrator. She could simply say “curtains” and let the illustrator decide what the curtains look like. But the author doesn’t do that. She chooses a very specific curtain, curtains made of not just lace, but of Irish lace. She also isn’t shy to tell us that there are “three” eggs in the nest found in Grandmother’s room, whereas nowadays with the illustration showing the same information, the word “three” would be slashed right out of the text. Editors would say, “Don’t waste words on what is already shown in the pictures.”

But I appreciate Erdrich’s style. After all, a picture of a lacy curtain would not tell me that it is specifically Irish lace. The added detail gives a stronger sense of Grandma, so it works. The word three isn’t necessary, but it doesn’t bother me either. In fact, taking the word out throws the beautiful rhythm of the sentence off, so I’m glad she left the word in. Maybe that was the author’s intent. You will never read an Erdrich sentence that isn’t spot on in rhythm. Also, Erdrich may have been pulling on the power of three often used in literature. It’s an effective technique.

My favorite sentence in this book is “White moonlight fell in bands through the kitchen windows and led the way out.”

I’m not going to tell you who’s following the moonlight or why, but isn’t it a lovely sentence?

Get the book.

Grandmother's Pigeon by Louise Erdrich, Jim LaMarche (April 15, 1996) Hardcover

 It’s one you’ll come back to again and again.

Happy Reading!

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUE'S REVIEWS!

Mercury

by Margot Livesey

For Readers:

After a couple of chapters into Margot Livesley's latest novel, Mercury, it's easy to lean toward thinking one is reading a murder mystery even though (so far as we know) there's no body. There's only a man trying to understand the lengths to which his wife will go to get what she wants. In this case, a race horse called Mercury.

Donald, an optometrist in suburban Boston, is complacent in his happiness. Rather than examining why his wife quit a paying job to donate her time to a local stable, he takes the passive route and accepts her decision at face value—she likes horses. But as months roll by, he begins trying to piece together the reason for her increasingly strange behavior, and wonders at his own part in creating the fissure that has opened between them.

The novel has a suffocating feel and a chapter-by-chapter escalation of questionable events that beg answers. The story is told from Donald's perspective, which we incrementally discover is actually a log of past events; he possesses all the facts of the story, dangling the carrot in front of our noses.

The novel is well written with a decidedly European flavor. No detail is left unnoticed as we become acquainted with the circumstances, but for this reader, Donald's investigation begins to feel obsessively meticulous, and his self-blame is pitiable. At some point one has to wonder if the wife's position begs more sympathy than seemed appropriate at first. It is perhaps a juncture where the author intended readers to land.

Readers will either be a bit impatient, or they'll really get into the intricacies of why people act the way they do. It's a fine suspense and an even better character study from that standpoint, and there actually is, eventually, the commitment of a crime.

Reviewed by Sue Ellis!

HarperCollins Publishers, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-243750-1

ISBN: 978-0-06-265372-7 (BAM Signed Editions)

Buy the book! Mercury, at Amazon

For Writers:

The book is written in first person limited, a venue that allows the main character, Donald, to tell the story through his perspective only. The viewpoints of the other characters must be prized from his descriptions and opinions, or through dialogue. It's an effective way to highlight the main character's inner turmoil and for readers to judge whether his opinions seem valid.

A Crazy, Scary Summer

I had planned on posting weekly blog articles throughout the summer. A few would be book reviews by Sue’s Reviews. She’s not behind––I am. (I’ll be posting a review soon.)

To say it’s been a crazy summer is an understatement. I’ve been gone a lot, as my sister and my very best friend have been stricken with cancer. I spend as much time as I can with them, yet still come home and work in serious catch-up mode to prepare for the craft and art shows we had already signed up for. I also managed to squeeze in taking the grandkids to swimming lessons and to a couple summer fairs, but not without some serious help from my husband.

Even with his help, I have to admit, this summer I have felt rushed through the family activities. Like I’m watching the calendar for swimming lessons to end so I can hurry back to the hospital, just in case good goes bad. Needless to say, I got as far behind on work and crafts as I have my blog and other commitments.

