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They've helped millions of children to read, primary schools brim with them and parents either love them or hate them. They are Biff, Chip, Kipper... and Floppy.

While swathes of the population may be oblivious to these phonics heroes, to others they are their first encounter with the written word and, with their parents, have lived the gang's adventures in the desert, have commiserated with Dad over his latest mishap and admired Gran's new blue shoes - many times over.

Now, after more than 800 titles, becoming a mainstay of the National Curriculum to be used in 80% of the nation's primary schools, they're celebrating hitting 30.

The adventure began when Oxford Reading Tree's publications kicked off with 24 stories in 1986, with the simple aim of teaching young children to read in carefully laid-out stages.

Author Roderick Hunt said he wanted to develop a reading programme based on "humour and fun and motivation" after becoming concerned about his own child's progress.

Illustrated by Alex Brychta, the titles range from the eye-catching (The Bigfoot Mystery, Hairy-Scary Monster, Dragon Danger, Pirate Adventure, Superdog), to the everyday (A Day In London, At the Pool, Gran).

Mr Hunt said he was slow to start reading himself as a child, until a ticking off from a "formidable aunt" when he was six left him so embarrassed he said to himself: "I must crack reading."

He said: "Good reading is so important to human development. So our vision was to get children reading, and get them off picture books and on to the world of print."

Mr Brychta, who was born in what was then Czechoslovakia when it was under the control of the Soviet Union, said the books he was given at school were "absolutely horrible".

"There was no humour at all, it was tedious. I wish I could have had books like the reading tree."

The duo are still trying to keep their books relevant to modern children, with smartphones and digital technology now making appearances.

Matt Bibby from Abingdon thinks the books are "great". He devoured them as a child and now reads them to his son Max.

He thinks their success is down to the "story of it all - it's the magic of that magic key".

Yvonne Kyriacou agrees. She's deputy head at Rose Hill Primary in Oxford and has a long history with the books.

"I think back to when I was first teaching... and listening to all the stories about Floppy the dog, and the trouble he got into. I can remember those vividly.

"The longevity might be something to do with the characters and the fact that they often relate to children's everyday lives.

"But then there's that hint of magic in some of the books when the key turns up, and you and the children know that something different is going to happen.

"You might be under the sea, you might be in space, but I think they offer something amazing to children and adults."

For her five-year-old pupil Eshaal, the books aren't just about fun.

"I like it because you get to learn," she says, thoughtfully. "Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it isn't easy."

However, not everyone's a fan. Cast an eye over the forums of Mumsnet, and it's clear not all parents are totally down with Biff and co.

"They get a bit monotonous and ergo annoying," writes one. "I still don't know who's who apart from the dog?", says another.

And on Facebook, Catherine, a mum of three from London, suggests the books should be taken into account when planning a family.

"I considered having another child, but the prospect of working my way through Biff, Chip and Kipper for the fourth time was too much," she said.

And then there's speculation on the biggest mystery of all - just what are Biff, Chip and Kipper's real names?

"Elizabeth, David and Christopher," says Mr Hunt.

Oxford Reading Tree - Fact file

Started in 1986

Publications available in more than 130 countries

Translated into more than 15 languages

Read by 30 million children

More than 800 titles released

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Biff, Chip and Kipper books: 30 years of teaching children to read

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They've helped millions of children to read, primary schools brim with them and parents either love them or hate them. They are Biff, Chip, Kipper... and Floppy.

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FREE eBook Library from Oxford Owl for Home

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FREE eBook Library from Oxford Owl for Home

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Learning to read with phonics? Click the '+' for advice.

Learning to read with phonics

If you live in England, your child will learn to read using phonics. Their school is very likely to use either the Letters and Sounds phonics framework or the Read Write Inc. programme. Check with your school if you're not sure which one they use.

Using Letters and Sounds?

If your child is using Letters and Sounds, you can find this list of eBooks by Letters and Sounds Phases useful. Bear in mind the following:

If you don't know your child's Phase, you can check with your school. As a guide, most Reception children will be on Phases 1-4 and most Year 1 children will be on Phases 4-5. Beyond Phase 5, your child will be able to decode most books.

In Letters and Sounds, there are 'sets' within the Phases - so your child might not know all the sounds in every book within their Phase.

Some series contain occasional 'tricky words' that your child can't decode using phonics. Use the inside front cover notes to teach your child these words before they start the book.

Find out more about Letters and Sounds >

Using Read Write Inc. Phonics?
If your child is being taught to read using the Read Write Inc. programme, you can find books suitable for them by clicking on the 'Levels' menu below and using the 'Read Write Inc.' filter to select the right level.

Find more support and resources for Read Write Inc. in our parents' guide to Read Write Inc. >

Looking for printed books for phonics practice at home?

Not reading to practise phonics?

Sharing books and independent reading

If your child is reading simply for enjoyment, comprehension, or practice, just browse the library or use any of the other filters. You can check which level is right for your child with this simple test from Read with Oxford.

Reading for pleasure

Are you a teacher? Find out about the Oxford Owl for School eBook library.

More available on Oxford Owl for School

Schools who are registered with Oxford Owl can provide pupils with access to an additional 30 Oxford Primary eBooks, plus a separate library of 50 Read Write Inc. titles all for free using a class login associated with their Oxford Owl for School.
How to set up a class login >

If you need more eBooks, Oxford Owl for School has introduced a new annual subscription of up to 550 titles. For more information, please visit the OUP website.

Are you looking for your class login?

Accessing your class eBook library from home

The class log in link has moved. If your teacher has given you login details to use your class library at home, please use the log in link at the very top of this page and select 'Students'.

sign up log in

Songbirds

Levelled phonics books from the fabulous Julia Donaldson, author of The Gruffalo.

Read Write Inc. Phonics

A step-by-step phonics programme to support reading. Learn at home with Read Write Inc. Phonics

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Free eBook library | Oxford Owl from Oxford University Press

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Browse our library of free children's eBooks to read with your child including Oxford Reading Tree adventures with Biff, Chip and Kipper.

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Board Book Printing Basics (and Differences from Children's Picture Books)

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Board Book Printing Basics (and Differences from Children's Picture Books)

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Quickly Draw Heads with the Loomis Method - Part 1

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Out, Out, Away From HereRachel Woodworth, Sang Miao

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Out, Out, Away From HereRachel Woodworth, Sang Miao

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An elegant, poetic text accompanied by enchanting illustrations that shows children how to cope with strong feelings through creativity and imagination.

Emotions can be strange, sudden, and even overwhelming at times. With thoughtful words and expressive images, this book guides us on a journey through our imagination... to a place where everything feels calm again.

Weight

0.45 kg

Dimensions

23 × 27 cm

Pages

32pp

Format

Hardback

ISBN

9781911171331

$16.95

In stock (can be backordered)

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Skip to content An elegant, poetic text accompanied by enchanting illustrations that shows children how to cope with strong feelings through creativity and imagination. Emotions can be strange, sudden, and even overwhelming at times. With thoughtful words and expressive images, this book guides us on a journey through our imagination...

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If you're writing a children's book, it pays to be familiar with how publishers classify them. Publishers generally assign age groups for readers of various formats as set out in the following list:

Board books: Newborn to age 3

Picture books: Ages 3-8

Coloring and activity (C&A) books: Ages 3-8

Novelty books: Ages 3 and up, depending on content

Early, leveled readers: Ages 5-9

First chapter books: Ages 6-9 or 7-10

Middle-grade books: Ages 8-12

Young adult (YA) novels: Ages 12 and up or 14 and up

It's okay to veer off a year or so in either direction when assigning a target audience age range to your work.

Latest posts by Ayla Myrick ( see all)

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If you're writing a children's book, it pays to be familiar with how publishers classify them.

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The Anxious Elephant: A Children's Book About Overthinking, Being Realistic, and Managing Your Emotions (Teach Me How!)

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The Anxious Elephant: A Children's Book About Overthinking, Being Realistic, and Managing Your Emotions (Teach Me How!) : Dane, Charlotte: Amazon.co.uk: Books

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Why Anthropomorphism in Children's Literature?Juliet Kellogg Markowsky

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Why Anthropomorphism in Children's Literature?Juliet Kellogg Markowsky

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Why Anthropomorphism in Children's Literature?

https://www. jstor .org/stable/41592646

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), a not-for-profit professional association of educators, is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum for the profession, an array of opportunities for teachers to continue their professional growth throughout their careers, and a framework for cooperation to deal with issues that affect the teaching of English. For more information, please visit www.ncte.org.

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Why Anthropomorphism in Children's Literature? on JSTOR

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Why Anthropomorphism in Children's Literature? https://www. jstor .org/stable/41592646 The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), a not-for-profit professional association of educators, is dedicated to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.

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No one is as brave as me and nothing, I mean nothing scares me... you'll see!

Follow a cast of courageous characters as they each take it in turns to see who is the bravest animal of all in this colourful and engaging debut picture book from award-winning illustrator, Ben Newman.

Weight

0.3 kg

Dimensions

24 × 24 cm

Pages

32pp

Format

Hardback

ISBN

9781911171058

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Marchella Ward, Sander Berg

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Skip to content No one is as brave as me and nothing, I mean nothing scares me... you'll see! Follow a cast of courageous characters as they each take it in turns to see who is the bravest animal of all in this colourful and engaging debut picture book from award-winning illustrator, Ben Newman.

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Mary Blair

Nationality

American

Occupation

Visual development artist

Mary Blair (born Mary Robinson) was an American visual development artist, best remembered today for work done for The Walt Disney Company. She was the wife of another Disney artist, Lee Blair.
Blair produced concept art for films, such as Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, , Song of the South, and Cinderella. She also and worked briefly on art for , an early version of Lady and the Tramp, and a second version of titled "Baby Ballet" which was not released until the late 1990s.

Her style also lives on through the designs for the Disney attraction It's a Small World, to which the attraction is primarily modeled after her art style. Her work at Disney Parks can also be seen on an enormous mosaic inside Disney's Contemporary Resort. In 1967, Blair created mural art for the Tomorrowland Promenade. Two similar tile murals flanked the entrance corridor. The mural over Adventure Thru Inner Space was covered over in 1987 with the opening of Star Tours, while the other remained in place until 1998 when the Circle-Vision 360° was replaced by Rocket Rods and a new mural was designed to reflect the new theme.

Outside of Disney, she also illustrated several Little Golden Books for publisher Simon & Schuster and designed Christmas and Easter sets for Radio City Music Hall. She also worked as a designer for Bonwit Teller and created theatrical sets. Blair would also go on to make sets of Walt Disney note cards for Hallmark, and, in 1968, she was credited as color designer on the film How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

Disney Filmography

Blair was posthumously honored as a Disney Legend in 1991, one of the first women to be given the honor. The Mickey Mouse episodes " Yodelberg" and " O Sole Minnie" are patterned after Blair's distinctive art style.

In 2014, The Walt Disney Family Museum hosted the comprehensive exhibition: MAGIC, COLOR, FLAIR: the world of Mary Blair.

References

External Links

MagicofMaryBlair.com - official site presented by the nieces of Mary Blair

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Mary Blair (born Mary Robinson) was an American visual development artist, best remembered today for work done for The Walt Disney Company. She was the wife of another Disney artist, Lee Blair. Blair produced concept art for films,such as Alice in Wonderland, The Three Caballeros, Peter Pan, Song of the South, and Cinderella.

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Date : March 10, 2019

Talking Animals: Anthropomorphism In Children's Literature

Have you ever wondered why so many books for kids choose to use talking animals, rather than people, as the central characters? Anthropomorphism in children's literature helps create charming, memorable protagonists, but it's also a powerful educational tool that's been used since the earliest people told stories.

If I could talk to the animals

Anthropomorphism is the name for the process of assigning human traits to non-human entities, and it has a long and lively presence in children's literature. From dancing dogs to wily wolves, cars to candelabras, popular texts for children rely heavily on non-human dialogue. The reasons for this are both historical and psychological.

Animal stories in history

Many ancient cultures generated their creation stories using the flora and fauna of their surroundings as touchstones. These were stories for all members of a community, however, not necessarily for children.

Printed books for children, in the British and European tradition, began to appear in the mid 1600s. According to the British Library, the first picture book with animals as characters is the 1659 title Orbis sensualium pictus . This uses animal references to encourage children to mimic animal sounds as a means of learning the alphabet - an early phonics textbook, if you like.

Fictional children's stories intended for amusement as well as education did not appear on the literary horizon until well into the 18 th century . This coincided with a general re-evaluation of what it meant to be a child, in line with the emergence of the first 'middle classes', compulsory primary education and a desire for people across all levels of society to enjoy 'leisure time'. These social developments opened the door for all kinds of new moral stories for children - and picture books were teaching opportunities.

The 18 th and 19 th centuries also saw a surge in naturalists avidly discovering and classifying new species of birds and animals from the colonial outposts. Children's books of the time reflect this keen interest in the 'personality' of animals.

So, while history delivered the perfect conditions for the inclusion of animals as lead characters in children's books, it was educational psychology that kept them there.

The psychology of animal stories

Children's books exist for several purposes: mainly literacy education, moral education and pleasure. The most popular are a smart combination of all three - offering the pleasure of an engaging story, with an adult-pleasing lesson or two, and an underlying benefit of literacy enhancement. May Gibbs' creative tales are a stellar example of this type of three-pronged impact.

Animals as characters, therefore, can bring silliness and incongruity, making a story more enjoyable. But they also add a degree of emotional distance for the reader, which is important when the story message is personal, painful or powerful.

"Having animals do the acting and mistake-making allows the face-saving emotional distance often needed to be able to join the conversation," say scholars Burke & Copenhaver . When the Three Little Pigs lose house after house, we roll along with the rhyme; the same situation involving homeless children is far less palatable. The Ugly Duckling draws gentle empathy, whilst 'The Ugly Child' would be frightening and confronting.

Many children's stories also use the trope of absent adults as a strategy. Disney tales include orphans a-plenty. Blyton sends The Famous Five off on camping adventures so they can learn from each other away from the gaze of moralising adults. This story device is balanced, however, by watchful animals. Disney's anthropomorphised woodland creatures follow their wards around, offering wisdom and comfort. Even the fab Five would have come unstuck without Timmy the dog by their sides!

Animals characters make life-lessons easier

If you're sharing stories with children, including the beautiful May Gibbs collection , the tradition of anthropomorphism in children's literature makes a terrific talking point. Children's books with animal characters are often deceptively simple in their nature, whilst in fact containing highly influential content. Unfortunately for well-meaning adults, a lesson delivered by a lively lizard may hit home with greater force than a parental teaching moment!

Contribution By Dr Lara
Dr Lara's PhD is in Australian Literature and she's a passionate advocate of bringing the best of Australian literary culture to the next generation.

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Date : March 10, 2019 Have you ever wondered why so many books for kids choose to use talking animals, rather than people, as the central characters? Anthropomorphism in children's literature helps create charming, memorable protagonists, but it's also a powerful educational tool that's been used since the earliest people told stories.

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Petra - Marianna Coppo - anthropomorphism

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Petra book. Read 376 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. The humorous adventures of an irresistible little rock who finds herself in ...

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First published in the 1930s, this charming French classic tells the story of what happens to baby elephant Babar as he grows up. When his mother is shot by cruel hunters, a grief-stricken Babar leaves the forest and wanders to a nearby town. There, he is taken under the wing of a rich old lady, who dresses him elegantly. He learns mathematics and to drive a car - and even sleeps in a bed. But before long, he misses his fellow elephants, and soon he returns to the jungle,where he is crowned king of the elephants and marries his queen, Celeste.

With beautifully distinctive illustrations from Jean de Brunhoff, a sometimes surreal and sometimes moving story, and a loveable hero in the dignified Babar himself, The Story of Babar remains a firm favourite with children.

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First published in the 1930s, this charming French classic tells the story of what happens to baby elephant Babar as he grows up. When his mother is shot by cruel hunters, a grief-stricken Babar leaves the forest and wanders to a nearby town.

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Introduction

For thousands of years the human figure has appeared in art. Early cave paintings show figures of hunters simply depicted using a few strokes. In ancient Greece human figures were the main subject on decorated vases. Through the ages the human figure has appeared in portraits, has been used to tell stories or express beliefs, or used to explore what it is to be human.

The human figure from life

At art school drawing from the human figure is often one of the first skills taught. Life drawing helps young artists to look closely and understand proportions, as well as experiment with techniques.

