Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild and Anne Soudvilas, Front Street, 2006.
post by Liz
I still can't decide what I think this book is saying. Well, no, I know it is dark and frightening, and it is dealing with the loss of civilization in some way, but beyond that, I can only pick up on clues that just lead nowhere. I like that it confounds me, but I also hope that it wants to confound me, not that it is just a hodgepodge of dark scenes with no overarching story.
On the second full page spread the narrator asks us to listen to him (I think it is a him although there is no clue to this), and I wonder why we need to. Is this the world around us if we could only see the truth - such as a reality that, because we live such comfortable lives, we are unaware that it exists parallel to our safe one? Do we need to listen because, as was brought up in our class discussion on Tuesday, this is an environmental Armageddon, and if we don't stop our polluting ways, we will be in his world? Or is he already speaking to Mrs. Radinski? Ah, but that would not explain how the book ends. See, there are so many questions that need puzzling over.
I intend on sharing this with my classes when we have a spare half class between the Odyssey and writing projects. It actually falls in line with the quest theme, and I do like how the narrator does a good deed in response to Mrs. Radinski's kindness. I like that there is generosity and civility in an alien and uncivil world. That is probably why I do like the book, in addition to my fascination with end of world settings. This would actually be a good companion piece to Green Angel.
A word about the color scheme and artwork in the book: it is a combination of dulled watercolor paintings and brownish charcoal etchings, both of which are very relevant to the text. Pictures are from unusual perspectives, never straight on . Sometimes it is just a splotchy disquieting washout with the narrator's profile. Sometimes the scene is a wide angle shot, sometimes looking down, sometimes looking up at the subjects. This adds to the off kilter feeling of the ambiguous text. I like that I find almost as many clues from the pictures as I do from the phonetically spelled story. I also really liked the way both the boy and the woman have piercing, haunted eyes.
Overall, I think this is a good example of an illustrated story - like many illustrated novels that deal with difficult or unpleasant themes.
Liz
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Blog from Marilyn:
ReplyDeleteBlog for Woolvs in the Sitee, by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Anne Spudvillas, Penguin 2006
This book took me quite by surprise. As a Modern Fantasy picture book, I imagined that the illustrations would by more like the fantasy art I have seen in fairy tales. I was mistaken.
The phonetic spelling of the text made this story a haunting tale of a boy named Ben who is cautious when he leaves his cellar home because of these unseen woolvs. The only other character that is seen in the story is the older women he is friends with, Mrs. Radinski. She mysteriously disappears after helping Ben escape the woolvs. Ben longs to see the blue sky again and when he sees the blue of the sky outside of his cellar, he goes to investigate and enjoy the blue sky again. He doesn't realize that the woolvs are approaching when Mrs. Radinski suddenly grabs him and takes him back to the building. She is the person who helps Ben and keeps him safe.
This book is definitely not one for young readers. It is a dark story of a lonely boy. The themes of danger and fear are apparent. The use of phonetic spelling help shape Ben's character and Spudvilas' illustrations help to show the darkness and the danger in the text.
I read this book at night and was suprised by how scared I felt after reading it. It was the same scared feeling I felt after watching the movie " The Blair Witch Project." It wasn't that the story or illustrations showed anything bloody or graphic but it was more pshychological. Who or what are these woolvs that Ben is afraid of? We never get to see them. What happened to Mrs. Radinski? Was she a victim of the woolvs? Does she escape the deserted sitee? If she did, why didn't she take Ben with her? Maybe, she became a woolv herself? There are so many different ways to look at this story and so many questions that a teacher can ask about the story. It lends itself to many critical thinking questions.
The illustrations are beautiful in a disturbing scarey way. The dark colors and the sketchy way Spudvilas draws the setting and characters adds to the eerieness of the story. The most being the illustration after Mrs. Radinski disappears and Ben enters her apartment. The wall appears a bright green except for the black scratchy pencil and the watery red splattered on the green with 2 perfect green hand prints. Were Mrs. Radinski's walls green? Did the woolvs get into her apartment and the black scratches represent her struggling against them but losing and leaving only the watery red blood and her handprints? Or, are they the handprints of one of the woolvs? This is a question that is never answered. Just left to our imagination like the story itself.
November 1, 2009 5:42 PM
response to Marilyn from Liz:
ReplyDeleteWoolvs in the Sitee, by Magaret Wild and Amy Spudvilas,Front Street, 2008.
I agree with you on the unsettling aspect. I think the Blair Witch reference is interesting. Could it be that you are reacting to the odd perspectives, the ambiguous half guessed views that are also found in the movie?
One point I want to raise is when you said that Mrs. Radinski saves him from the woolvs. If you notice, he only sees shadows growing on the wall, and then a hand grabs him - but it turns out to be hers. There are so many possibilities - think about Plato's cave, and the light that we think is light is but a shadow that is cast by the real source of light - this is not unlike the blue wall that he thinks is blue - but is in fact only painted blue... and the fact that the shadow grows just as Mrs. Radinski "saves" him makes me wonder if she was really saving him at all, that maybe it was her shadow... And then one must ask if this is just the horrible descent of a young boy into some type of mental illness. Even as I write this I wonder if they might not be hinting at schizophrenia?
The more I ponder this book, the more I am sure I don't have an answer yet. Love it! There is nothing like a puzzle that can't be unraveled with a few simple twists.
Liz
Post from Marilyn
ReplyDeleteWoolvs in the sitee.
After the presentation of this book in our class last night, I got to thinking about why this book caught my attention. I think it was initially the title. As I said in class, I love wolves and thought it was more an animal fantasy story. I also enjoy those out of the box kind of books. While most people enjoyed the Davinci Code, I enjoyed Angels and Demons more. I like books about those subjects that can't ever be answered for sure. Mysteries, secret societies, like the Freemasons, and conspiracy theories. As I think more about the phonetic spelling and the colors on the cover. The colors on the cover should have been obvious to me! Red and Black. Two very dark colors that can be associated with blood and darkness. Mysterious!
Another thing that also stuck out in my mind was the last page. Ben saying Joyn me. The illustration was of Ben looking back at the reader. Why does he want the reader to join him? Is he lonely or is this an invitation from the person who could be the cause of the deserted city? Is he asking the reader to join him so that he can have another victim? So much about him is a mystery. In my mind after the class discussion I wondered if maybe the woolvs in the story weren't the bad characters. Like in fairy tales, wolves seem to always be portrayed as evil and bad. Maybe the woolvs in this story were just the opposite. Perhaps it was Ben who was the cause of Mrs. Radinski's disappearance. Maybe she was fooled by his being a child and helping him out because she felt bad for him. The handprints on the wall in Mrs. Radinski's apartment are small. Could Ben have done something to make Mrs. Radinski disappear but not remember? Could we as the readers be falling for the same? When he went out to see the blue wall, I wonder if the woolvs were coming to take Ben away so that the sitee would once again be safe from him!
I don't know if we'll ever really know?
November 4, 2009 8:20 AM