I don’t regret it. I want to spend as much time with these two special people as I can, though I am no way writing them off as doomed. They both have positive attitudes, and they are fighting for their lives. A lot of people are praying for them, including me. My sister Helen had surgery for her cancer, and we thought she was good to go. No sign of cancer for months. Then it came back with a vengeance. But she’s pretty stubborn (runs in the family), and she’s showing everyone just how tough she really is. Take that, cancer!

She lives a four-hour drive from me, but my husband is an understanding sweetie and has taken me to visit her. Even when I’m not at her side, we continue our morning coffee ritual via phone, something we’ve been doing for years. We laugh together, and we pray together. We hope together.

My friend Betty was diagnosed with bone and breast cancer June 29, and she was hospitalized. Prior to that I had stayed at her house a few days. She was having problems getting in and out of bed. A sore back, it seemed. Maybe too much gardening, we thought. Now we know what the problem was. Anyway, she has since had surgery that involved inserting two rods in her spine for support. Her entire spine was filled with cancer.

Since then, with cheers from her daughter, me, and other friends, Betty has learned to walk with a walker and already can manage the length of a city block. She’s improving every day and making new friends in the facility that has become her temporary home. I’m glad she has people who enjoy visiting and playing cards every day. She has always been a very social person, and people gravitate toward her because of it. The nurses and doctors have all been very supportive, as well as astonished at how strong Betty is. She eats three full meals a day and hasn’t lost any weight.

I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to spend time with my sister and with Betty during their journeys.

For four years Betty and I had been shop neighbors. My tiny sewing and alternations/craft shop was right behind her large store. We live in a small town, so I often put a note on my door during lunch break –“At Betty’s if you need me.” We had coffee together every day, Tuesday through Saturday those years. Once we closed our shops (Betty retired and I went into nearly full-time writing), we continued our coffee visits. We’ve been there for each other for ten years now.

I am missing the routines of both my coffee partners, but we’ve made new routines. I still see them, and we still share coffee and laughs.

I may not get around to visiting all of your blogs, and I do miss that part of my life, but please know I will return once my sister and friend are back to their old selves.

It’s a scary thing, because though we look toward the positive, there’s no way a person can have someone with cancer in his or her life and not have the tormenting fear of losing that special someone. I try not to look in that direction. But bad news happens. I recently lost a classmate to cancer. She will be missed. We were friends back in school, and though we haven’t kept up with each other the way friends should, I have thought of her often and will continue to remember her with fond memories. Here’s to you, Brenda! :-)

Any prayers you want to pass this way will be appreciated, and I hope to get back to visiting blogs soon. Until then, please accept my apologies for my absence.

Best,
Deb

SUE'S REVIEWS!

The Bear and the Nightingale

by Katherine Arden

For Readers:

If ever a place and time begged for fairytales, it’s mid-evil Northern Russia. In The Bear and the Nightingale, American author Katherine Arden makes use of both retelling a very old tale. The result is stunning. 

“Peter Vladimirovich,” Arden writes, “was a great lord: a boyer, with rich lands and many men to do his bidding.”

 

His beloved wife, Marina, is very ill but determined to carry her last child to term, maternal instinct telling her that this child will inherit the talents of her grandmother, a woman who can see into the future and communicate with animals.

The beauty of the story after the birth of Vasilisa, or Vasya as her family calls her, is the description of her rearing, the frazzled efforts of her loving family to keep track of her meanderings and protect the headstrong girl. And oh! the winters––frostbite, chilblains, hunger as winter stores diminish, the rub of snow beneath sodden woolen boots, and window openings set with blocks of ice to keep out the cold wind. Eventually, worse challenges appear. An evil demon and a misguided priest endanger Vasya and her village, forcing her to gather her courage and confront the danger from the back of a mighty and magical stallion.

Texas born Arden’s knowledge of Russian folklore pays off in the authentic feel of the novel. She lived in Russia for a time and studied Russian and French literature at Middlebury College in Vermont. It’s always fun to analyze a writer and try to figure out the secret to their success. There are plenty of clues that she’s not so very unlike Vasya: intelligent, creative, independent, and now, successful.

Del Ray, an imprint of Random House
ISBN: 9781101885932

ISBN: 9781101885949 (e-book)

Buy the book!