Explore some of the ways artists have drawn and painted the human figure from life:

For most artists who draw, paint - or sculpt - 'from life' their fascination with the human figure is much more than simply creating an accurate representation of their model.

The painter Lucian Freud spent 60 years drawing and painting the human figure, mainly using friends and family as his models.

Although his drawings and paintings of people look like straightforward depictions, there is a psychological intensity to many of the portraits. The figures often seem awkward and their poses suggest vulnerability. As well as the phsyical nature of the human figure, Freud seems to also be exploring the emotional fragility that we as humans sometimes experience.

Gwen John also seems to have been interested in capturing what people are thinking and feeling in her paintings of the human figure. The simple pictures of women in interiors suggest intimacy and quietness, but also often loneliness or sadness. Her drawings and paintings don't obviously tell a story. But by using harmonies of pastel colour, she creates a subtle sense of mood which gives the works their emotional impact.

As well as suggesting the psychology of their sitters, many artists want to suggest their character and celebrate who they are. Clothing and pose is important in doing this. Emma Amos's painting Eva the Babysitter shows a woman dressed in jeans, t-shirt and trainers, sitting casually and smiling - as if sharing a joke with the artist. Her pose and causal look suggests confidence and that she is at ease with being painted.

Photographing the human figure

Photographs by definition are taken from life. Photography is often used to capture or record the human figure.

John Coplans uses photography to scrutinise the relentless effects of ageing on his body. Although these are self-portraits, Coplans doesn't show his face. Instead he focuses on isolated body parts such as hands and feet (and knees!), showing them enlarged and close-up with every wrinkle and area of gnarled or sagging flesh brutally on show.

Cameroonian photographer Samuel Fosso also uses photography to capture and explore who he is. He photographed himself in a series of adopted identities that often comment on the history of Africa. Dressing up in costumes ranging from European outfits and uniforms to African folk costumes, he reflects on how identity is often determined partly by things which we have little control over. He also suggests that regardless of outside factors, we can create our own identity.

For her series of photographs of young bathers, Rineke Dijkstra chose similar locations and set her camera at a relatively low viewpoint before inviting her subjects to pose. By using the same simple background for each photograph we focus on the figures. Each figure seems to be scrutinised by the camera (and by us), making them seem self-conscious and vulnerable. But at the same time the bathers scrutinise the camera. As a result, her images are filled with an uneasy intensity.

As well as documenting individuals, photography is often used to document the lives of people. Have a look at some of the ways photographers have captured the human figure in everyday situations.

Abstracting the Human

Artists often experiment with abstracting the human figure: either simplifying it or depicting it in a way that isn't necessarily straightforward, often distorting elements of the body.

Have you ever experienced emotions - of anger, sadness or frustration - that are so intense you feel as if you are being tortured by them? How would you represent these feelings in art? Francis Bacon's twisted figures express a powerful sense of the psychological pain and anguish that people sometimes experience. He used photographs from books and magazines as the starting point for many of his paintings.

Many of the writhing, twisted poses were inspired by photographs of wrestlers. The distorted screaming faces have an unlikely photographic source - dental magazines showing diseases of the mouth! Bacon was also greatly inspired by artist Pablo Picasso's the abstracted figures.

In his paintings, Bacon often paints a square box around his figures. This makes them look as if they are trapped in a cage or other enclosed space, and adds to the sense of horror.

Artists are obsessed by life and by certain things that obsess them that they want to record. And they've tried to find systems and construct the cages in which these things can be caught.

Rebecca Warren's clay sculpture Come, Helga 2006 shows two female figures standing side-by-side. The kneaded, lumpy and messy figures challenge society's ideas about the ideal body. The work references a range of sources, from traditional figure sculptures to fashion photographers and cartoonists. The exaggerated proportions of the women's figures suggest clichés of the sexualised representation of women. However, the confrontational pose of the women is confident and complicates the way the figures are seen.

Sarah Lucas also explores female identity and how women are often sexualised. Like Rebecca Warren's Helga, Lucas's Pauline Bunny 1997 has a humorous cartoony look. Made from nylon tights stuffed with cotton wadding, the limp, floppy form undermines the fantasy of the glamorous 'bunny girl'.

The human figure broken down

Often artists abstract the human figure by breaking it down into separate body bits or by adding other non-human elements. Eduardo Paolozzi adds machine parts to his figures, while Parviz Tanavoli adds architectural features. They create abstracted robot-like figures that perhaps comment on our lives and how we live them. In drawings such as Tree with Shoes 1998, artist Louise Bourgeois also mixes unlikely elements - such as tree branches - with the human figure. Her sculptures often include isolated body bits. She uses aspects of the human to explore of a range of themes including childhood memories, sexuality and mortality.

African American artist Romare Bearden creates richly textured abstracted collages. His work focuses on unity and cooperation within the African American community. To create this powerful collage of two men, he has used elements taken from different found images from newspapers and magazines. In doing this the figures become universal. Bearden became a founding member of the Harlem-based art group known as The Spiral, which formed to discuss how African-American artists could help in the struggle for civil rights.

The human figure broken down is also something artist Douglas Gordon explores in his video A Divided Self I and A Divided Self II 1996. Two arms - one hairy and the other shaven - are shown fighting each other on separate screens. On one screen the hairy arm defeats the shaven, while the reverse happens on the second screen. Gradually the viewer becomes aware that the arms belong to the same person suggesting a battle between two halves of the self.

Moving figures abstracted

Many artists have experimented with ways of depicting the human figure in motion. This often leads to abstracted representations of the human figure. William Turnbull explores very literally the act of walking in this print Marching Figures 1953. He said: 'I wanted to ...express the implication of movement (not describe it)'. The figures look a little like photographs of figures in motion created in the 1880s by Eadweard Muybridge.

In his painting The Mud Bath 1914, painter David Bomberg has reduced the human figure to a series of geometric shapes. The human figure is hardly recognisable, but the angled shapes suggest a very real sense of movement. Like many artists at the beginning of the twentieth century he was interested in finding ways of expressing the dynamism of the modern world.

Browse the slideshow below to explore more ways that artists have abstracted the human figure.

Telling Tales

As well as using the human figure as a way of exploring the human form or human psychology, the human figure is often used by artists to tell a story or to make a point. - exploring political or social ideas, or memories.

The figures in Lubaina Himid's Carrot Piece 1985 were cut out of plywood and painted. Carrot Piece shows a white man failing to tempt a black woman with a carrot. Her arms are already full with everything she needs. Himid says that the work was a comment on cultural institutions that 'needed to be seen' to be integrating black people into their programmes and the tricks they used to do this.

We as black women understood how we were being patronised ... to be cajoled and distracted by silly games and pointless offers. We understood, but we knew what sustained us... and what we really needed to make a positive cultural contribution: self-belief, inherited wisdom, education and love.

Ellen Gallagher's multi-media painting, Bird in Hand 2006 is a dominated by the standing figure of a black sailor or pirate with a peg-leg and an abundance of swirling hair. He seems to be underwater as he is surrounded by trails of colourful shapes that resemble seaweed and marine-like vegetation. Gallagher often explores narratives surrounding the slave trade in her work. The undersea landscape is related to her imaginative exploration of the Middle Passage, the most treacherous part of the slave trading route between Africa and North America.

I think of this painting as an origin myth of sorts, with a kind of evil doctor, perhaps related to Doctor Moreau or Frankenstein, at its centre
Ellen Gallagher

In this video writer Bonnie Greer discusses the layering of narratives and ideas in Ellen Gallagher's work:

Explore more artworks in Tate's collection where the human figure is used to create narratives that tell stories or make a point:

Traces of the human figure

Have you ever walked into a room and been aware of someone's presence without anyone actually being there? We are not talking ghosts here! But what about an empty cup, some clothes strewn on the sofa, a TV or computer switched on? Art about the human figure doesn't always actually include the human the figure. Sometimes human presence is suggested.

Body casts

Anthony Gormley makes his sculptures of the human figure by making casts of his own body. He covers his body with plaster and then reinforces the plaster with fibre glass and lead. What we see looks like a simplified human figure, but in fact is an empty shell - the space where the human figure used to be. For the shape of two human figures lying down are delineated in hollows eaten out of layers of sliced bread. The sculpture suggests carved medieval tombs. Gormley is from a Roman Catholic background, and is perhaps referencing the ritual of consuming the body of Christ through the taking of bread during communion. In this video Gormley talks about how he made the sculpture.

Artist Giuseppe Penone also uses an impression of his own body to create his sculpture Breath 5 1978. The clay is modelled on the imagined shape of a breath of air, exhaled from the artist's mouth. At the top is the form of the interior of Penone's mouth, squeezed into the clay. Along the side of the clay is an impression of the artist's leg, wearing jeans, as he leans forward. Penone has made many artworks about the impression of man on nature. For Breath Penone has spoken of the influence of mythological explanations of the creation of man.

Body Extensions

What are these strange looking objects, and what have they got to do with the human figure?

These are sculptures - or body pieces - by artist Rebecca Horn. The body pieces, which include gloves and masks, are designed to extend the human body and what it can do. Although these artworks were made to be worn in performances, she also sees them as sculptures. Detached from the human figure and mounted on the gallery wall they look disturbing, suggesting a terrifying absence (or presence!).

Artist as Art: The Human Figure as Medium

So far this resource has explored some of the different ways artists have used the human figure as a subject in their art. But some artists use their own - or other people's - bodies directly as the medium or material for their art. For performance artists the artwork is created through actions performed by the artist or other participants. These may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted. Other artists use themselves as human sculptures.

Erwin Wurm makes art from anything that is to hand. His One Minute Sculptures were created on the spot using whatever objects, participants, and backgrounds were available. He then photographed or filmed these creations to document them. The improvised nature of the images, which show ordinary people and everyday objects, reflect the fun, playfulness and spontaneity that must have gone into the making of work. But in spite of their playfulness and humour there is also perhaps a darker suggestion of bullying, assault or ritual violence.

Francesca Woodman often photographed herself half-obscured by various props - sometimes standing behind them and sometimes balancing them on top of her. Although she almost always present she is never quite visible or 'fixed'.

When asked why she always appears in her own photographs, she responded:

It's a matter of convenience, I'm always available.

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Human Figure Coursework Guide - Student Resource | Tate

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For thousands of years the human figure has appeared in art. Early cave paintings show figures of hunters simply depicted using a few strokes. In ancient Greece human figures were the main subject on decorated vases.

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What is a one line drawing and what makes each one unique?

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October 17, 2014
We interviewed Jon Klassen, New York Times best selling illustrator and author of children's books, including the 2013 Caldecott Medal winner, This Is Not My Hat, and I Want My Hat Back, New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2011 and 2010 Canadian Governor General's Award winner. He also illustrated Extra Yarn, a 2013 Caldecott Honor book, and 2015 Caldecott Honor book, Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, both by Mac Barnett.

You and Mac Barnett have collaborated on two books, Extra Yarn and Sam & Dave Dig a Hole. We love the trailer for Sam & Dave Dig a Hole. Did you come up with the idea for this book together?

Yes, we did think of it together. Mac was in town and he was talking about what you could do with kids digging a hole and missing things. I really liked the idea. Book illustration for me is figuring out the format and how to get the parts to work together - making sure that the text isn't just squished on the page, or that the illustration is just rubbed away to make room for the text to be inserted.

You've said that you keep coming back to the idea of a search for something, where you end up hitting rock-bottom. That so perfectly describes Sam & Dave Dig a Hole.

Yes, a lot of the stories I come up with do involve a search, until I reach a point where I wonder how am I going to solve this. It's an interesting point in the story structure. Sam & Dave is like that. What drives a large part of the story is how is it going to end, how is it going to solve itself. That was a big part of writing and illustrating it. There are things that feel right for the premise and things that feel like you might be taking it in the wrong direction. That process is new every time. There's no real recipe for it. You're just following what it is that got you excited about it in the first place. In this book, it was especially tricky because we had dug the hole and we couldn't get out! So we're at the bottom of the page and now what? Of course it wasn't written as haphazardly as that. Mac always has an ending in mind, but we were trying to figure out how to make it clear and direct and also as dreamy as we wanted.

Would you say this story is left open-ended?

Toward the end the text just says, "They landed in some soft dirt." A lot of the objects look the same, but there are small differences and we don't say it in the text. We leave it to the viewer to realize that this is not home. But the boys don't notice. They're thinking, "Wow, that was pretty spectacular! We've been looking for something interesting to happen all day and that was certainly it." So they walk back inside for milk and cookies and that is the end. But the dog is given one extra page to take a look around and realize that they are not home. The boys are already in the house, looking at who knows what, because they are not home either. So it is left open, but it also feels complete.

An interesting thing it brings up is that if the text doesn't state something, then the readers have to look at the pictures. On a tour, I was showing the book to some kids, and when the boys seemed to be back home, the kids listening to the story saw the differences and they were confused. Once we explain what has happened, it is a reassurance that they were right all along. This was not completely on the level. Their first impulse was correct. I think that's a very reassuring thing. You can validate that insecurity they have when they see that final page. And they can back it up because it turns out that things aren't quite right.

And that allows kids to be proud of a sixth sense they have.

Yes, exactly. If they're being read to by an adult, I feel that the pictures are the kids' territory. So if the pictures give out some information that the text doesn't, there's a secret from the person reading it or maybe even from the person who wrote it. Kids learn to read more critically; they realize these pictures have a reason. They are not just there to entertain us while all the important text is happening.

With your stories' intentionally ambiguous endings, do you feel that it allows your audience to find their own way?

Yes. It's a fine line though, because you don't want to come off as someone who doesn't feel like giving them all the answers. You don't want to seem lazy or arty, as if to say, "You guys figure it out! I don't know what's going on." You have to be very specific about what it is that you want to say.

It must be interesting to hear some of those reactions to your stories.

It's great! Even in this book, Sam and Dave's relationship can be seen in different ways. They seem to be very stoic little guys but it is how you interpret them: Is one guy more right than the other? We know what we think about these guys, but I'm always surprised to find that people have opinions of characters and that it can change drastically from person to person. It doesn't mean they misunderstood the story. It means they brought other experiences to an event in the book that reminded them of something. Once you've laid out simply what happens in the book, then it's off to the races. They can see whatever they want. It's really a neat back-and-forth.

It's been said that your children's books tend to be edgier than most; you avoid wrapping things up neatly with a bow. What's your response to that impression of your work?

I never want to promote edgy things just for the sake of it. I think there's as much danger in that as going the other way and being too sweet or just too convenient. When the premise suggests that this can end more ambiguously, and if there's more to be gained there, it should be allowed to do that. I think kids are fine with that. They can't necessarily tell you that they want sweeter things or edgier things. They just want a good story to be told as well as it can be told. They want to be entertained in a very uncomplicated way.

You could traumatize an audience with the wrong decisions. But I don't think that's inherent in scary stories. I loved being scared as a little kid-through books particularly though. And I think that's an important difference. With movies and television, it was too traumatic for me. I find it overwhelming when things are gratuitously violent. But with books, you can take it as it comes, trust that you can turn the page when you're ready. Children's books-they're supposed to be simple, and they are. A great challenge is to build the suspense with simple elements. You can condense everything about a scary story and bring it down to the language of the kid. They know that this is something for them and that they've not wandered into someplace that they're not ready for. It's amazing and it's so much fun.

You can deliver bad messages in a very sweet book, too. There's plenty of misguided stuff that sounds just as sweet as can be. These things come in many forms.

There's some sweet stuff that is actually very scary!

Yes. Exactly! Once kids get used to that, it's much more dangerous than them getting used to the scary stuff.

Both of us at Art of the Picture Book have been dog owners, and we feel you really nail it with the eyes on your animal characters-especially in the way their eyes move, while their expression remains the same. What's behind that subtle approach to character?

I grew up with dogs. We have a cat now. You get used to animals showing how they feel. You can't help but look for human emotions in them. They don't have a lot of ways of showing those things, so you get attuned to smaller movements. But it's also fun as an illustrator to draw the same thing five times and then, when you change it just once, it becomes meaningful. It doesn't have to look very complicated. It's a symbol of how they're feeling.

You can't draw a frustrated dog. When the situation is frustrating, he should be frustrated. You can give just the slightest indication, like if he was frustrated, he'd be looking at us by now.

In Sam & Dave Dig a Hole, the dog has been looking down at the diamonds the boys have been missing in the dirt throughout the entire book. And then at one point they miss the largest diamond in the book-it's almost two pages across. The dog has just had it, he's so frustrated that they keep missing these things, that he doesn't even bother to look at the diamond anymore. He's looking at us for the first time, like in a comedy show, where they break to look at the camera, as if to say, "Can you believe this?"

