WULOLIFE
The Most Beautiful Giant in the City Author: (UK) Julia Donaldson / Axel Scheffler
The Most Beautiful Giant in the City Author: (UK) Julia Donaldson / Axel Scheffler
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Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
Nominated for the 2003 Blue Petter Award
The scruffy handsome guy wearing a golden crown
Text/Mei Zihan
George's "sloppy" does not mean dirty, it just means that he doesn't care about his clothes.
However, if you don't pay attention to some things, others will pay attention to them and feel uncomfortable. You can see this by just looking at the eyes of the people in the book.
So George went shopping for clothes, dressed himself up beautifully, and became a handsome guy in the city.
But how come as soon as he became handsome and cool, the giraffe, goat, mouse, fox, and dog in trouble appeared one after another? Where were they when the handsome guy was not handsome? What a mess!
Of course, George could have given nothing, since no one asked him for it. But he took off his tie, and then his belt, and without it, his pants fell off, leaving him in his flowery shorts. This guy has a sense of humor, and his shorts are flowery!
We should remember the song he sang: "My tie made a scarf for the cold giraffe, my shirt made a sail for the goat's boat, my leather shoes made a house for the mouse family, and my socks made a sleeping bag for the fox, but look at me - I am still the most beautiful giant in the city." He later hopped on one foot and sang like this! He was really willing to help others, and he would be so happy. If a person is really willing to help others, then this happiness may be uncontrollable.
We have to understand George's sadness when he could only hop on one leg in flowery shorts, because walking through the streets in flowery shorts is not only uncivilized, but also really cold.
George's striped tie serves as a scarf for the giraffe, his shirt serves as a sail for the goat's boat, his shoes serve as a house for the mouse family, his socks serve as a sleeping bag for the fox, and his belt forms a wonderful path on the muddy ground. ——The writer's thoughts are so appropriate! In line with the characteristics of animals and things. Because they are appropriate, they are real! We can't see the "nonsense" we see in some fairy tales at all. When writing fairy tales, it is very important that every stroke is appropriate. Because fairy tales are easily mixed with nonsense.
The most careless giant, the most handsome giant, the kindest giant; because George is a kindest giant, he has to give his beauty to others, so he becomes a most careless giant with a pair of old brown sandals and a patched old robe. But this most careless giant has a golden crown!
A person wearing a golden crown can still be beautiful even if he only wears old sandals and an old robe!
The Most Beautiful Giant in the City——Intertwined Images of Fun
(Text by Li Yinyin, PhD, Institute of Children's Literature, Taitung University, Taiwan)
Open the front and back covers, and this double-page spread is a complete story. The characters jump out of the chapters in the book, and in the interaction with each other, they lay the groundwork for the picture book, which seems to be the continuation of the story line. Can you see the relationship between these characters? Look carefully, the eyes of the animals are like arrows, focusing on the giant in the middle. Interestingly, the pair of elongated legs really highlights the size and mystery of the giant; and the angry eyes and trembling beard of the rabbit trapped by the clothes write different annotations for "huge".
Axel Scheffler used to use a circular projection as the background to highlight the story of the protagonist on the title page. In this picture, we can see that the giant is wearing ragged clothes, bending over, hunching his back, and walking into the story listlessly with his mouth tightly closed without a smile.
Around the 19th century, giants and fairy tales appeared in children's literature. Did you notice? Axel strung these stories together and reinterpreted them with pictures: First, the giant came to the city and found that the cat in boots could wash his hands by the fountain, the little mermaid's father looked disdainful on him, and the dwarfs were glaring because they couldn't buy clothes. All this deepened George's determination to get rid of his slovenliness. Then George took off his beautiful clothes to help the animals - after each thing changed its function, George made new discoveries until he found himself - from the title page to the last page of the story, George's mouth curved into a crescent moon.
The best thing about this book is that you can find the little clues and fun that Axel inserted in the pictures. Have you discovered it? On his way home, George met many familiar characters from fairy tales that reflected his differences and changes: the piglet who was on his own, Jack who was waiting for the golden egg, and George who was happy and helpful; the frog prince in luxurious clothes and George who danced and sang while giving away shoes and socks; the sheep who turned around and left with the wool in his arms and George who was shivering in the wind; and of course George who was wearing his old clothes but was no longer the same as before.
In the performance of pictures, Axel has mastered the literary, musical, artistic and interesting qualities. This is a picture book worth savoring again and again.
About the Author · · · · · ·
Julia Donaldson
Julia is a famous British writer. Before she officially entered the field of children's book creation, she had been writing songs and scripts for children's TV programs for a long time. Therefore, her words are catchy and deeply loved by children. So far, Julia has written more than 40 children's books and plays for children. In addition to being a full-time children's book writer, Julia also often visits schools and libraries to tell stories or perform her works for young readers.
Julia currently lives in Glasgow, Scotland with her husband and three sons.
Axel Scheffler
Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1957, he is a world-renowned illustrator. His illustrations are both elegant and humorous, and his vivid and flexible visual language is full of implicit humor. Critics commented that Axel's illustrations are like playing a musical performance, with literary, artistic, musical and interesting elements dancing harmoniously under his brush. Currently, Axel lives in London, England.
Ren Yongrong
Ren Yongrong is a famous translator and writer of children's literature in my country. He is proficient in four foreign languages: English, Russian, Italian and Japanese. He has translated many famous foreign children's literature works, such as Andersen's Fairy Tales, Grimm's Fairy Tales, the Italian fairy tale "The Adventures of Pinocchio", the British fairy tale "Peter Pan", the Swedish fairy tale "Pippi Longstocking", etc. He has created interesting and humorous stories such as "Gudong is Coming" and "The Foolish and the Unhappy".
Ren Yongrong has profound attainments in translating children's poems and rhymed stories. The translation not only retains the content, structure and artistic conception of the original text, but also strives to fit the characteristics and understanding level of Chinese children. The translation of this series of picture books maintains Ren Yongrong's consistent writing style, which is catchy and full of charm, and is readily accepted by young readers.