For Writers:

Katherine Arden’s use of descriptive sentences shines, as in this excerpt:

It was late winter in Northern Rus', the air sullen with wet that was neither rain nor snow. The brilliant February landscape had given way to the dreary gray of March, and the household of Pyotr Vladimirovich were all sniffling from the damp and thin from six weeks' fasting on black bread and fermented cabbage. But no one was thinking of chilblains or runny noses, or even, wistfully of porridge and roast meats, for Dunya was to tell a story.

In that one paragraph, we are introduced to clues about the era (porridge, roasted meats, chilblains, fasting). We can guess that many of Pyotr’s household are children, and that Dunya is not only the storyteller, but likely beloved. A picture forms in our minds of “sullen” weather, sniffling children with empty stomachs—and yet their considerable discomfort doesn’t lessen their expectation of enjoying a good story. I don't know about you, but I was intrigued.

Meet our book review columnist--Sue Ellis!

It's Crafts/Art Show Season Again!

I work on my writing through the fall and winter, but come every spring and summer, my husband and I are busy not only with our yard, but with creating arts and crafts to tote to outdoor sales. I have to admit, I won't touch a wood saw. That's my husband's department. But I do the painting and add the finishing touches.

We just went to a show in Rochester, Minnesota, and we were swamped all day Saturday. It was probably good that Sunday was slow, because I was dragging after Saturday. Our next show will be in a few weeks--The Covered Bridge Arts and Crafts Show in Zumbrota, Minnesota. If any of you are in the area, you'll find me easily. I'll be the one sitting in a lawn chair while my husband chats and smiles. (Kidding.)

We also do some small hutches, jelly bins, vegetable bins and any size of trunk. We make these items with new wood but paint most of them to look old. My favorite planter we did had flowers painted on the front and a little humming bird enjoying them. Every planter we make is different, mainly because I can never remember exactly what I did to finish the others. This year, besides benches, planters, birdhouses and signs, we did a lot of barn doors and door screens, adding shelves, planters, or whatever we think of at the time. It's been fun. It also helps me get some reading done, since many items are done with layers of different colors of paint. I have to let each coat dry before applying the next, so I do that with a book in hand. :-)

How do you spend your summers? Any craft shows?
Best,
Deb

SUE'S REVIEWS!

Buy book

Manhattan Night
by Colin Harrison

FOR READERS:

First released in 1996 as Manhatten Nocturn, Colin Harrison's Manhattan Night was re-released in 2016 to coincide with its release as a movie. A New York Times Notable Book of the Year, it’s the gripping story of a smart guy who got reckless. Porter Wren, a Manhattan tabloid writer, tries to backpedal after a lapse in judgment. It’s an old premise: Beautiful woman, tempted man, and frantic attempts to hide his indiscretion from his wife. To hold onto his family when he’s blackmailed by the richest man in the city (the owner of the newspaper he works for), Wren must out-think a couple psychologically twisted people, and Porter might be the perfect man for the job.

Wren is well versed in the dark side of human nature, which he employs to keep his job; but he also has a wide streak of decency. He and his wife have made a home behind a camouflage of greenery and iron gates in a vintage house that has somehow been preserved despite progress and wrecking balls. It is in this setting that we’re allowed to see the other side of Wren.

When his ill-conceived affair threatens both his livelihood and his family, Wren is forced to probe the strength of his own morals (which have allowed him to obsess over the other woman), and he’s forced to consider how far he’ll go to avoid being the subject of a tabloid story himself.

Harrison writes beautifully and intuitively about the relationship between Wren and his wife and children. The offered glimpse of his home turf in and around Manhattan and New York surely qualifies as travelogue material. Ethnic diversity in all its splendor oozes from the block-by-block giant warren of neighborhoods, a great reason to check out Manhattan Night on its own, but there’s more.

 Manhattan Night puts its own slick spin on the subjects of sex, murder and revenge, stretching out their boomerang effect in one white-knuckle chapter after another. If there's a negative, it’s that the story is depressing––genuine noir fiction at its most ugly. But if it’s the genre of your choice, save this one for a long weekend so you can immerse yourself in the carefully conceived, intricate plot. There was a master at the helm of its creation.