It's as if you are making a film with really bad actors. They can't stop looking at the camera or they can't help but comment on the story outside of their place in it. With this book, that was the moment to do it. In picture books, the images are so spare that there are usually some opportunities to do that.

I don't have any trouble with the idea of making up a character. But it seems so pompous to say, "I've made up this guy and I know everything about him." You can't know a person like that. We've got these two cute kids and there's the dog. But they also have outside lives that we don't know or understand. We get them to say our very simple lines and make them do their actions. I can think of characters like that. Their actions are very stiff. There's one point when the boys begin to split up and Dave puts his hand on Sam's shoulder. It's a theatrical stagey action. It's not a private moment, because we can see them making this pose, but it also is an emotional moment. Like in a play, you can find yourself lost in the emotions. But at the same time, the actors are shouting the whole time. You can hear them from way in the back. And they're always facing the audience, favoring the theater's audience. So it looks fake and you know it's fake, but you are still lost in what's going on. And I love that. When you can be artificial with the audience and you've done everything you can to convince them of that, but they can't help but get into your story. They get past all of that.

They're still being touched by it despite all the artifice.

Yes, exactly. And there is artifice in illustration. You are up against your own skills as an artist. You can only play at making a fake tree. No one thinks it's a real tree, but they know it's supposed to be a tree. That's way more fun than actually trying to draw a tree.

Although your landscapes are often quite spartan and they make no attempt to be realistic, they do stand in for exactly what you need for your story.

Right, they're just symbols. They can get more complicated the better you get as an illustrator, depending on what the story needs them to be. The audience is always looking for symbols. You can have a beautiful illustration, but if it doesn't have the symbols that simply communicate what you need to communicate, then they'll get lost. It's the same with film. You can have a beautiful sequence of shots, but if it's not organized clearly, you get lost and the story's gone. You've lost your audience, no matter how well you've done visually. It always has to have the idea behind it first.

You've said that illustration for you is a little scary because, unlike with animation, your drawing is not one of thousands. Each one stands on its own. The reader can hold onto the page for as long as they like. You no longer have that sense that it's going to be gone in a second. Every line and every bit matters.

Yes, at first it is really scary, because you're used to the safety of these drawings going by relatively quickly. Once you watch a film you've worked on, you realize how quickly this work goes by and it loosens you up. It's just a different language. It's all moving instead of holding still.

With books, at first you think, "How am I supposed to live up to the idea that this is just sitting there on the page?" It's the only image that the readers will get to represent this particular moment. But then you get used to paper and leaving something behind on the page.

With animation, you fill up the frame all the time because you want it to be immersive. There's the implication of a much broader world off the frame all the time.

But with books, it's the opposite. You want it to feel like you thought of this picture specifically for this page. They are not just getting the book version of this story. This is the only story and this is the only way you're ever going to hear it. This is the only way it makes any sense, in this particular form. You choose your trim size for that, you choose your pages for that, and you know them going in. You don't plan an illustration that wouldn't work with that. You know you have complete control over it inside those parameters.

It's such a huge honor to get to do this. You would never move if you got too nervous about the permanence of it. When you go back to your old books, you remember that these were once perfect little diamonds, and now you see all the small mistakes. But they don't matter. You've done the story's best job before the illustrations even got there.

When you do a layout of a book, do you create several rough drafts?

It depends on whether I'm writing it or not. If I'm writing it, I have to be very specific with myself because the whole thing is done at once. You're thinking of an idea because it's a 40-page idea. You're not thinking of a 60-page idea and trying to squish it into 40. You make decisions based on if it's wide, tall, or square. You think of those rules first and then make the story fit. You go back and forth. You have the power to do that because you're writing it yourself.

Working with writer Mac Barnett it's different because we're friends and we talk all the time, and so it's a bit more malleable. But usually when the text comes, you want to figure it out. It's a known quantity. You don't have the ability to change things inside that story. And you don't even want it. It is nice to have that huge head start. There are problems to solve, versus this big vat of nothingness!

I am lucky to work with some great authors. My favorite part of illustrating someone else's text is where I am directing. Someone else wrote the script and now I get to figure how to pace it and make it land over the pages. It's not even about drawing; it's about something else completely. With old books, like those P.D. Eastman ones, the stories made almost no sense. They turn and do weird things, but at the end of the book you feel the book has ended. It has landed and you're satisfied. It's such a mystery every time. It's the best thing when you can get it working. There's no plan for it, it just happens. It's why a kid wants to read a book over and over again. Because it just lands.

Is that the part you really enjoy-the problem solving? You've said that you don't want just to sit and "express yourself" through your drawing.

Yes, it's interesting, because it does get so emotional anyway. You can find yourself inside that problem solving. What you are doing is measuring your reactions to things. If you feel especially sad at a certain point, you think, "Why am I feeling sad about this?" You have to open the hood a little bit. You don't want to, because it's such a nice little mystery. But when you're the person who makes these things, you have to understand how to take your own temperature. Once you've found that moment, you want to support it, give it all the juice you can. That's about as personal as it gets.

I like stories. I like reasons for things. It's the same reason I like graphic design and illustration. I begin to get interested when there is a story to tell or a point to be made. If it's just drawing, I never really got much out of that. I never had the confidence in my drawing to think that it could stand by itself. For me, I always liked the trick of having something else represented.

In high school, we read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. After, the teacher said, "What do you think Hemingway was doing?" The subsequent discussion changed my viewpoint. That these books, and that art, in general, could be about something beyond what it was literally describing. The book wasn't about the characters and it wasn't about the plot; the book was his best way of describing something larger. It showed me the intellectual side to creative work. It wasn't just self-indulgence; you could be connected to people through it.

How do you come up with ideas for your books? What is your jumping off point?

It's just born of fear-of creating. It's laying down rules as soon as you can to get out of the abyss of what the thing could be and to get it to be something that you can play with. For me, every time, it's been like a trick. It's been a way of avoiding something I don't want to do. And the solution to that avoidance lends itself to a story. Like in Sam & Dave, you wouldn't really want to show the mechanics of how to dig a very deep hole, and how to get rid of all that dirt. There's just a hole where there wasn't one before and you don't deal with all these technical things. The story wouldn't be possible if you got more involved. And as long as the rest of the audience is okay with avoiding those things too, then you're good to go.

Writing, for me, has always been the same thing. I like writing books in dialogue because I don't have any idea what narration sounds like coming from me yet. It wasn't really a creative choice to say this story would be better this way. It was me saying, "I don't know how to write any other way." Hopefully no one notices the things you're leaving out. The whole story is working and it feels complete and the idea is fitting and doing its thing. You said, "I don't want to do that and I don't want to do that. And so what do I have left? I have this left." You never know what you want, you just know what you don't want. It's a sculpting process. It's a big chunk of marble and it's just terrifying. Anything could be in there. You just keep making these small notches until you've got the shape-where everything that you didn't want is gone.

That appears to be working beautifully for you. It seems like you follow the trail and when you get to the end, you succeed at landing.

It does appear to work, although there's no way to repeat it. It only works for the one thing. There's nothing to be gained for the rest of the books. You can't say, "Well, this worked for the other one, so let's do that again." The most interesting part about stories is that they're local. They work on their own. They work specifically to themselves. But at the same time, as soon as you want to start a new one, you haven't learned much that you can apply to start another one. So it keeps things interesting. It also keeps things terrifying!

Evidently terrifying may be good!

It is good. Because as soon as you're not terrified, you're bored. And that's way worse.

With animation and illustration techniques having so much overlap today, you've said that it allows for fresh work to be created. And with new technological advancements, creators can now go back and forth between different forms. What do you see coming from this closer relationship?

I think there's a lot to be gained by going between different forms. It's like learning different languages. If you only speak one language your whole life, your idea of language as a concept is limited. When you begin to learn the rules of how languages in general are put together, you understand your own better. It's something you can play with and you understand the tools, the levers, and the strings. Forms are like that also. If you're toggling between film and books, there are different rules that govern them. You almost never have an idea just for a story, you have an idea for a book or you have an idea for a film- because you're thinking of the format first. You're thinking of 30 pages and a gutter, or you're thinking of a five-minute short. And a lot of these things can't be brought over. You don't want necessarily for that book to be made into a film, because you wanted it to have found its form perfectly.

Now the technology is different. These tools are much more condensed and accessible. If you get back into books after two years of making films, you're seeing the possibility in books differently. You're so excited to be back where things hold still. Or the reverse, you're back in film because you've been in books for a while and you're glad to have sound again. You get fresher because you have it as a new way to tell the story.

Now these communities are more blurred. You find people that are doing both books and film. People are jumping back and forth. It's really neat right now, with all sorts of cross-pollination going on.

Are you still doing animation?

I do a little bit of it. I don't get into larger projects much anymore. With animation, a project can take three or four years to complete. With books, it took about eight months to make a book and I couldn't believe it-to be able to get the story you wanted in that short amount of time.

With short animation though, for tablets and mobile apps, I've been doing some direction and design. It is so much fun to work in a group again-to hang out and make something collaboratively with 10 or 20 people-that you never would have done by yourself.

But the books are just everything. As long as I can make books, I'm going to be doing it.

Do you keep a sketchbook of ideas and drawings of things you see or from your imagination?

Not really. I've always been really bad at it. When I went to school for animation, the animators drew as a muscular reaction to things. They just loved it. These kids kept beautiful sketchbooks. They would sit on the subway with their books out, drawing some weird-looking guy on the train. It's just not what I do. I would always end up writing in my sketchbook or making doodles. More and more, if I draw without a story it's because I want to research a technique.

But with book illustration, things get better the more mediums you know how to work with. If I decide the next story's going to be best told with pastels, then I'll do some pictures with pastels, that don't necessarily have a story behind them. But I don't keep a sketchbook of that. There are drawings everywhere and they're very disorganized. As long as I get them into the computer, then I'm not too romantic about what the physical pieces were. They always end up under the couch or something. It's not good.

I always felt terrible that I didn't keep a sketchbook. I still do. I like to hear about someone else that didn't keep one and they managed to find their interests in other ways. I like to find those kids and tell them, "Hey, you don't have to keep this beautiful Leonardo da Vinci style sketchbook. If that's not your impulse, then don't force it. There are other ways."

So you put your drawings into Photoshop and then piece together what you've drawn?

Yes. I really like working that way because it takes the pressure off the drawings themselves. You can loosen up. For every dog that made it into Sam & Dave, there's probably 10 dogs that didn't. You do a bunch of dogs and decide that you like "Dog Number Four." That's the guy that will make it onto the page. You can experiment a little and you're not so pressured to like the one piece. If you spill coffee on it, then you haven't lost it. I think it's becoming a more popular way to work. Computers are so great at compiling things. You can do something in charcoal and scan it into Photoshop and you can just blast it with contrast and you get this whole new picture that you can't believe you had anything to do with. It's a fun way of working. It's safe. You can take all sorts of chances because the computer gives you a big safety net.

And you like to look at old photos . . .

I love photography in general. I think photography has a lot more to say than illustration does in terms of the things I like to make. Photography and illustration have such an interesting relationship. If you're given a story as an illustrator, that is a known quantity and you have to find what you have to say about that story; you have to find out where you stand in relationship to that story.

Photographers have an object or a scene and where they're standing is everything. Every small decision they're making is from their instincts. With a great photograph, it's really hard to say why it's a great picture. But it is where they chose to stand on it. It's fascinating. I love it. Good photographers are interesting to me because they are so reactionary that they can't explain the why of what they do. It's just a gut reaction.

Also, where photography is now technologically-and it's the same as with illustration- all these cheats are available. It's like anybody can take a good photo, where the color's right and the focus. It's beside the point now. Everybody is a photographer. So now it's about where you're standing again. It's not about how beautiful the photo is or if you can apply a filter to it properly because anybody can do that.

I think it should be the same with illustration. Lots of people can draw really beautifully or they can make something pretty with Photoshop. But where are you standing? What do you have to say?

So what choices are you making?

Exactly that. I taught a class at Cal Arts last year and that was pretty much the theme of it. These kids are all so good at drawing when they get into this school. But I would ask, "Why are you drawing what you're drawing? Think about it. Every decision you make is communicating something."

How do you do research for a book?

Some people make a wall of inspiration around what the book is about. But I like the idea that your impressions of something are just as valid as any research you would do.

For Sam & Dave, I was really interested in the artist David Hockney. He has a great series of colored pencil drawings: beautiful, soft, with just the right moments of punchy color. Amazing work. I thought color pencil would be a good fit for this story because it's all about dirt and I wanted it to have some color, not just look like muddy dirt. I thought, "I'm going to look at this Hockney work and see what he was doing and why I like it so much."

But I thought I would end up copying things that I don't understand. He's at the end of some journey that he's taken. I don't know what he's thinking, what he's solving, what he's avoiding. I have my memory of it. I can say, "That impression is mine and mine alone. I didn't steal that. Let me remember and go back to see about the picture in my head."

Then, sure enough, it doesn't look anything like David Hockney!

With books or artists that I like, I just get that small inspiration from it and then it is deliberate that I leave it alone. Your memories are much more useful than anything you could try to dissect from the work.

We appreciate the time you spent with us, Jon. We wish you well on your journey with your art and your writing.

Thank you! That means a lot that you guys honor this stuff.

For more on Jon Klassen:

Interview with Jon Klassen and Mac Barnett Interview with Jon Klasssen: A Return Visit

I Want My Hat Back. © 2011 by Jon Klassen. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

This Is Not My Hat. © 2012 by Jon Klassen. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

Sam and Dave Dig a Hole. Text © 2014 by Mac Barnett. Illustrations © 2014 by Jon Klassen. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA.

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An Interview with Jon Klassen - Art of the Picture Book

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October 17, 2014 We interviewed Jon Klassen, New York Times best selling illustrator and author of children's books, including the 2013 Caldecott Medal winner, This Is Not My Hat , and I Want My Hat Back, New York Times Best Illustrated Book of 2011 and 2010 Ca

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Who's this? A little flapjack octopus. You may almost have missed him. You see, he's not the type to stand out in a crowd. Unless you were looking for him, you might not spot him at all... He's one of the shy ones.
This beautifully delicate picture book explores the topic of shyness and friendship. Stunningly illustrated by bestselling creator Simona Ciraolo, this book is sure to resonate with young children across the world, particularly those who are just starting school.

Weight

0.45 kg

Dimensions

29.5 × 21 cm

Pages

32pp

Format

Hardback

ISBN

9781912497355

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Skip to content Who's this? A little flapjack octopus. You may almost have missed him. You see, he's not the type to stand out in a crowd. Unless you were looking for him, you might not spot him at all... He's one of the shy ones.

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Nobrow Press - One Day on our Blue Planet... In the Rainforest

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ABSTRACT
Shy children can present challenges for teachers aiming at inclusive classrooms. Their educational attainments can be lower than their peers, they may have difficulties in adjustment to school and they can be at risk of meeting clinical criteria for social anxiety disorder. One recurrent finding is that they are often quiet across a range of school situations. The study reported here focused on teachers' strategies to engage shy students in frequently occurring oral activities, such as group work, in elementary school classrooms. Data were gathered through post-observation stimulated-recall interviews with eight teachers who had experience of success with shy students and three focus groups with 11 similarly experienced teachers. The analysis examined teachers' actions with these children to enhance their visible engagement in activities that require oral participation. The findings suggest that although teachers attended to the psychosocial aspects of student engagement, there was little emphasis on the pedagogic purposes of oral activities with these children. We conclude that more attention should be paid to the academic aspects of oral activities when aiming at inclusion for shy children.

Introduction and background

Inclusive classrooms

In common with many other countries, Norway aims at offering inclusive learning environments for its school students. Inclusion through adapted education is a fundamental educational principle and enshrined in law (Ministry of Education and Research ; Nilsen, ). This principle applies to all students, as well as those with recognised special needs. Our focus in this article is adaptations that are made to accommodate the needs of shy students in oral activities. These children have quite specific needs if they are to engage in classroom life and require adaptive pedagogies, but do not necessarily meet the threshold for designated special needs and the additional support that might bring. Furthermore, the quietness and reluctance to contribute in class that characterises many shy students may go unnoticed by teachers.

