Research: Children's books.
The Man:
Briggs, Raymond. (1992) The Man. Red Fox edition 1994. London, Random House Children's Books.
I decided partly to look at Raymond Briggs' 'The Man' because it one of the books I remember reading most starkly as a kid, in particular I remember the bitter-sweet sense of loss the book always brought to read.
'The Man' follows the protagonist John after he's awoken one morning by a tiny, naked man on his bedside table. Briggs' tells the story of the next couple of days, while John proceeds to look after his visitor (never called anything beyond, 'Man') as they strike up an odd friendship. By the end of the book the Man leaves as is the 'rule of his kind'. While this book doesn't deal with death exactly, it does deal with the loss of a friendship which does relate.
Briggs' illustrates 'The Man' with his soft looking mix of watercolours and coloured pencils he's so well known for. The layout is a mix of larger full page images and smaller sequential images like the example above. A great deal of emphasis is made on just how 'small and helpless' the Man is.
The last three pages of the book (above) consist of only three images. John awakening to find that the Man has left unannounced during the night, a close up of the letter the Man has left him and then a finial, small imaged of John sat at his table with the clothes he made for the man sat in front of him. The image is sat awkwardly in the otherwise empty space of the page, emphasising the sense of loss over the Man's leaving. Briggs' is a master at using the space providing to help show such things.
The Man:
Briggs, Raymond. (1992) The Man. Red Fox edition 1994. London, Random House Children's Books.
I decided partly to look at Raymond Briggs' 'The Man' because it one of the books I remember reading most starkly as a kid, in particular I remember the bitter-sweet sense of loss the book always brought to read.'The Man' follows the protagonist John after he's awoken one morning by a tiny, naked man on his bedside table. Briggs' tells the story of the next couple of days, while John proceeds to look after his visitor (never called anything beyond, 'Man') as they strike up an odd friendship. By the end of the book the Man leaves as is the 'rule of his kind'. While this book doesn't deal with death exactly, it does deal with the loss of a friendship which does relate.
Briggs' illustrates 'The Man' with his soft looking mix of watercolours and coloured pencils he's so well known for. The layout is a mix of larger full page images and smaller sequential images like the example above. A great deal of emphasis is made on just how 'small and helpless' the Man is.
The last three pages of the book (above) consist of only three images. John awakening to find that the Man has left unannounced during the night, a close up of the letter the Man has left him and then a finial, small imaged of John sat at his table with the clothes he made for the man sat in front of him. The image is sat awkwardly in the otherwise empty space of the page, emphasising the sense of loss over the Man's leaving. Briggs' is a master at using the space providing to help show such things.
