Something serious is going to happen tomorrow! Before going to bed, Linlin is scolded by her mother for forgetting to bring her lunchbox to get washed and throwing her dirty socks around, but what's the big deal? What really matters is what's going to happen tomorrow! Will there be earth shattering volcano eruptions or tsunami strikes? Or will it be aliens and monsters that will take over the Earth? Is the world going to end? Tomorrow, what exactly will happen tomorrow? Whatever it is, “The Scariest Day” will definitely happen right before our eyes. The author vividly and thoroughly takes Linlin's/our fears and puts them directly into the words and powerful images.
The 3th Picture Book Award Winning Books
Synopsis
Book Details
- Author : Chen-Kuo Liu
- Illustrator : Chen-Kuo Liu
- Publisher : Global Kids Books
- ISBN : 978-986-320-066-6/ 978-7-5502-2035-5
- Age Range : 3-8
- Publication Date : 11 – 2012
Judge's comment
Upon opening first page of the book, carrying a humble atmosphere, the picture brings readers into a sincere world of a child who is shy in nature by simple and earnest language. In the aspect of the pictorial expression, the author takes geometrical patterns as the basis of picture composition and uses the disorderly zigzags as the basis of mental feeling. The simple composition to a proper extend heightens the genuine fear of a child: being afraid of facing the audiences, being afraid of failure, and being afraid of disappointment. Page by page, the overlapped zigzags concretize the worries and insecurity of a child. As for colors, the space is presented in bulks. Each page is dominated by a pair of complementary colors to emphasis the emotion of anxiety. In other words, it is painted bright but not garish to vividly express the enormous fear specifically belonging to the child. It is ingenious that when the geometric patterns and color bulks fit together, distant feeling and language are disclosed. This implicit distance echoes the aloneness that the girl has to face the fear by herself. The straightforward colors, lines and compositions seem simple, yet they present the deep and complicated emotion and feeling of children. In the aspect of the written text expression, the author selects the genuine simplicity to narrate and figure the feeling of the protagonist. As for the written text using, it is close to colloquial words, which enables younger readers to understand the meaning and get hold of the main point of the story easily as they listen to the text. Furthermore, when it comes to the collaboration of the text and the image, the author brilliantly captures the format of picture books. He lets the written text and pictures tell their parts of story respectively to present the consistent elements of time and space. By setting a storyline across thirty years, the author demonstrates that each of us has to respect our and other people's distinct temperaments. The story has a relaxing happy ending, but behind the happy ending it is a profound expectation of “acceptance and respect.” Everyone has his “the scariest day.” This sincere picture book not only speaks for adults but also knows children well.
Sandra Lee (PhD in Early Childhood Education, Southern Illinois University, the United States and lecturer of Montessori Institute-New England in Boston, the United States)
得獎者
Tom Liu (Chen-Kuo Liu)
Ever since he was a child, Chen-Kuo Liu (born in Taipei, 1966) has lived a life as eventful as one in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Chen-Kuo has been engaged in creative work since he graduated from the sculpture department of the National Taiwan University of Arts. Now he lives a simple and well-ordered life, and has a particular interest in the composition of simplistic shapes. His major works include The Cow Who Loves to Eat Fruits, The Crocodile Who Loves to Eat Greens, Jack the Architect, Tom the Dress Maker, The Large-Beaked Bird Delivery (published by Hsin-Yi Foundation Publications), Doesn't Matter if it Looks Alike, it is Raining!, and The Scariest Day of My Life (published by Global Kids Books), Kling Kling Cusi's Fantastic World of Arts (published by Artco Kids), and more. Chen-Kuo's work has received the following honors: Hsin-Yi Picture Book Award, Taipei Public Library Best Children's Book of the Year, Golden Tripod Award, and Feng Zikai Chinese Children's Picture Book Award. His works have also been selected as the recommended illustrated work at the Bologna Children's Book Fair and the Taiwan Pavilion of the Frankfurt Book Fair several times.
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