That shy children with withdrawn and quiet behaviour are at risk of falling behind is unsurprising given the considerable importance accorded oral activities in current pedagogies, whether whole class discussions, group work, paired tasks or oral presentations. The finding, therefore, points to the need to understand more about how shy children are helped to engage in these crucial activities. In this article, we focus on how teachers work with children who exhibit shy behaviours, in order to ensure that their behaviours in oral activities do not impede their progress. Although shyness is not a designated special need it does imply both psychosocial and academic difficulties. Drawing on a study of how teachers work with shy children in Norwegian elementary schools, we offer an analysis of teachers' perceptions of the problems that shy children encounter in relation to oral activities, how they respond professionally to these problems and the implications of their responses.

Shyness

We can distinguish between shyness as a transitory response to specific circumstances and as a disposition, a tendency to respond in particular ways to a class of recurring situations. In both senses, it is associated with quietness, reluctance to speak up and to volunteer answers to questions or contributions to discussions. Reticence is accompanied by self-consciousness and feelings of anxiety. A substantial body of research that has assessed dispositional shyness in a number of ways - observational methods, teacher and parent ratings and questionnaires, and students' questionnaires, reports that shy students tend to have academic and social difficulties in school (Kalutskaya et al. ).

Another research approach has been to question teachers about their pedagogic strategies for dealing with shy and quiet students. Thijs, Koomen, and Van der Leij () found that kindergarten teachers reported using socio-support strategies with shy children more than they did with average and hyperactive children. These strategies, formulated by the researchers, included 'trying to make the child feel safe' (p. 639), structuring class activities so that the child does not have to be alone, and encouraging him or her to play with other children. Coplan et al. () examined elementary-school teachers' reports of the likelihood of using a preselected set of strategies for hypothetical shy, quiet children as described in vignettes. In comparison with average or typical children, there was greater likelihood of using social learning strategies (verbal encouragement and praise, concrete reinforcement and modelling behaviour) and peer-focused strategies such as involving classmates and encouraging joint activities outside the classroom. In another study based on vignettes and hypothetical students, Deng et al. () included social learning strategies items in a broader study of pre-service elementary school teachers. Items referred to promotion of social skills; involving a classmate in problem solving; praising the student for appropriate behaviours; encouraging the student to join activities. Participants reported greater likelihood of using these approaches with shy students than with average and exuberant students. Conversely, participants were less likely to use 'high-powered' (punishment, direct intervention) strategies with shy students. Bosacki, Rose-Krasnor, and Coplan () applied qualitative methodology, conducting guided conversational semi-structured interviews with five elementary-school teachers. The interviewees referred to encouragement of collaboration with peers but there was greater emphasis relative to quantitative studies on understanding the reasons for the child's quietness, teachers' sensitivity, and issues of trust and emotional comfort.

These studies show that teachers claim to adapt their pedagogic strategies to the needs of shy and quiet children and that strategies are not only directed at the encouragement of contributions but also at offering socio-emotional support for the student and creating a 'safe' environment, one where shy students can feel comfortable about responses to their contributions, an 'emotional comfort level within the classroom' (Bosacki, Rose-Krasnor, and Coplan , 258). The assumption here is that the students' reticence is due to inhibition brought about by their fear of being negatively by others (Crozier ).

The research just outlined has limitations. It tends to identify generalised strategies through data reduction methods, to present researcher-generated pedagogic strategies to participants, and to employ vignettes with hypothetical students rather than studies of individual teacher-student interactions. In consequence, studies can be divorced from actual classroom practice. The research we report drew upon interviews and focus groups with classroom teachers discussing their experiences with individual students over time in order to elicit their strategies for enabling the oral participation of shy children and to consider in-depth the nature of the strategies that they describe.

Oral activity and learning

Concluding their 2006 systematic review of research on including children with special educational needs in mainstream classrooms, Nind and Wearmouth recommended that teachers focus on peer group interactions and 'a common concern with participation in a learning community' (p. 122). We suggest that for some students it is this kind of participation that is most challenging and makes demands on the adaptations teachers need to make.

It is recognised that classroom talk not only indicates learners' current understandings, so aiding formative and summative assessment, it can also enable the development of these understandings. But not all talk is equally useful in enhancing cognitive development. Barnes, whose seminal work (Barnes /) has been so influential in this regard, emphasised exploratory talk as key to student engagement as learners. Building on Barnes' analyses, Mercer has developed an account of a 'social mode of thinking' (Mercer ), which, he argues, strengthens learners' reasoning capacities. He connects these analyses with Vygotsky's concerns with learning through engagement with others in the intermental plane as a step towards the consolidation of personal understanding in Vygotsky's intramental plane (Vygotsky ; Wegerif, Mercer, and Dawes ).

Nonetheless, opportunities to talk or to think aloud are necessary if cognition is to be enhanced in classroom settings. Claxton, for example, makes a compelling case for classroom environments where making mistakes is not only permissible, but desirable, enabled by teachers who create 'potentiating milieux', where 'there are plenty of hard, interesting things to do, and it is accepted as normal that everyone regularly gets confused, frustrated and stuck' (Claxton , 125). Oral activities that are cognitively productive make demands on both teachers and students.

Although current pedagogic attention mainly focuses on student-student, or teacher-student interactions, Barnes also discussed presentational talk as part of classroom life (Barnes [] ). In this kind of talk, students present final drafts to others and need to tailor the content, language and mode of presentation to the audience. Such public performances are very obviously likely to cause anxiety in shy students, calling for pedagogic adjustments to be made, and indeed teachers are aware of the difficulties faced by shy children in this activity (Mjelve and Nyborg ). However, we suggest that the more private interactions are also challenging. Talking, even in the relatively safe space of group work, implies being visible to others, being the centre of attention if only briefly, dealing with unpredictability and putting oneself on the spot - all dimensions that are at the core of shy students' difficulties (Crozier ).

The research questions

Our approach, therefore, allows us to recognise differences in how shyness is interpreted and variation in the school and classroom contexts in which strategies are adopted and refined. In the current analyses, we focus on one aspect of what teachers do: how they engage shy children in oral activities in ways that reduce the anxiety that can inhibit the children's involvement. We, therefore, address the following research questions while drawing on interviews with teachers who have experience of successful work with shy students:

1. What problems do teachers identify concerning shy children's oral activity at school?

2. What actions do teachers take to address these problems?

3. What do these actions tell us about the learning opportunities for shy children in tasks that demand oral contributions?

The study

Sampling

The interview study discussed here occurred in the first year of a five-year national examination of the strategies elementary school teachers employ when working with shy children. The interview data have informed a national survey of teachers' strategies with shy children, which is currently being analysed. We, therefore, employed purposive sampling (Patton ) in order to recruit teacher informants known for their successful experience of working with shy children. These participants were recommended by professionals such as the Educational Psychological Counseling Service; higher education colleagues who worked with teachers; and elementary school principals. It was intended that the interviews would reveal the actions teachers took to encourage shy students' opportunities for learning in tasks that demanded oral contributions.

The teachers, from different elementary schools and regions, comprised two sub-samples (see Table 1). The first ( n = 8) were currently working with a shy child. These participants were interviewed individually, after we observed them interacting with the shy child in a whole-class teaching session, using stimulated recall (Dempsey ). The second group ( n = 11) had recent experience of teaching shy children, but were not currently doing so. This sub-sample engaged in one of three focus groups ( n = 4, 4, and 3). In Table 1 we have not indicated the year group these teachers were currently teaching as they were recalling experiences over previous years.

Teachers' strategies for enhancing shy children's engagement in oral activities: necessary, but insufficient?

The two types of interviews allowed us to draw on a range of viewpoints, and not limit the sample to those teachers who were currently working with a shy child. They also meant that we could connect individual responses with those that arose in the focus group discussions, as ideas arising in the individual interviews were used to prompt discussions in the focus groups and were evaluated and elaborated in these discussions.

Data collection

The data were collected through two types of interview: post-observation stimulated recall interviews and focus group sessions.

The observations used to stimulate recall involved the first and second authors in observing for one two-hour period in a teacher's class. The teachers had been asked to teach English, maths, Norwegian or social studies in the way they regularly do. These subjects were selected because they are likely to involve a range of teaching strategies from whole-class interactions through paired work, all of which involve children's oral activities. The classrooms were all set out to enable whole class engagement, small group and paired work; while during peer on peer interactions the teachers were all mobile, walking around the classrooms to monitor and support students.

During the observations, one researcher focused on teacher actions using field notes, the other made iPad video recordings of the targeted shy child and occurrences around them. Field notes captured teachers' approaches that appeared to offer positive support for the shy children and documented situations where the class took part in activities that demanded the shy students' involvement in oral participation. The video recordings were in intervals of one-minute filming and one minute off, generating 40-45 min of recorded observations in each session.

The stimulated recall interviews were based around the video clips and field notes and tailored to each teacher. They took place in school within a week of the observations and focused on the teacher's observed actions in the class and their rationales for them. The observations were not used for any other purpose and were seen only by the teacher and the research team. The interviews were conducted by the two first authors, one led the interview and the other took notes. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed and lasted between 47 and 82 min, producing a total of 503 min of interview data.

Focus group sessions were held at the university and were led by the same two researchers. One researcher led the interview, the other took notes, and added questions if there remained lines to be followed up. The sessions employed prompts from a semi-structured interview guide concentrating on teachers' actions in classrooms and allowed probing of themes emerging from the individual interviews. As each session continued interactions became increasingly conversational with teachers responding to each others' examples to provide rich data on professional diagnoses and responses. The sessions were audiotaped and transcribed and lasted between 78 and 91 min producing a total of 260 min of interview data. The interviews were all conducted in Norwegian and translated into English.

Data analyses

The analyses presented here are based upon the interview and focus group data. The focus on how students' oral activity was enabled, in a process that was both inductive and deductive, drawing on the research we have discussed with a sensitivity to what the data were telling us. All the interviews were translated into English before the analyses occurred.

The first step was to identify teaching activities in the classrooms where either oral exchanges between the teachers and the shy students or between the shy students and other students, were the primary focus. Watching a movie or an individual writing task was thus not relevant. Our reading of the literature on oral activities outlined earlier together with the field notes and iPad video recordings identified five potential learning situations involving oral activities: answering questions in class, giving presentations, working in groups, working in learning pairs, and teacher-student dialogues. They were not all evident in every observed lesson, but were explored with all of the teachers in the individual interviews and served as prompts in the focus group sessions.

With these five situations as broad guides, the transcripts of the individual interviews and the focus groups were examined to identify extracts of teacher talk about their strategies with shy children in relation to oral activities that enabled us to address the research questions. At the same time, we remained alert to the possibility that other learning situations involving oral activity might emerge in the data.

These analytic steps were undertaken individually by the two first authors and the emergent findings were discussed with the whole team. Consequently, the processes of reviewing, naming and renaming the categorisations followed a hermeneutic iteration between the whole and the parts (Kvale et al. ) and between the data and the theoretical framing of the study.

Validity, reliability and ethics

Recruitment of participants was in accordance with the requirements of the Norwegian Centre for Research Data. All participants signed standard informed consent forms and the interview data were anonymised after data collection. We reiterate that the video recordings were watched only by the research team and the relevant class teacher. Procedures were cleared by the university's ethics committee. Having two researchers involved in data collection strengthened the reliability of the data; while the research design, using observations and interviews, contributed to maximising trustworthiness (Hays and Wood ). There were also some member checking with the teachers who were interviewed individually, as they could confirm and elaborate on the observations during the interviews. Further, to ensure internal validity in relation to analyses, the research group (four researchers from three different countries) collaborated closely throughout all the stages in the research process, from reviewing relevant literature for the research questions to discussions and elaborations of the analysis and findings, as recommended by Kvale et al. ().

Findings

The detailed analysis confirmed the identification of the five areas of activity as the most salient. In discussing teachers' strategies in each of these areas we address the research questions:

1. What problems do teachers identify concerning shy children's oral activity at school?

2. What actions do teachers take to address these problems?

3. What do these actions tell us about the learning opportunities for shy children in tasks that demand oral contributions?

Answering questions in class

The problems identified here were captured by this teacher's comment: 'If you (the shy student) say something wrong, it gets noticed, she (shy student) is very sensitive about it, not everyone cares, but she thinks about this'. However, the difficulty was not limited only to fear of being wrong; here is another teacher: 'To ask someone in class, it can almost be a question concerning what you did during the vacation, they (shy students) don't raise their hands'. The teachers agreed that the fear of having the other students listen and their possibly making a mistake could lead to their silence in such settings.

The teachers also agreed, nonetheless, that oral contributions during whole-class discussions were important. There was, however, little evidence of encouraging exploratory talk in their responses to the challenge of shyness; instead, the focus was on the reduction of anxiety. For some teachers preparation was the strategy: 'I would tell her [the question] the day before so that she could practice on something she could be 100% sure that she knew'. Another approach was nonverbal signs: 'My student found verbal attention hard because she did not want everyone to turn and look at her. Movements or gestures we could use that were not verbal and that no one would notice, were the best'. The argument was that nonverbal signals, private to the teacher and the student, reduced pressure on the student making it easier for her to talk in class. Another example related to feedback: 'I never say "excellent" to these students of mine (the shy students), but I often wink and they respond with a discreet smile. Then they have received acknowledgement that what they did was good'.

This area of activity and teachers' strategies reflect Barnes' concern with presentational talk rather than exploratory talk. By focusing on anxiety reduction with shy children the teachers were encouraging engagement but were not consistently focusing on enabling deeper understanding of the concepts being taught.

Giving presentations

Giving presentations to the whole class was more clearly related to Barnes' presentational talk. Presentations were regarded as an important part of school life and it was expected shy students should be able to do this to some extent. The teachers were aware of the anxiety these could cause shy learners both before and during presentations: 'They can suffer from anxiety prior to a presentation'. And from another teacher: 'She just stands there and can't say a word. The other students are trying to help her, but it is just as if she blocks out the world, just standing there, staring at a point far away'. Another commented: 'Standing in front of the group, not being able to handle it is obviously quite tough'.

In supporting shy students with the demands of presentations teachers focused on careful calibration of the demand. Strategies included individual goal setting so that students' capability and confidence grew over time:

Everything you (the students) do in school concerns the matter of gradually increasing the level of difficulty, like a stair. "You manage this now so next time you can manage this (to student)". It is all about the steps not being too big, because if the steps are too big, it stops.

Another talked of limiting expectations to begin with: 'Presentations can start with them (shy students) coming up in front of the blackboard saying "the color is this", you have to be sure that they can handle it, don't make too high demands'. Another approach was reducing pressure by limiting the audience so that they started by presenting to small groups:

It is about practice. If you have done something once, and that turned out pretty well, it becomes easier the next time, and perhaps you dare giving your presentation to 10 instead of 5 and you realize that it went okay.

Reducing the demand also involved paired presentations:

I approach the children whom I know are extra scared, and make a plan for the two of them, like "Now, Ola is going to say that and Kari say that, and you practice this", then they know exactly what to say.

All of these strategies aimed at reducing anxiety over time.

Presentations can be challenging for all students for different reasons and the teachers were generally aiming at all children feeling safe by employing ground rules, that reflect Claxton's () potentiating milieux:

It's a very safe environment in terms of holding presentations, no one laughs, and nobody gives you bad feedback, it is more "okay, you did really well. If I had one wish regarding what you could have done differently (to student)", that would be it.

The efforts made by the teachers with the shy children were ensuring that they could eventually engage alongside their peers in what was regarded as a highly valued classroom activity in Norwegian schools. Their adaptations were thoughtful, with the aim of including these children in activities that will be important throughout their school lives.

Working in groups

The teachers recognised that, as the literature suggests, working in groups could be challenging for shy students. One explained: 'When they are working in groups, even though it's only a small group, she (shy student) needs to be very confident in everyone present before she dares to speak out'. Finding a voice in group work was not related to ability: 'Group assignments can often be difficult. Especially if you (shy student) are a high achiever and you know that you could have done it differently, but you struggle to express what you mean is the best way'.

The teachers aimed at encouraging oral contributions, without focusing on what kind of contribution. Consequently, one strategy was to consider group composition for anxiety reduction: 'I have a feeling at least, that she (shy student) found it okay when she was in a group where she felt safe. It was easier to collaborate'. Working in same sex groups was also used as a strategy: 'she (shy student) is very aware of everything that can make her stand out and be different, but she works well with most of the girls'.

