I Am a Story
by Dan YaccarinoDan Yaccarino
Internationally acclaimed author-illustrator Dan Yaccarino presents a powerful picture book that celebrates storytelling—from the past to the present and beyond.
From cave drawings to the invention of the printing press to our digital age, discover how a story has been told in many different ways from the past to today. It's always been around, making us happy, sad, excited, or scared and bringing people together.
With simple text and delightful illustrations, Dan Yaccarino reminds us of the power of story.
A Junior Library Guild Selection and a Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2016!
Dan Yaccarino is an internationally acclaimed author-illustrator with more than thirty children's books to his credit, including I Am a Story, Five Little Pumpkins, Five Little Bunnies, Trashy Town, and Giant Tess. He also created and produced Nickelodeon's Oswald and is the character designer behind The Backyardigans. You can visit him at www.yaccarinostudio.com.
…a kind of historical biography of storytelling—the tale of one story that stands in for all the world's stories…The careful palette helps hold the book together, yet Yaccarino chooses specific colors to help evoke a sense of place with each era he depicts: terra-cotta brown and orange for ancient Egypt, mahogany and blue for the 1950s. Drawn a little looser than his previous work, this simple and lovely overview of storytelling feels both contemporary and timeless.
The New York Times Book Review - Frank Viva
★ 06/27/2016
In understated words and bold cartoons, Yaccarino (Billy and Goat at the State Fair) traces storytelling from humanity's earliest days to the present. Writing in the voice of story itself, he portrays evolving methods of conveying stories, printed and otherwise, while illuminating the pivotal roles they have played across eras and cultures. The opening lines ("I am a story. I was told around a campfire") accompany an image of a group of primitive humans gathered around a roaring fire, the storyteller's arms aloft as outlines of zodiac figures float in the night sky above. Yaccarino's sparse narrative avoids historical specifics while including enough details to make explicit the numerous ways stories can be told, including hieroglyphics, medieval tapestries, theater, radio, film, and other technologies. Scenes of book burnings and protests text speak strongly to the power of words, along with the more positive imagery. Yaccarino's global scope, as well as a contemporary campfire scene that brings the book full circle, cements the idea that the stories we share are a profound source of human connection. Ages 4–8. Agent: Rebecca Sherman, Writers House. (Sept.)
[Yaccarino's] bold, colorful spreads are not only vivacious in nature and supplement his terrific, artful text, they also emphasize how stories have transformed over time...An inspirational tale of the power of language, in all its forms.
PreS-Gr 3—This picture book imagines the story of story—from the story's point of view. Yaccarino's characteristic bright, stylized illustrations take readers from an ancient campfire to a modern-day one, making key stops along the way as the tale proudly narrates through the page turns. "I am a story. I was told around a campfire, then painted on cave walls. I was carved onto clay tablets and told in pictures." Together words and illustrations capture a broad range of storytelling methods and platforms: art, writing, theater, radio, television, film, computer, and more. The book also subtly tackles the struggles of access as story prevails through time, contrasting wealthy private libraries with public libraries and showing failed censorship attempts. Coming full circle, the book closes as it started, with stories around a campfire—this time with a modern-day family under the constellations that were represented in the beginning by pictures in the sky. VERDICT A simply told but powerful celebration of the importance of story as well as a jumping-off point for more in-depth study of communication through history. An excellent choice for classroom discussions.—Julie Roach, Cambridge Public Library, MA
From a campfire lit by early humans to a campfire lit by a contemporary vacationing family, gathering together to share words and tales has always been in our DNA.With just one sentence or phrase per illustration, Yaccarino gives voice to the many ways that humans have preserved, shared, and recorded their history through words and images. Sometimes the format is visual, as in cave paintings and picture writing. People around the world have also used papyrus, woodblocks, tapestries, illuminated manuscripts, and plays to keep narratives alive. Pictures and words have been preserved in a wide variety of libraries and on movie, television, and computer screens. Spoken and written words have inspired and evoked strong emotional responses. Yaccarino uses India ink on vellum to create memorable, full-bleed and paneled illustrations. One double-page spread depicts an assortment of folk from many cultures and of many colors walking and reading their tablets (and not looking where they are going!). It's a fairly Eurocentric history; including such other traditions as Native American and West African griot storytelling would have strengthened the narrative. Sharp eyes will take note of the starry transition from cave people to contemporary folk as astrological signs reappear as constellations. All in all, this is a good introduction to stories, books, and reading. (Informational picture book. 4-7)
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