A version of this review was formerly published by the Internet Review of Books.
Picador
ISBN: 978-0-517-58492-7 (Hardcover)   

ISBN: 978-1-4299-0525-1 (e-book)
ISBN 978-1-250-11942-1 (Paperback)

To purchase the book

FOR WRITERS:

Below is an excerpt from the first page of the book, a fine example of Colin Harrison's effective hook. It not only sets the mood for the story and introduces New York City and its people, but it reveals the main character’s regret. We immediately sense his shame at the job he does and wonder what's he’s going to do about it, something that’s essential to the first few pages of a book.

I SELL MAYHEM, scandal, murder, and doom. Oh, Jesus I do, I sell tragedy, vengeance, chaos, and fate. I sell the sufferings of the poor and the vanities of the rich. Children falling from windows, subway trains afire, rapist fleeing into the dark. I sell anger and redemption. I sell the muscled heroism of firemen and the wheezing greed of mob bosses. The stench of garbage, the rattle of gold. I sell black to white, white to black. To Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians and Muslims and transvestites and squatters on the Lower East Side. I sold John Gotta and O.J. Simpson and the bombers of the World Trade Center, and I'll sell whoever else comes along next. I sell falsehood and what passes for truth and every gradation in between. I sell the newborn and the dead. I sell the wretched, magnificent city of New York back to its people. I sell newspapers.

Meet our book review columnist!

Sue Ellis embarrassed herself with an English class assignment in high school, writing a heartfelt story about a girl asking permission to go on her first date, and then having to read it aloud in front of the class. It wasn't until many years later that she learned her story had been subsequently used as an example of good story writing by Mrs. Meyers, her English teacher. Fast forward forty years or so—her children and grandchildren grown, typing skills honed from years of clerical work, and suddenly online literary magazines and writing groups made it possible to immerse herself in the
new realm of writing.

Sue is thrilled by every acceptance, learning (she hopes) from rejections, thankful for the influence of Mrs. Meyers, and still a lover of books. Her short story, A Calendar of Days, can be found here:
http://www.theflashfictionpress.org/2016/08/26/a-calendar-of-days/

Arrowleaf balsamroot is a plant native to eastern Washington state. Sue snapped the photo last summer while hiking with her husband and Cleo, their twenty pound chihauhau/blue heeler mix, near their home in Spokane, Washington.

WRITERS, DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY!

Hey writers!

If you don’t read One Story magazine, you should. They publish some of the best short fiction I’ve read in a long time. Also, their cute little monthly publication is not much bigger than a greeting card, though it’s thicker. You can easily sneak it into the office without anyone knowing, and then it’s ready for your pleasure during your breaks or noon hour, or when the boss isn’t looking.

They actually have two publications, one boasting beautiful writing by adult writers, and the other for teen writers––One Story Teen.

And I promise you, you won’t regret the subscriptions. They always publish something with such a unique voice, you seriously forget you’re reading. It’s like chatting with an interesting neighbor.

They also offer classes, and I can tell you from experience that these learning opportunities are well worth the money. I took one for help bringing the power out in my short stories, and I wanted to increase my skills as an editor. By editing a story line by line and paragraph by paragraph, as well as by the whole piece, and comparing my observations with the editors of One Story, I learned a lot. Just in one class. It was pretty affordable too.

Last, I want to mention something else One Story does for writers. They put out conferences, and one that sounds exceptionally great is coming soon. Unfortunately I won’t be there, but I thought I’d pass along the information for those of you who can squeeze it into your schedule.

They are already accepting applications for their 2017 Summer Writers Conference. It will take place from July 23th through the 28th at the historic Old American Can Factory in Brooklyn.

I can’t tell you how much I’d love to be there, not just for the conference, but to actually step inside that building. I get tingles on my arms just thinking about it. You can find out more information at their website, www.one-story.com, but I can already tell you that One Story editors Will Allison and Patrick Ryan will be leading new writers into new ways of thinking. You couldn’t ask for better teachers.

You’ll enjoy heavy-duty workshops and attend craft lectures given by established writers and One Story editors. What’s more, they’ll have panel discussions with agents, editors, and other professionals in the evenings. Sounds great, right?

Yeah, and the only catch is this: you have to apply before the deadline––May 10th, 2017.

Don’t miss it, and have fun!

Happy writing!

Oh, and just so you know, I'm not associated with One Story other than being a huge.