A less common strategy focused on building the self-confidence of the shy student to encourage their participation in a group. There was an example of building on a student's strengths: 'She (shy student) has been living in the Philippines and they speak good English, so during the English lessons we used her a lot and then she was looked upon as a very strong English student'. A few teachers also discussed how imaginary situations can create conducive environments for shy children. In one case a teacher explained how she used the strategy: 'It is a kind of playful storyline and then it is easier to get engaged in the group. In this setting, she (shy student) would speak much more than she normally does during the lessons'. This example nicely points to how moving the spotlight from the child to the joint task can be helpful.

The last comment suggests that it is worth reflecting on whether focusing on if the learner feels safe and is contributing to group work over-emphasises the person; whereas a focus on the task and ways of challenging interpretations and responses to the task might be advantageous. Here instead of a deficit interpretation of shyness, we should perhaps question the normative expectations of group processes that are concerned with making a contribution and also consider the pedagogic purposes of different group activities. It was marked that safety and talking dominated teachers' concerns; with little or no attention to the quality of the interactions, the encouragement of exploratory talk or the value of being tentative or making mistakes.

Working in learning pairs

All the teachers used learning pairs working on joint tasks as a general strategy. However, they acknowledged that these collaborations could be challenging for shy students. While finding the right partner for the child was a concern, the teachers also noted that the shy student's non-verbal language could be problematic:

I think a lot about how she sits in the classroom. She often pulls her knees towards her chest. She is closed, as if she is protecting herself with her body, and her look. She very often looks down or away from the person she is talking to.

This nonverbal behaviour can be rational for the shy student, but her fellow student is likely to interpret the behaviour as a rejection. The behaviour can, therefore, impede constructive collaboration in the learning pair. Other difficulties in the learning pairs were related to demands of the task itself. Again, with a focus on safety, a teacher argued that shy students needed to know what to discuss with the other student in advance: 'I believe she would feel safer working with it (the curriculum) on her own, and maybe together with a peer the next time'.

Unsurprisingly, a common strategy was to pair the shy child with the appropriate partner, again safety was a dominating concern: 'I normally seat her together with a person whom I believe she feels secure around, who is not fooling about too much, she tends to become a bit nervous if people fool about or tease'. As with group work, ease in same sex groupings was noted: 'She (shy student) is not very confident around the boys, and seldom sits next one of them'.

What stands out again here is the focus on the reduction of anxiety to enable the shy students' voices to be heard. Again, lacking in the discussion was attention to the kinds of cognitive challenge that can arise in such activities and its implications for student learning and the importance of exposing a shy child to that kind of challenge and the opportunity to stretch themselves through making mistakes and getting stuck.

Teacher -student interactions

The teachers talked of following up topics with the shy children to ensure that they did not fall behind, through not overtly engaging in other classroom interactions. They also recognised that these one-to-one conversations could place demands on shy students. Nonetheless, they believed it was important to persist: 'I have many students that are my responsibility, she (shy student) is a bit invisible'. They understood how important they were to their shy students 'She (shy student) is dependent on someone (the teacher) coming over and contacting her, then she might ask some questions. She feels as if she is not entitled to take my time in the classroom'. This teacher commented that this shy child did not want to be a burden; hence the teacher needed to be proactive.

These one-to-one exchanges could be incorporated into the general flow of classroom life so that the child was not put in the spotlight. Teachers discussed how they included the shy child in their movement around the class to check on students' engagement with tasks: 'It is important to be aware of the quiet, silent students, and keep them at the back of one's mind all the time and stop by them and ensure that they are keeping up'; and 'I approach her; she doesn't raise her hand when she needs help'. There was also sensitivity in how the approach was made:

I think about it when I sit down next to her instead of facing her. If I sit down facing her, I somehow feel that I capture her a bit and that she's not given the opportunity to avoid eye contact.

These conversations could also occur in more public arena and potentially cause discomfort. One teacher explained: 'We had to make a deal. I had to ask her "did you get what I just said" and she was supposed to nod, in order for her to show me that she understood'. Such deals could give predictability to interactions and also give the student the possibility to give a nonverbal response. Again teachers' strategies attend to the inclusion of the shy child in visible classroom activities through focusing on anxiety reduction and safety.

Discussion

The teachers participating in the study all had successful experience in including shy children in classroom life and were all sensitive to how shyness may impede student engagement in activities that required their oral contribution. This sensitivity was an important premise for the study. It allowed us to reveal the demands that these teachers recognised, which might not be apparent to all practitioners; and also enabled us to go in some depth into their strategies with shy students and their implications for the child as learner.

In response to the first research question: What problems do teachers identify concerning shy childreńs oral activity at school? our analyses show that shy students made psychosocial demands on teachers who were aiming at inclusive classrooms where all students shared ' a common concern with participation in a learning community' (Nind and Wearmouth , 122). We found that the teachers were first and foremost focusing on how oral activities could produce feelings of anxiety in these students. These feelings of unease could occur before, during, or after the potential interaction. The teachers were thus focusing on how psychosocial features both within and around the child can render the different oral activities difficult and potentially prevent shy children from being included in everyday classroom activities. Interestingly, these perceived psychosocial demands on teachers were present in some way across all five areas of activity and although the teachers described different situations, there was little distinction between the demands in each area of activity.

The second research question: What actions do teachers take to address these problems? took us to teachers' strategies with shy pupils. The teachers reported trying to help these students during oral activities by reducing potentially high levels of anxiety. The teachers were thus responding to their interpretations of the demands implied by the shy children and were acknowledging that shy students had psychosocial needs. This emphasis on attending to the psychosocial needs of shy children with appropriate support is found in other studies (Bosacki, Rose-Krasnor, and Coplan ; Coplan et al. ; Deng et al. ; Thijs, Koomen, and Van der Leij ). The teachers in the present study aimed at creating inclusive classrooms and were acknowledging that inclusion can comprise several dimensions (Nilsen ) including responding to psychosocial dimensions of students' engagement. They also involved other students in creating conducive environments for their shy peers, placing psychosocial demands on these pupils.

Some of the teacher strategies could be described as careful primary school practice. They included sensitivity in giving feedback and being mobile around the classroom, monitoring progress and helping faltering students. Research has shown the dangers of teachers being deskbound with long queues (West and Wheldall ). Similarly working alongside the child and getting physically to their level can help all children (Marsh ). However, some of the teachers' actions involved creating learning contexts that lacked challenge by giving students tasks they could easily accomplish or allowing them extra time for preparation.

The third research question: What do these actions tell us about the learning opportunities for shy children in tasks that demand oral contributions? considers the implications of teachers' actions for the learning opportunities for shy children in tasks that demand oral contributions. We discussed earlier the wealth of research that demonstrates the importance of working in groups and pairs as part of a learning process (Mercer , ; Mercer and Littleton ). Key to learning in these settings is the opportunity for exploratory talk and experiencing challenges to one's ideas. Our findings suggest, however, that the teachers' emphasis on shy students' visible inclusion in classroom processes meant that these students were not encouraged to experience an important element of exploration, what Claxton described as getting 'confused, frustrated and stuck' (Claxton , 125). The teachers' emphasis on helping these children succeed without anxiety meant that they were less likely to experience the cognitive challenge that accompanies uncertainty and exploration.

Conclusion

There is much to learn from this study of the strategies employed by experienced primary school teachers. The teachers were no doubt right in focusing on anxiety reduction through calibrated exposure and time to prepare in areas of activity, which involved speaking in the public arena of the whole class (the first two areas of activity). However, we suggest that strategies that focus solely on the psychosocial are necessary, but arguably need to be augmented by a concern with cognitive challenge if these students are to fully participate 'in a learning community' (Nind and Wearmouth , 122).

We saw that lowering the stakes by making an activity playful encouraged shy children's involvement and we suggested that de-centring the child to focus on the task was a worthwhile strategy. There was mention of a form of ground-rules in relation to giving presentations with the statement from a teacher It's a very safe environment in terms of holding presentations, no one laughs, and nobody gives you bad feedback ... ; but there was no evidence of ground-rules in relation to group or paired work, despite the importance of Mercer's work in this area (Mercer and Littleton ). We, therefore, cannot make judgments about the degree of cognitive challenge offered to the other students.

Shy children make demands that were recognised by these experienced teachers, but these demands were interpreted as almost entirely psychosocial and the teachers' responses were aimed at addressing those demands to achieve behavioural inclusion in classroom life. Our analyses suggest that more attention should be paid to the academic aspects of inclusion for these children.

The small-scale study has limitations. It cannot aim at external validity, though the survey it has informed will achieve that form of validity. Its focus is on teachers' descriptions of their strategies. The classroom observations served to facilitate the individual interviews but more systematic and in-depth observational research would have produced a richer data set. It would yield insight into the nature of teachers' interactions with shy students, in ways which would allow a detailed examination of their interpretations of students' needs over time and more contextualised understandings of their pedagogic decision-making and indeed whether the teachers offered more cognitive challenge to the other students. Such studies would, therefore, allow an examination of differences in general pedagogic approaches by teachers and in student learning styles. Importantly we have no data on changes in students' learning. As a consequence, we have drawn on research on oral activities and students' learning to indicate concerns about the nature of cognitive challenge experienced by the children in such activities. In doing so we have gone someway to explaining the evidence of academic underachievement among shy children outlined earlier. We, therefore, acknowledge that more work is needed to explore that connection.

Individual interviews (N =  8 teachers)

Focus groups (3 groups, N  = 11 teachers)
Teachers and years of experience (y)

Female/male teachers, grade

Experience

Group 1, 4 teachers:
Male, 10 + y; Male, 0-5 y; Female, 10+ y; Female, 5-10 y

Female, grade 6

10+ y

Group 2, 4 teachers:
Female, 5-10 y; Female, 0-5 y; Female, 10+ y; Male, 10+ y

Female, grade 2

0-5 y

Group 3, 3 teachers:
Female, 10+ y; Female, 10+ y; Female, 10+ y

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Research Council of Norway [grant number Project number 254982].

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Teachers' strategies for enhancing shy children's engagement in oral activities: necessary, but insufficient?

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ABSTRACT Shy children can present challenges for teachers aiming at inclusive classrooms. Their educational attainments can be lower than their peers, they may have difficulties in adjustment to school and they can be at risk of meeting clinical criteria for social anxiety disorder.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teachers' strategies for enhancing shy children's engagement in oral activities: necessary, but insufficient?

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Abstract

The expressions we see in the faces of others engage a number of different cognitive processes. Emotional expressions elicit rapid responses, which often imitate the emotion in the observed face. These effects can even occur for faces presented in such a way that the observer is not aware of them. We are also very good at explicitly recognizing and describing the emotion being expressed. A recent study, contrasting human and humanoid robot facial expressions, suggests that people can recognize the expressions made by the robot explicitly, but may not show the automatic, implicit response. The emotional expressions presented by faces are not simply reflexive, but also have a communicative component. For example, empathic expressions of pain are not simply a reflexive response to the sight of pain in another, since they are exaggerated when the empathizer knows he or she is being observed. It seems that we want people to know that we are empathic. Of especial importance among facial expressions are ostensive gestures such as the eyebrow flash, which indicate the intention to communicate. These gestures indicate, first, that the sender is to be trusted and, second, that any following signals are of importance to the receiver.

Keywords: emotion, face, awareness, communication

1. Multiple systems of emotion recognition

It has become increasingly apparent, initially from studies of neurological patients with circumscribed brain damage, that much, if not most, information processing occurs in the brain without any accompanying conscious experience. The final products of this information processing often become available to consciousness, but in many cases these unconscious processes can control behaviour without any need for awareness. The most dramatic example of this is blind sight ( Weiskrantz & Warrington 1975). In such cases, patients have damage to the primary visual cortex, which renders them blind in the associated part of the visual field. Nevertheless, if a stimulus is rapidly moved, for example, across this blind field, the patient is able to 'guess' the direction of this movement considerably better than chance. Another example is patient D.F. who, as a result of damage to the inferior temporal cortex, is also effectively blind, since she is unable to recognize objects from their shapes ( Goodale et al. 1991). In spite of this problem, when she reaches for an object, she shapes her hand to match the shape of the object. In her case, information about the shape of objects is available to achieve appropriate grasping behaviour, but does not enter consciousness.

Subsequent to these demonstrations, the same phenomena have been demonstrated in healthy volunteers. Behavioural studies have demonstrated that we are aware of far less of the visual world than we realize (e.g. change blindness, Rensink et al. 1997; inattentional blindness, Mack & Rock 1998). Furthermore, we make accurate reaching and grasping movements before we become aware of the stimuli that are eliciting these movements ( Castiello et al. 1991; Pisella et al. 2000) and can be influenced by the meanings of words that we are not aware of having seen ( Marcel 1983). Brain imaging studies have also confirmed that stimuli of which volunteers are unaware, nevertheless elicit activity in the brain (e.g. Beck et al. 2001), and that this activity can be observed up to and including those areas associated with the processing of meaning (e.g. Dehaene et al. 1998).

These results reveal that there are at least two processes through which sensory signals can be converted into behaviour: one is associated with consciousness while the other is not. These processes seem to occur in parallel, rather than the unconscious processing being the early stage of a route to consciousness. Different kinds of information seem to be extracted by the two routes. For example, when reaching and grasping I need information about the shape of the object I am planning to grasp, but this information requires an egocentric perspective. The precise nature of the reach and grasp depends on the precise spatial relationship between me and the object. By contrast, when I recognize an object from its shape I need information about the shape of the object that is independent of my current viewpoint, so that the object can be identified even from an unusual view ( Schenk 2006). Thus, these two perceptual routes seem to have different functions.

It is, of course, an oversimplification to suggest that there are just two independent routes to action. There are likely to be many routes and, furthermore, there will be interactions between these routes (e.g. Braddick et al. 2000). However, there remains the important distinction between those routes that lead to conscious awareness and those that do not ( Frith et al. 1999). The question as to why only some routes are associated with consciousness is a subject of great interest, but will not be addressed in any detail in this paper. Our intuition is that consciousness has a very important role in our behaviour, but it is surprisingly difficult to define precisely what this role might be. It is certainly not the case that processing which leads to consciousness is, in some sense, better than processing that does not lead to consciousness. Some tasks are better learned without awareness (e.g. Fletcher et al. 2005). Introspection about the sources of our behaviour can be very misleading (e.g. Johansson et al. 2005). In the social domain, as we shall see later in this essay, the same signal can have very different effects, depending on whether or not it reaches consciousness. The role of consciousness in our response to emotions is equally complex and poorly understood.

By contrast, the role of unconscious processes is perhaps slightly better understood. Unconscious routes to action seem to apply when responses need to be made with great rapidity. For example, the two routes are engaged by stimuli that induce fear ( LeDoux 2000). I will jump out of the way of the snake-like object in the path before I become aware that it is only a bent stick. In this case, there is a clear survival advantage for responding rapidly to a signal of danger, even when the signal has been incorrectly interpreted. In the rest of this paper, I shall be concerned with the use of various kinds of facial expressions as signals, which can also be processed with and without consciousness.

2. Emotional contagion: the covert imitation of facial expressions

Social interactions depend on complex signals in many modalities. For human interactions, however, spoken language plays such an important role that we often forget about the importance of non-verbal signals. Among these non-verbal signals, facial expressions have a major part in social interactions ( Adolphs 1999; but see de Gelder 2009). I shall first consider the facial signals that are processed without awareness. The sight of a human face expressing fear elicits fearful responses in the observer, as indexed by increases in autonomic markers of arousal ( Ohman & Soares 1998) and increased activity in the amygdala ( Morris et al. 1996). This effect occurs even when the observer is unaware of the expression on the face because it has been masked (see Pessoa (2005) for review). The process by which the sight of a fearful face elicits fear in the observer is an example of a more general effect known as mirroring or contagion, whereby an observer tends to covertly and unconsciously mimic the behaviour of the person being observed. This effect occurs for a whole range of behaviours: facial expressions ( Dimberg et al. 2000), limb movements ( Kilner et al. 2003), gestures ( Chartrand & Bargh 1999) and many aspects of speech ( Pickering & Garrod 2004). However, as will be discussed below, the magnitude of this automatic mimicry is modulated by a number of factors, including the social context and the relationship between the observed and the observer ( Bourgeois & Hess 2008).

There are many advantages of this mirroring behaviour. In the case of speech, the mirroring creates a greater alignment of the communicants, in terms of vocabulary and grammar, which facilitates communication. Experiments on the imitation of gestures during conversations show that the person imitated feels more friendly towards the other speaker and subsequently behaves in a more prosocial manner (e.g. is more likely to give money to a charity; Van Baaren et al. 2004).

