Restorying Crumbling Realities: The Three Pigs and The Frog Prince Continued

  • Jennifer Johnson University of British Columbia

Abstract

Postmodern representation has become a key aspect of many recent picture books. It can be argued that, apart from entertainment, the intention of many picture book creators is first to question the foundations on which our crumbling world has been erected, and then to offer their own alternative. A prime example is the non-linearity of Scieszka's The Stinky Cheese Man. This study examines two examples of books that challenge fewer narrative conventions while re-storying traditional fairytales: Wiesner's The Three Pigs and Scieszka's The Frog Prince Continued. Unlike The Stinky Cheese Man, these narratives do have a message and retain enough linearity to demonstrate an individual's ability to create his own "happily ever after."

Author Biography

Jennifer Johnson, University of British Columbia
Jennifer Johnson is a candidate of the Master of Arts in Children's Literature programme at the University of British Columbia. Restorying Crumbling Realities is her first article to be published. She wrote it for a library materials course in contemporary children's literature and is excited to delve further into the topic of postmodernism and traditional literature when she begins her thesis in 2006. As well as reading and writing about children's literature, Jennifer enjoys sharing it with her two sons ages two and eight months.
Published
2007-12-11
Issue
Vol. 9 No. 3 (2005)
Section
Jabberwocky
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