However, these effects probably only occur when the person is unaware of the imitation ( Lakin & Chartrand 2003). This is an interesting case where the effect of signals seems to be very different, depending on whether or not they are consciously perceived.

Ideas about the advantages accruing from the unconscious imitation of facial expressions are more speculative. The sight of a fearful face is likely to be a cue that there is something to be afraid of and that the observer should therefore be vigilant. Furthermore, the facial expression of fear enhances vigilance: the widening of the eyes increases the size of the visual field, while the widening of the nostrils increases inspirational capacity and enhances the sense of smell ( Susskind et al. 2008). Thus, by imitating the expression of fear we increase our sensitivity to sensory signals and become more vigilant. By contrast, the expression of disgust is a cue that there is some noxious substance to be avoided. The facial expression of disgust has the opposite effect to that of fear. The eyes are narrowed, reducing the size of the visual field, and the nose is wrinkled, narrowing the nasal passages and reducing the exposure to smells. By imitating the expression of disgust, we reduce the impact of potential noxious stimuli.

A problem in need of further research concerns the mechanism by which people can covertly recognize facial expressions of emotion in masked faces that they are not aware of seeing ( Dimberg et al. 2000). There is some evidence that such recognition depends on subcortical pathways to the amygdala (via superior colliculus and pulvinar) that bypass the primary visual cortex ( Morris et al. 1999). This idea is supported by the demonstration that a patient (G.Y.) with severe damage to the left occipital cortex can, nevertheless, recognize (i.e. make better than chance guesses) emotional facial expressions in his blind visual field ( de Gelder et al. 1999). Further evidence for this speculation comes from studies of the role of different spatial frequencies in face recognition. Vuilleumier et al. (2003) showed that activity in the fusiform cortex was linked with facial identity with high spatial frequency presentation, while amygdala activity was linked with facial emotion with low spatial frequency presentation. Recognizing the expression of masked faces via a subcortical route may therefore depend on signals about the face carried by low spatial frequencies. One interesting possibility is that the critical sign of a fearful face is the area of white round the eye, which is greater when the eyes are opened wide. Whalen et al. (2004) showed that amygdala activity was elicited by masked fearful faces even when all information, but the eye whites, was removed. It remains to be shown how this sign can be so rapidly extracted from the visual signal in the absence of cortical processing.

It is not only facial expressions of emotion that are processed rapidly and without awareness. Gaze direction is another important facial cue when observing the behaviour of others. We are very sensitive to eye gaze direction and can discover the target of the gaze with great accuracy ( Anstis et al. 1969). This ability enables us to discover who or what people are looking at and may reveal their interests and intentions. Eye gaze direction has been used as a cue on covert attention tasks. In these tasks, volunteers must detect a target that appears briefly to the left or right of fixation. Prior to the presentation of the target, a central cue is presented, for example, an arrow pointing left or right. The reaction time to detect the target is modulated by this cue, being faster when the cue is congruent with the target location and slower when it is incongruent. Typically congruent cues are presented on 80 per cent of trials and incongruent cues on 20 per cent of trials. If a face with eyes gazing left or right is used as the cue, the same congruency effect is found ( Driver et al. 1999). Strikingly, however, this congruency effect occurs even if the eyes gaze consistently in the wrong direction. Bayliss et al. (2006) used a series of faces as cues in a covert attention task. The eye gaze direction in some faces was always congruent with the location of the following target, while other faces always looked in the incongruent direction. The effect of gaze on time to detect targets was unaffected by the identity of the faces. In other words, volunteers attended in the direction indicated by the eye gaze, even for the faces of individuals who consistently looked in the wrong direction. This result suggests that our tendency to follow the gaze direction of others is automatic and difficult to suppress. On the other hand, volunteers did learn something about the individuals. The faces that consistently gave invalid cues were rated as less trustworthy.

3. Explicit recognition of expressions

In parallel with the unconscious face processing route there is a conscious route, which is engaged, for example, when volunteers are explicitly asked to identify facial identities or facial expressions. Evidence that these two routes are indeed parallel comes from the study of patients who have acquired the inability to recognize faces (prosopagnosia) as the result of brain injury, usually to the right temporal lobe ( Calder & Young 2005). Such patients also usually have difficulty in identifying facial expressions. However, there is evidence that these patients still show covert recognition of faces. For example, Tranel & Damasio (1988) describe four patients with prosopagnosia resulting from occipito-temporal lesions, who all showed covert recognition in terms of larger skin conductance responses (SCRs) for familiar faces. In other words, although they were unable to identify familiar faces, presentation of these faces elicited an emotional response. Further evidence for the two routes comes from patients with Capgras syndrome. This syndrome can occur both in psychiatric conditions and as a result of structural brain damage. Capgras patients are able to identify a familiar person's face. However, they believe that highly familiar people have been replaced by impostors, doubles or aliens, and they often hold this belief with extreme conviction ( Ellis & Lewis 2001). Ellis & Young (1990) suggested that Capgras syndrome is the result of damage to an affective route to face recognition and is thus the mirror image of prosopagnosia. They recognize the face of a familiar person but do not experience the emotional response that normally accompanies such recognition. As a result, the face does not 'feel' right. In agreement with this idea, it has been shown that Capgras patients do not show enhanced SCR responses to familiar faces ( Ellis et al. 1997).

My colleagues, led by Thierry Chaminade, have recently completed an imaging study in which volunteers were shown a variety of dynamic facial expressions displayed by a person or by a robot (humanoid robot WE-4RII; Takanishi Laboratory). This robot incorporates a simplified version of the facial action units identified by Ekman & Friesen (1978) and can display anger, joy and disgust. Our volunteers had no difficulty in recognizing the expressions made by the robot. The neural activity elicited by the facial expressions of this robot remains to be determined. An interesting possibility is that activity in areas such as the amygdala, which are associated with emotional responses, will not be elicited by robots. Such a pattern of responses would have obvious parallels with the case of Capgras syndrome discussed above. Here the patient sees a human face and recognizes identities and expressions, but feels no emotional resonance. In many cases, the patient believes that the person in question has been replaced by a robot ( Ellis & Lewis 2001). It may turn out that the phenomenology described by the patient is correct in the sense that the experience is indeed like that elicited by observing a robot.

This speculation suggests that the observation of robots may not automatically elicit the contagious mimicry that occurs when we observe other people. There is some evidence in favour of this speculation. As mentioned above, Kilner et al. (2003) showed that observation of another person's incompatible movements interfered with the subject's own movements. However, this interference did not occur when the incompatible movements were made by a robot arm. On the other hand, there is evidence that automatic alignment increases when we interact with artificial agents, just as it does when we interact with people. Oviatt et al. (2004) showed that children's speech reliably and flexibly converged in terms of a number of acoustic and prosodic features with the speech of the artificial agent they were conversing with. In this case the convergence might have been promoted by the need to interact with the agent rather than simply observing it. As we shall see in the next section, the contagious effects of observation are considerably enhanced when we are in social contact with the person we are observing (e.g. Kilner et al. 2006).

4. Emotions as communicative signals

So far I have presented facial expressions as an example of public information ( Danchin et al. 2004). Public information is a cue inadvertently produced by the behaviour of one animal that is useful to another animal. Many animals take advantage of such cues. Starlings, for example, locate likely sources of food by observing the foraging success of other members of the flock ( Templeton & Giraldeau 1995). Facial expressions are another example of public information. Such expressions are also cues that are produced inadvertently and can be useful to observers. The appearance of an expression of fear is a signal to be vigilant since there may be something dangerous nearby. However, once emotional expressions become signals of value to observers, then it also becomes possible for these signals to be used deliberately as acts of communication ( Parkinson 2005). The key characteristic of these communicative signals is that the communicator is aware that she is sending a signal and is also aware that her signal is being observed. As a result, the presence of an audience can alter the intensity of emotional expressions. An experiment by Bavelas et al. (1986) provides one of a number of examples of this effect. A volunteer sat in a waiting room unaware that she was being filmed. Two actors enter the room carrying a heavy object that is then dropped, apparently injuring one of the actors. The observing volunteer mimics the expression of pain shown by the injured actor. This is a typical 'mirror' response. However, the pained expression in the observer is greatly intensified if the actor is in eye contact with the observer. The pained expression shown by the observer is now a communicative act, signalling 'I recognize your pain and I sympathize' and/or 'I am a caring person'.

So far I have talked about situations in which one person responds to the facial expression of another, i.e. the observer responds to the expression of the actor. This is an example of open-loop behaviour. However, communications are more typically two-way interactions. In a two-way interaction, after the observer has responded to the expression of the actor, the actor then responds to the changed expression of the observer, thereby closing the loop. An example of an interactive sequence of emotions in which the communication loop is closed comes from an analysis of the expression of embarrassment by Keltner & Buswell (1997). Embarrassment is a complex emotion, which, like guilt and shame, is concerned with reputation in the eyes of others. In particular, Keltner and Buswell suggest that embarrassment can be seen as an act of appeasement, whereby a loss of reputation can be mitigated. The interactive sequence could be described as follows. The actor commits a social faux pas. This elicits surprise and anger in the observers, communicating their disapproval. The actor expresses embarrassment, communicating that he is ashamed, apologetic and unhappy. This appeases the observers, who express compassion communicating forgiveness. This elicits happiness in the actor, indicating that he recognizes that he has been forgiven.

These deliberate emotional signals can also be deliberately deceptive. The person who signals embarrassment in order to appease observers may not actually feel the emotion.

5. Ostensive signals

If the same cue can be produced inadvertently or as a deliberate signal, then it is important to be able to distinguish between such causes of cues. Inadvertent signals are less likely to be deceptive, while deliberate signals may require an answer. In many situations, a special cue (an ostensive signal) is produced to indicate that the signalling is deliberate. The production of an ostensive signal indicates two things: first, that the person wishes to initiate communication, and second that the signal which follows will be relevant to the interests of the receiver ( Sperber & Wilson 1995).

The most direct way of initiating a communication is to call someone's name. However, facial gestures are also used such as making eye contact, often accompanied by a brief raising of the eyebrows (the eyebrow flash; Eibl-Eibesfeldt 1972). Kampe et al. (2003) scanned volunteers while they received ostensive signals either in the auditory modality (their name) or in the visual modality (prolonged eye contact). Activity common to both types of signal was observed in the medial prefrontal cortex and temporal poles. These are the regions that are frequently activated when subjects have to think about mental states ( Mitchell et al. 2005; Frith & Frith 2006). Making inferences about the mental states of the other is a key requirement for communicative interactions, because these are essentially about transferring knowledge and beliefs from one mind to another. The results of Kampe et al. suggest that the ostensive signal causes the receiver to prepare for mentalizing.

An ostensive signal indicates that the signals which follow are deliberately communicative and will provide useful and relevant information to the observer. Belief in this promise is nicely demonstrated in the behaviour of infants in a study by Senju & Csibra (2008). In this experiment, the infants, aged six months, observed an adult who directed her gaze towards an object on the left or an object on the right. The experimenters tested whether or not the infant would follow the gaze of the adult. The results clearly showed that the infants followed the gaze only when it had been preceded by an ostensive signal: eye contact with eyebrow flash or infant-directed speech (motherese). The implication is that they understand that these ostensive signals indicate the eye gaze that follows is intended to point at something of interest.

What is the origin of these ostensive signals? Calling someone's name is a straightforward way of attracting someone's attention, but why should the eyebrow flash have acquired this role? Watt et al. (2007) have shown that raising the eyebrows, as happens with the eyebrow flash, increases the distance at which it is possible for an observer to detect gaze direction. Watt et al. suggest this means that the eyebrow flash allows the observer to be more easily able to see that the actor is making eye contact. I speculate that the eyebrow flash may also be a signal of relevance.

There is good agreement among observers that some people's faces look more trustworthy than others (e.g. Winston et al. 2002; Todorov et al. 2008), although there is no evidence that these judgements have any validity. Todorov et al. have identified four facial features that drive the perception of trustworthiness. One of these is the height of the inner eyebrow. Faces with high inner eyebrows look trustworthy. Those with low inner eyebrows look untrustworthy. These differences can be interpreted on the basis of the results of Watt et al. Trustworthy people have raised eyebrows so that observers can see where they are looking. Untrustworthy people have lowered eyebrows so that observers have more difficulty in seeing where they are looking. Given these observations, we can interpret the eyebrow flash as a signal that the sender is to be trusted. Raised eyebrows enable eye gaze direction to be seen more easily, thereby helping to reveal the intentions of the sender. As an ostensive gesture, the eyebrow signals that the message which follows will be relevant and true.

6. Conclusions

The study of facial expressions illustrates very nicely how a behaviour can evolve into a sophisticated communication system. At first, the facial expression of fear has direct behavioural advantages for the actor, since widening the eyes for example, increases the visual field, thereby increasing the likelihood of detecting signals of danger. This expression then becomes public information that observers can use as a signal to be vigilant. In the next step, the actor becomes able to control the sending of a signal that was previously emitted inadvertently. Through such control he can express sorrow and embarrassment as a means of appeasing aggression in others. Finally, both the actor and the receiver become aware that they are exchanging signals and that these can be used for deliberate communication. At this stage, the signals need no longer be tied to their original behavioural function. They can be arbitrarily related to meaning, making the development of language possible.

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Danish National Research Foundation and the AHRC CNCC scheme AH/E511112/1.

References

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Role of facial expressions in social interactions

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The expressions we see in the faces of others engage a number of different cognitive processes. Emotional expressions elicit rapid responses, which often imitate the emotion in the observed face. These effects can even occur for faces presented in such ...

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juvenile fiction people & places general

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juvenile fiction health & daily living general

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Get this from a library! I am human : a book of empathy. [Susan Verde; Peter H Reynolds] -- A child recognizes his own humanity, his capacity for doing harm and being harmed, his ability to feel joy and sadness, and his belief in hope and promise to keep learning.

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Description

John Newbery was one of the earliest publishers to produce books expressly written for the entertainment of children. The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is one of the most important children's books of the 18th century, being perhaps the first really successful children's novel. It tells the story of two orphans, (Margery Meanwell and her brother Tommy) and their escape from the poverty into which the death of their parents has cast them. Dressed in rags and having only one shoe, Margery is given two shoes by a charitable gentleman. Through hard work she becomes a schoolmistress, before making a good impression on the local landowner and marrying him. She inherits his wealth when she is widowed, although in fact her brother had returned from overseas with a fortune just in time for her wedding, providing Margery with a dowry. Margery's wealth enables her to help the poor just as she herself had been helped. She remains adamant that money is to be used for the good of others less fortunate than oneself, not for personal benefit.

Despite the obvious moral dimension, with many lessons about the usefulness of moral virtues such as education, honesty and rationality, Goody Two-Shoes was clearly written to entertain. On the title page Newbery, with characteristic humour, jokes: 'See the Original Manuscript in the Vatican at Rome, and the Cuts [i.e. woodcuts] by Michael Angelo'. The book was popular well into the 19th century, and the writer Charles Lamb remembered it with great fondness.

It has been suggested that the text was by Oliver Goldsmith, author of The Vicar of Wakefield and one of Newbery's writers, but there is no decisive evidence to confirm or refute this.

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John Newbery was one of the earliest publishers to produce books expressly written for the entertainment of children. The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes is one of the most important children's books of the 18th century, being perhaps the first really successful children's novel.

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[CHILDREN'S]. The History of Little Goody Twoshoes; otherwise called Mrs. Margery TwoshoesThe First Worcester Edition. Worcester, Mass.: by Isaiah Thomas, 1787. 32o (97 x 64 mm). Engraved woodcut frontispiece and 35 woodcuts in the text based on designs from the original Newbery version; advertisement leaf for other Thomas publications at end. Early 19th-century silver (remainder?) wrappers (a little chipping to spine, front wrapper with lower fore-corner chipped); morocco slipcase. Provenance: pencil ownership inscription on front free endpaper dated 1827; bookseller George M. Millard, Pasadena (catalogue description laid in); Estelle Doheny (her sale, part V, 21 February 1989, lot 1975). EARLIEST AVAILABLE EDITION. Previously thought to be the first American edition, the Isaiah Thomas Worcester edition was preceded by the New York (Hugh Gaine) 1775, the Boston 1783, and the Philadelphia 1786 editions-known in only a handful of copies, and most incomplete. "Much has been written as to the authorship of Little Goody Two Shoes, and it is now usually attributed to Oliver Goldsmith" (Rosenbach). Evans 20412; Gumuchian 2753 (paired with the London 1767 fourth edition); Rosenbach 118; Welch 463.4. [With:] The Tragi-Comic History of the Burial of Cock Robin Philadelphia: S. Probasco for Benjamin Warner, 1821. Square 8o (127 x 97 mm). 8 engraved plates (frontispiece and last pasted to covers). (Text browned, chip on half-title along fore-edge.) Contemporary orange stiff (remainder?) wrappers; morocco slipcase. Second American edition. Rosenbach 616. (2)

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[CHILDREN'S]. The History of Little Goody Twoshoes; otherwise called Mrs. Margery TwoshoesThe First Worcester Edition. Worcester, Mass.: by Isaiah Thomas, 1787.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
CHILDREN'S]. The History of Little Goody Twoshoes; otherwise called Mrs. Margery TwoshoesThe First Worcester Edition. Worcester, Mass.: by Isaiah Thomas, 1787. 32o (97 x 64 mm). Engraved woodcut frontispiece and 35 woodcuts in the text based on designs from the original Newbery version; advertisement leaf for other Thomas publications at end.

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The term "goody two shoes" is today used in a pejorative sense for someone who is self righteous and ostentatiously virtuous. This usage began around the late 19 th or early 20 th century. However goody two shoes once had a far more praiseworthy meaning. In the 18 th century it was something that children could happily aspire to, thanks to a popular book published by John Newbery.

Before the 1700s, only a few books were specifically published for children and these had an educational or religious theme. Of course for centuries there had been both oral and written traditions of fables and tales that children would have heard from their parents, but they were meant for an adult audience. The real turning point came in the 1740s, when a cluster of London publishers began to produce new books designed to delight young readers, both in content and presentation.

The most famous of these was John Newbery. He moved from Reading to London in 1743 and by 1745 had established himself as one of the many booksellers and printers that sold their wares from St Paul's Churchyard. Most had distinctive signs identifying their premises, and Newbery traded from the Bible and Sun at No. 65. It may seem odd for a churchyard to be occupied by the publishing trade, but when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, the buildings on the Cathedral site were seized and sold off mainly to printers and booksellers.

Newbery's first book for the entertainment of children was A Little Pretty Pocket-Book Intended for the Instruction and Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly. It was small, neat and bound in brightly coloured paper - ideal for a child to hold in their hands. Newbery advertised it as being sold for six pence, but for an extra two pence you also received a ball (for a boy) or a pincushion (for a girl), intended to be used to record the owner's good and bad deeds by means of pins stuck either to the black side of the ball or pincushion (bad) or the red side (good). Presumably it was the parents who would do the "pin sticking" rather than self-assessment by the children! The book consisted of poems, proverbs and an alphabet song. The Library holds a lovely facsimile edition of this little work, which interestingly is said to include the first mention of the sport baseball.

However, my favourite is the game hop-hat. Each of the games depicted also has a little moral at the end.

Newbery was a great innovator too. For example, he produced the first children's periodical called The Lilliputian Magazine (1751-52), which had the rousing subtitle "the young gentleman & lady's golden library. Being an attempt to mend the world, to render the society of man more amiable, and to establish the plainness, simplicity, virtue, and wisdom of the golden age, so much celebrated by the poets and historians." A worthy if somewhat ambitious aim! The magazine contained a mix of stories, verse, riddles, dances, songs and chatty editorials. I love some of the character names used in the stories - who could resist "The history of Miss Sally Silence : Communicated by Lady Betty Lively." Sounds like a fun read.

In 1765, Newbery published his most popular book, The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes. It has a good claim to be called the first children's novel. There is some doubt about the author, but the consensus is that it was probably Oliver Goldsmith. He is known to have previously ghost written similar stories for cash, not wishing his name to be credited. He became associated with Newbery in 1759, with Newbery employing Goldsmith to write or revise several books and pamphlets and contribute articles to his new periodical the Public Ledger. This helped to promote Goldsmith's reputation as a writer and is an example of Newbery's use of his money to help writers through financial hardship.

The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes tells the story of two poor orphans, Margery Meanwell and her brother Tommy. Margery has only one shoe. When a kind gentleman gives her a pair she tells everyone she is so happy she now has "two shoes" (hence her nick name). Margery goes on to make a career for herself as a teacher before she marries the local landowner who has been impressed by her honesty, hard work and good sense. She inherits his fortune and uses it to help the poor. Despite the emphasis on honesty and virtue, the book was written to entertain. It even includes a tongue-in-cheek reference on the title page "See the Original Manuscript in the Vatican at Rome, and the Cuts by Michael Angelo. Illustrated with the Comments of our great modern Critics".

In recognition of Newbery's contribution to the publishing of children's literature, the American Association for Library Service to Children named their award to the author of the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children the Newbery Medal.

At the end of The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes there is an advertisement for some other books on sale from Newbery, and fascinatingly also a list of 10 patent medicines sold by Newbery "By the King's Royal Patent". This was another of Newbery's business interests and quite a commercial success for him. One of his most popular medicines was Dr. Robert James's Fever Powder. It even makes its way into the story of Goody Two-Shoes with the heroine's father dying of a fever that it is said could have been prevented with the fever powder.

The ingredients of the powder were kept secret, with Dr James submitting a false patent application to ensure no one could copy it. An analysis of the powder in 1791 by the chemist George Pearson revealed that the main constituents were antimony and calcium phosphate, although it is said that the composition of the powder changed over time. Unfortunately the effect of the fever powder on the life of Newbery's friend Oliver Goldsmith did not have a happy ending. Goldsmith appears to have been suffering from kidney disease in 1774 but against the advice of his doctors refused to be treated with anything other than Dr. Robert James's Fever Powder and died aged only 45.

Now, what connection could there possibly be between a children's book published in 1765 and a flu epidemic in early 20 th century Australia? It sounds unlikely, but there is a link! By January 1919 public health authorities in Sydney and Melbourne were becoming increasingly concerned by the spread of Spanish influenza. The number of diagnosed cases and the resulting deaths were causing alarm amongst the populace and the authorities looked for a means to break the cycle and stop further spread of the flu. In the last week of January a decision was made by the governments in both Sydney and Melbourne to close all places where people congregated, including schools, theatres and music halls. One of the shows thus affected was the J.C. Williamson production of Goody Two Shoes the pantomime, which was showing at Her Majesty's in Melbourne.

A pantomime version of the story had become popular during the Victorian era, but it was rather different to the original children's story, being given a fairy tale treatment and a cast of characters that were more familiar to a pantomime audience. Each producer adapted the story-line and added songs, dances, comedy acts, puppets, aerialists and sometimes even nursery rhyme characters such as Jack and Jill, Little Boy Blue and Mother Hubbard to enhance the show.

As you can see from this portion of the program for the J.C. Williamson performance in 1919, there is a scene set in the Astrologer's Room at the Duke's Palace and appearances by The Hobby Horses and a Children's Flower Ballet in the village of Blossomville and lots of songs, including the well-known K-K-K-Katy. There was even an appearance by the Kenna Brothers in an aeroplane act that was reported to be very acrobatic! Certainly a somewhat loose rendering of the original Goody Two Shoes tale. More a case of throwing in everything you could think of to add colour, movement and spectacle.

While performances of the pantomime were in hiatus, some of the cast were reported to be using their time productively. A newspaper article from February 1919 states that some members were training in nursing and VAD work so they could assist with treating those affected by the flu.

When the theatres reopened in Melbourne on Saturday March 8, the Governor-General and the Victorian Governor and their wives attended a special gala opening performance of Goody Two Shoes at Her Majesty's Theatre.

Facsimile editions of both A Little Pretty Pocket-Book and The History of Goody Two Shoes are on display during December 2016 in the Library's Special Collections Reading Room.

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The term "goody two shoes" is today used in a pejorative sense for someone who is self righteous and ostentatiously virtuous. This usage began around the late 19th or early 20th century. However goody two shoes once had a far more praiseworthy meaning.

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Self-Publishers of the World Take Over FULL MOVIE

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Zines: The Power of DIY Print (short documentary)

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Data from Children Exposed To Colour experiment, 1975, Hamilton, NZ

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Data from Children Exposed To Colour experiment, 1975, Hamilton, NZ

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thttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2466/pms.1989.69.1.179

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If you're printing a booklet, like a zine, we highly recommend giving it a proper cover with a laminated finish for both presentation and protection. A cover consists of 4 sides/pages of thicker paper at the front and back of your zine.

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In 2020, I crowdfunded  Octobriana 1976, the world's 1st blacklight comic book.

In 1971, the west learned about Octobriana - the outlaw Russian superhero comic. To show solidarity, underground American cartoonists made their own Octobriana comic book. Robot Stalin's got a new doomsday bomb! Can the Devil-Woman stop him before he destroys us all? Siberian labor camps, PPP secret orgies, motorcycle gunship train chases - this one has it all! Samizdat gone wild - a cross between 70s psychedelia and Soviet constructivism!?! You've NEVER seen a comic book that looks like this! Revolution forever, bitch.
This PDF is a record of the experience. It covers every step of the creative process - writing, script, layouts, design, tools, drawing, color as well as production, printing, and shipping. It's part scrap book, journal, Artist Edition, director commentary, How to Make Comics the Jim Rugg Way, photo album, sketch book!


If you are curious about how the  Octobriana 1976 comic book was made, this is for you. It includes scans of all of the art that was created for this comic book.


348 pages

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Octobriana 1976 PROCESS zine digital file | jimruggart

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In 2020, I crowdfunded Octobriana 1976, the world's 1st blacklight comic book. In 1971, the west learned about Octobriana - the outlaw Russian superhero comic. To show solidarity, underground American cartoonists made their own Octobriana comic book. Robot Stalin's got a new doomsday bomb! Can the Devil-Woman stop him before he destroys us all?

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Poetry can be a difficult field to break into, but it's a beautiful medium for sharing thoughts and conveying emotions. That's why poetry zines are particularly lovely. While someone can start a blog to track their mental health recovery or share their favorite recipes, the world of technology is not always as open for poets.

There's also something romantic about reading poetry from a zine. I picked up my first poetry zine at a small town secondhand book store when I was 12, long before I even knew what a zine was. Later, sitting alone and drinking in the works of Sheldon Birnie, I knew I was reading prose that few others would take in.

Here are a few of my favorite poetry zines.
inward
This collection of poems by seven writers are from assignments for the Women's Verse Revival class at the Alexandra Writers Centre in Calgary, Canada. Because of this, some repeat imagery and themes tie many of the pieces in the zine together.

However, it's not actually disclosed where the pieces came from until the end, which made the repetition of a revolver lying next to a camera in two different poet's pieces, almost back-to-back, seem like a startling coincidence.

Many of the pieces are reflections on history - both personal and otherwise - so each poem does have a vastly different subject matter, despite the similarities. Each poet also has a distinct style, keeping the themes fresh throughout the 15 meticulously laid out pages.

You can get copies by emailing course instructor Laurie Anne Fuhr at lauriefuhr@gmail.com.
You Win Again
Sheldon Birnie's 30 page zine of poetry is filled with drinking, drugs, parties, and relationships. It's dark and raw, some pieces written with long lines, and others in scattered fragments. As the zine goes on, he plays more and more with the space of the page.

However, sometimes his play with punctuation and capitalization seems haphazard rather than planned. There are inconsistencies within poems that could questionably be typos rather than calculated decisions.

Despite this, his use of space and shorthand (yr for your, walkin for walking) helps convey emotions and personality, of which all the poems are chock-full of.

The zine was put out by the now defunct Small Change Press, but Birnie is still kicking around with a couple of new books available.
The Raving Lunatic: Volume 1
This collection of poems by musician Tannis Kelm is as chaotic as the title might suggest. The 16 page zine leaves little white space, with multiple poems crammed onto each page - some even being printed sideways - and frantic sketches filling in the rest.

The text in the poetry has the same vibe with sparse punctuation, infrequent capitalization and wild metaphors. Each poem begs to be read over several times in order to be fully understood, but not in a bad way. Deciphering their codes is, in fact, a delight.

Kelm has since come out with two more volumes, all of which are still available. Just keep an eye out for her new website, which will launch mid-October, for more details. For now, get in touch through her Facebook page.
Pictures: Volume 2
This polished 20-page zine was created by artist and illustrator Kathleen Bergen. The cover is a one-of-a-kind original watercolour painting by the author. Inside is a collection of her poems, beautifully typed using an antique typewriter and accompanied by her own artwork.

Her poetry deals with mental health, sometimes rather literally and other times more metaphorically. Bergen explores some of the feelings that go along with anxiety and depression in ways that others who suffer from similar mental health problems can likely relate to and those who don't might be able to gain some insight.

The images have a surreal feel, each fitting with the poem it runs alongside but each also done in a different style, showcasing a lot of Bergen's talents.

For inquiries about Bergen's work, contact her at kathleen.bergen@hotmail.com.

Poetry zines are an uncommon find; with so many these days focusing on politics, health, and other art forms, it's a delight to find a zine packed with nothing but poems.

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Poetry can be a difficult field to break into, but it's a beautiful medium for sharing thoughts and conveying emotions. That's why poetry zines are particularly lovely. While someone can start a blog to track their mental health recovery or share their favorite recipes, the world of technology is not always as open for poets.

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"Kickstarter is one of those platforms that gives you space to work with people who know you, love you, and support you."

Tapping into our community starts with activating your own. Most successful projects build a snowball effect, winning over friends and early supporters who then share the idea with their networks, and signal their support to the wider Kickstarter community. The snowball can get pretty big. Over 19 million people, from every continent on earth, have helped fund Kickstarter projects.

Our mission is to help bring creative projects to life. We believe that art and creative expression are essential to a healthy and vibrant society, and the space to create requires protection.

We don't want art world elites and entertainment executives to define our culture; we want creative people-even those who've never made anything before-to take the wheel. We help creators connect directly with their communities, putting power where it belongs.

We are so committed to our mission, we wrote it into our business model. In 2015 we became a Public Benefit Corporation-a for-profit company that prioritizes positive outcomes for society as much as our shareholders. We updated our corporate charter to lay out specific goals and commitments to put our values into our operations, promote arts and culture, fight inequality, and help creative projects happen.

We're an independent company of about 92 people working together, many of us in an old pencil factory in New York City. We spend our time designing and building Kickstarter, forging community around creative projects, and supporting the creative ecosystem around us. We're developers, designers, support specialists, writers, musicians, painters, poets, gamers, robot-builders-you name it. Over the years, our team has backed more than 50,000 projects (and launched plenty of our own).

Our story,
as told by founder Perry Chen

"I was living in New Orleans in late 2001 and I wanted to bring a pair of DJs down to play a show during the 2002 Jazz Fest. I found a great venue and reached out to their management, but in the end the show never happened-it was just too much money..."

The fact that the potential audience had no say in this decision stuck uncomfortably in my brain. I thought: "What if people could go to a site and pledge to buy tickets for a show? And if enough money was pledged they would be charged and the show would happen. If not, it wouldn't."

I loved the idea, but I was focused on making music, not starting an internet company. Yet slowly over the next few years I started to work on the idea more and more. In the spring of 2005 I moved back home to NYC, knowing it would be much more possible there.

Once back in New York, I started to try and tackle the next steps: Who could build the website? How much it would cost? Where could I get money? I talked to a bunch of folks and I learned a ton. I planned and planned.

In the fall of 2005, I met Yancey Strickler, and we became fast friends. Yancey soon joined me in brainstorming. We bought a whiteboard. We had big dreams. I convinced some friends to give us a little bit of money. At some point I made this rough design of the site. Clearly we needed more help.

About a year later, I was introduced to Charles Adler, through an old friend. The day after we were introduced, Charles came over to my apartment and he and I started working together almost every day. After months and months of collaboration, we ended up with wireframes and specifications for the site.

But none of us could code. We had a few false starts hiring people to build the site. There were months where not much happened. Charles moved to San Francisco and took some part-time freelance work. Yancey was still at his day job. We had this money from our friends and not much was happening. It was emotionally draining.

In the summer of 2008 things finally started to move again. I was introduced to Andy Baio, who, though he was living in Portland, started to help us out. Soon after, Charles and Andy found a few developers - including Lance Ivy all the way in Walla Walla, Washington. We were a scattered team that lived through Skype and email (Charles had moved again, this time to Chicago), but we were finally building - even as the economy started to collapse.

Finally, on April 28, 2009, we launched Kickstarter to the public. We told as many friends as possible, and Andy announced it on his awesome blog Waxy.org. Projects trickled in. Yancey jumped into gear to handle all the new emails from people actually using (or wanting to use) Kickstarter. It was amazing! You cannot imagine how excited we all were.

There are so many projects that defined the early days. Designing Obama, Robin Writes a Book, and Mysterious Letters were all landmarks. Filmmakers took their natural-born hustle and wrapped it around our template. People stepped up to support projects over and over again. It was thrilling. And then one day we even had an office. In January 2010, nine months after we launched, we moved into a tenement building in the Lower East Side of Manhattan along with Cassie Marketos and Fred Benenson, our two new teammates.

But before all that, three weeks after Kickstarter launched, a young singer-songwriter from Athens, GA, launched a project to fund her album, Allison Weiss was Right All Along. Allison was using Kickstarter in the exact way we had always dreamed. Her album was funded in one day. She did a Skype chat with the backer that put her over her goal and posted it for all to see. This was the moment Kickstarter was truly alive."

Perry Chen

If you're writing about Kickstarter or covering a Kickstarter project, head this way to find background material, press contacts, and visual assets.

Are you ready to start backing?

Want to get right to creating?

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"Kickstarter is one of those platforms that gives you space to work with people who know you, love you, and support you." Tapping into our community starts with activating your own. Most successful projects build a snowball effect, winning over friends and early supporters who then share the idea with their networks, and signal their support to the wider Kickstarter community.

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Sometime in 2001 Alex Wrekk uttered the words:
"Wouldn't it be great if there was a collection of a bunch of stuff about zines in one place so that I would stop seeing all the same mistakes?"
Then she started compiling ideas for a zine she would call: Stolen Sharpie Revolution. It was soon pointed out that she would not be able to steal as many photocopies as she would have orders for the zine.

In 2002 the first edition of Stolen Sharpie Revolution was printed as an offset 1/4 sized 96 page zine. The covers were photocopied and stapled on along with a photocopied insert of envelope templates. It soon became obvious that not only would the stealing of the photocopies have been difficult had she gone that route, but that assembling 3,000 of the offset printed versions might not have been the best idea. At any rate, Stolen Sharpie Revolution had its debut at the 2002 Portland Zine Symposium.

The nex t step in progression of Stolen Sharpie Revolution lead to a printing with an actual spine and an ISBN! Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2nd edition became an actual book, had a print run of 4,000 and came out less than a year later in 2003. The book had lost the illicit content included in the 1st edition such as how to steal photocopies and, for educational purposes only, how to glue stamps. In 2005, 2 years later, an ambition print run of 10,000 was undertaken for Stolen Sharpie Revolution 3rd edition.

Alex parted ways with the past publisher in 2006 and took Stolen Sharpie Revolution with her.

In 2009 she toiled away rewriting, retyping, and re-doing all of the layout to release a new incarnation of the book as: Stolen Sharpie Revolution 2: a DIY resource for zines and zine culture. It included all of the same good stuff plus updated info about online zine resources, zines in education, and trying to kill the zines vs. blog discussion once and for all because zines and blogs are not mutually exclusive. The print run for SSR2 was 4,000.

In 3 years those copies have slowly dwindled and it is time to start the huge task of updating EVERYTHING. Alex realized that frequently distros and stores go out of business between getting the info and the book actually going to print so she had the idea of turning this website into a resource that would contain the things that change most from printing to printing.

For a decade, Stolen Sharpie Revolution has been a useful tool in the creation of zines and the celebration of the ever changing zine community. With the help of this website, Alex hopes it will continue to be relevant for another decade and beyond!

So, How can you get a copy of one of the existing copies of Stolen Sharpie Revolution? You can order directly through Paypal in the sidebar, check out my Etsy shop, Portland Button Works, several zine distros, or even Amazon if that's your thing.
Who is Alex Wrekk?
Alex Wrekk is someone that does not like talking about herself in the 3rd person, so I'm gonna stop right now.

Hi, I'm Alex Wrekk and my life has been steeped in zines since I started reading them in the early 90s when I was a teenager living in Salt Lake City, Utah. At some point I had the revelation that "I can do this too!" and I started compiling my own zine in high school. I put together my first zine with my sister in 1995, it was called Fun In A Bucket. It was a silly mish-mash of stuff but I was hooked!

I started my own zine, Brainscan, in 1997. Right now, as of 2012, I am working on issue #29 of Brainscan zine.

In 1999 I moved to Portland, Oregon for the good craft beer and because I had zine friends here. I learned to love riding a bike and in 2001 I was a founder of the Portland Zine Symposium. I have continued to be an organizer over the years and have only managed to miss organizing 2 out of the 12 years. In 2002 I made the first version of Stolen Sharpie Revolution and started volunteering at the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Over the years I have been on several zine tours of the US, Canada, the UK and France including: Copy and Destroy, Cut and Paste, Zines and Cake, Zines on Toast, and Stuff and Things. I have attended over a dozen different zine fests in 4 different countries.

As a half joke in 2005, the first entry for Alex Wrekk was entered into Wikipedia but was closed because, apparently, I'm not notable. This prompted Alan Lastufka to start ZineWiki in 2006 with the DIY spirit of documenting our own history and somewhere along the line the Alex Wrekk was reinstated. In 2007, Brainscan Zine was nominated for the U TNE Reader Award for Excellence, and I was nominated for Quimby's Long Arm Stapler Award in 2011. In 2009 I was accepted to the residency program at the Roberts Street Social Center at the Anchor Archive in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In 2008 I had the idea that there should be an International Zine Month for people around the world to celebrate independent publishing. I talked with some friends about it and decided that July was a great month for it because that was the month of the 24 hour zine thing. I applied for a listing in Chase's book of days and it got listed! Now, July Is International Zine Month and is celebrated with 24 hour zine parties, visiting zine libraries, having zine release parties and more!

In 2009 I thought I would try out a podcast thingie and enlisted my friend and housemate, Mark Parker of Zine Thug fame. We called it Nobody Cares About Your Stupid Zine Podcast. We had one episode and we did a few awesome interviews but the files got corrupted which was discouraging and sort of stalled the progress of the podcast. But, Derek Neuland encouraged me to take up the recorder again and he became my co-host. Check out Nobody Cares About you Stupid Zine Podcast on LibSyn or itunes. We talk about zine events, and do interviews with people involved with zines.

In 2010, in addition to being an organizer for the 2010 Portland Zine Symposium and putting together a month long zine tour, I started a zine themed band. Writer and illustrator of the zine Rum Lad, Steve Larder,was staying in my basement and challenged me to start a band in 3 weeks. We recruited my partner, Paul, and my housemate, Marc. We called our band The Copy Scams and in 3 weeks time we wrote 4 lo-fi pop punk songs all about zines, practiced them, recorded them and played a show that ended the 2010 Portland Zine Symposium. You can order a cassette tape (that's right, cassette!) from my Etsy store or listen for free here.

And if that's not a ridiculous amount of zine things that have taken up my life I am also a team captain for Etsy Team Zine and an organizer for ZOE (Zine Organizer Events). All of that doesn't really pay the bills so I run Portland Button Works and my Brainscan Etsy shop. I make custom 1″ and 1.25″ buttons and magnets as well as my own designs. I also sell my book and my zines there and I have a blog: Love Letters to Irony.

Um, I guess that's about it. Feel free to e-mail me if you have any questions: alex[AT]Smallworldbuttons[DOT]com.
A link to my blog with a list a bunch of other places to find me on the internets if you are so inclined.

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Sometime in 2001 Alex Wrekk uttered the words: "Wouldn't it be great if there was a collection of a bunch of stuff about zines in one place so that I would stop seeing all the same mistakes?" Then she started compiling ideas for a zine she would call: Stolen Sharpie Revolution.

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Night(.PDF)

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Exploring Colour Psychology through design

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Colour association in design & the world's favourite colour | Made Thought

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Title: Bloody Saturday, Shanghai, China, 1937, H.S. Wong

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Title: Bloody Saturday, Shanghai, China, 1937, H.S. Wong

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A place reminiscent of a train station, however completely destroyed. Tracks are fractured and deformed, pieces of discarded metal are strewn across the aggressively rough ground. Although the image is black and white, we can see the violent textures in this image displaying the site of a bombing, with thick grey dust lining the air enough to choke a person. A young toddler sits on the crumbled and sharp ground with no parental comfort, and no safety in sight. The unprotected child appears to be screaming out in desperation and despair, coughing, and covered in a dense black soot. Although incredibly disturbing there is a small ounce of faith in the fact this child has survived a traumatic and disastrous event. The weather seems bleak and miserable, reflecting the outcome of this evil event, a morning of heartbreak, sadness, loss of innocence and hope. The aged grain of the photograph encapsulates the gritty story and shows its historical value. The image itself gives a feeling of pain and sorrow, one can only imagine the depravity it took for this event to have occurred, and loss of life in the process.

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Bloody Saturday" - Depicting a Chinese baby crying within the bombed-out ruins of Shanghai South Railway Station, the photograph became known as a cultural icon demonstrating Japanese wartime atrocities in China. Taken a few minutes after a Japanese air attack on civilians during the Battle of Shanghai, Hearst Corporation photographer H. S. "Newsreel" Wong, did not discover the identity or even the sex of the injured child, whose mother lay dead nearby. One of the most memorable war photographs ever published, and perhaps the most famous newsreel scene of the 1930s, the image stimulated an outpouring of western anger against Japanese violence in China. Journalist Harold Isaacs called the iconic image "one of the most successful propaganda pieces of all time".
Wong shot footage of the bombed-out South Station with his Eyemo newsreel camera, and he took several still photographs with his Leica. The famous still image, taken from the Leica, is not often referred to by name-rather, its visual elements are described. It has also been called Motherless Chinese Baby, Chinese Baby, and The Baby in the Shanghai Railroad Station.

During the Battle of Shanghai, part of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Japanese military forces advanced upon and attacked Shanghai, China's most populous city. Wong descended from the rooftop to the street, where he got into his car and drove quickly toward the ruined railway station. When he arrived, he noted carnage and confusion:
"It was a horrible sight. People were still trying to get up. Dead and injured lay strewn across the tracks and platform. Limbs lay all over the place. Only my work helped me forget what I was seeing. I stopped to reload my camera. I noticed that my shoes were soaked with blood. I walked across the railway tracks, and made many long scenes with the burning overhead bridge in the background. Then I saw a man pick up a baby from the tracks and carry him to the platform. He went back to get another badly injured child. The mother lay dead on the tracks. As I filmed this tragedy, I heard the sound of planes returning. Quickly, I shot my remaining few feet [of film] on the baby. I ran toward the child, intending to carry him to safety, but the father returned. The bombers passed overhead. No bombs were dropped."
Wong never discovered the name of the burned and crying baby, whether it was a boy or a girl, or whether it survived. The next morning, he took the film from his Leica camera to the offices of China Press, where he showed enlargements to Malcolm Rosholt, saying, "Look at this one!". Wong later wrote that the next morning's newspapers reported that some 1,800 people, mostly women and children, had been waiting at the railway station, and that the IJN aviators had likely mistaken them for a troop movement. The Shanghai papers said that fewer than 300 people survived the attack. In October of that year, Life magazine reported about 200 dead.

Interesting facts:

Bloody Saturday photograph was published widely in September-October 1937 and in less than a month had been seen by more than 136 million viewers.

The photograph was denounced by Japanese nationalists who argued that it was staged. The Japanese government put a bounty of $50,000 on Wong's head: an amount equivalent to $820,000 in 2015.

During the Second Sino-Japanese war Chinese sources list the total number of military and non-military casualties, both dead and wounded, at 35 million. Most Western historians believed that the total number of casualties was at least 20 million.

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Bloody Saturday - a crying Chinese baby amid the bombed-out ruins of Shanghai's South Railway Station, 1937

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Bloody Saturday" - Depicting a Chinese baby crying within the bombed-out ruins of Shanghai South Railway Station, the photograph became known as a cultural icon demonstrating Japanese wartime atrocities in China. Taken a few minutes after a Japanese air attack on civilians during the Battle of Shanghai, Hearst Corporation photographer H.

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Golding, William, and Edmund L. Epstein. Lord of the Flies: A Novel. New York: Perigee, 1954.

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Golding, William, and Edmund L. Epstein. Lord of the Flies: A Novel. New York: Perigee, 1954.

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Children are left to survive for themsleves, left to make their own moral decisions, good and bad. The question is, what does this teach us about nature & compasison?

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Get CitationBalter, L. (Ed.), Tamis-LeMonda, C. (Ed.). (2016). Child Psychology. New York: Psychology Press, https://0-doi-org.emu.londonmet.ac.uk/10.4324/9781315764931

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Get CitationBalter, L. (Ed.), Tamis-LeMonda, C. (Ed.). (2016). Child Psychology. New York: Psychology Press, https://0-doi-org.emu.londonmet.ac.uk/10.4324/9781315764931

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Unsung Hero - Unsung Hero" [ภาพยนตร์โฆษณา ปี พ.ศ.2557 ] [Official TVC 2014: Thai Life Insurance

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Unsung Hero - Unsung Hero" [ภาพยนตร์โฆษณา ปี พ.ศ.2557 ] [Official TVC 2014: Thai Life Insurance

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This commercial was a true reflection of compassion.

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Child of Rage, 1992. American biographical drama television film directed by Larry Peerce, starring Ashley Peldon and Mel Harris

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Child of Rage, 1992. American biographical drama television film directed by Larry Peerce, starring Ashley Peldon and Mel Harris

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An opposing statement, we teach love, but we don't teach hate.
- 'We can forget our friends but not   our enemies'
- 'When you hate, you hate from your guts'

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Antiracist Baby (Board book)Ibram X. Kendi (author)

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Antiracist Baby (Board book)Ibram X. Kendi (author)

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Anti-Racism Educator Jane Elliott: ‘There’s Only One Race. The Human Race' | NBC BLK | NBC News

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Anti-Racism Educator Jane Elliott: ‘There’s Only One Race. The Human Race' | NBC BLK | NBC News

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Jane Elliott explains that racism and inequality is taught not a natural behaviour.

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Anti-Racism Educator Jane Elliott: ‘There’s Only One Race. The Human Race' | NBC BLK | NBC News

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"Adventure Time" series presentation - Free download as PDF File (.pdf) or view presentation slides online. Spring 2008

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Fluorescent, blacklight comic book starring Russian outlaw superhero Octobriana - the devil woman!

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Fluorescent, blacklight comic book starring Russian outlaw superhero Octobriana - the devil woman!

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Fluorescent, blacklight comic book starring Russian outlaw superhero Octobriana - the devil woman!

1,976 backers pledged $94,360 to help bring this project to life.

You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content.

Fluorescent Blacklight Outlaw Comic Book

Funding period

- (41 days)

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Fluorescent Blacklight Outlaw Comic Book

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Fluorescent, blacklight comic book starring Russian outlaw superhero Octobriana - the devil woman! 1,976 backers pledged $94,360 to help bring this project to life. You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Fluorescent Blacklight Outlaw Comic Book - (41 days)

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A Stylescape is one of our favourite design tools here at jamjar. Not heard the word before? Anna, our chief creative jammer, talks us through the importance of the branding journey, what a Stylescape is and how it can help you in the initial stages of visualising the aesthetics of a brand identity.

A Stylescape is a collation of images, designs, colours, typography, photography, patterns and textures that help preview a project's visual direction.

﻿Example of a recent stylescape we created for a client.

How does it differ to a Mood Board?
A Stylescape is similar to a Mood Board but is much more elevated.

The key differences between the two:

Rather than 'cutting and pasting' existing images, in a Stylescape they have been altered to fit the vision of the brand.

A Stylescape also differs in size and shape and tends to be rectangular and long, to show a journey from left to right.

Fonts and colours have been integrated into the Stylescape.

Because a Stylescape includes a highly curated selection of images, it looks like a new brand without creating anything new at that stage.

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How does creating a Stylescape help you in developing a brand identity or campaign?

﻿Example of a recent stylescape we created for a client.

A stylescape closes the gap between what all stakeholders in the project have in mind. It's important to spend time in reviewing examples of good branding and to spend time in this stage getting this right, because in the long run there are less revisions to be made.

﻿Example of a recent stylescape we created for a client.

If you have any design queries or have some questions for our in-house creative experts, we'd love to jam with you. Get in touch!

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A Stylescape is one of our favourite design tools here at jamjar. Not heard the word before? Anna, our chief creative jammer, talks us through the importance of the branding journey, what a Stylescape is and how it can help you in the initial stages of visualising the aesthetics of a brand identity.

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What is a pitch bible?