Today's Recommended Book: "Little Blackfish"
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[US] Leo Leoni/Wen Picture
Peng Yi/Translation
South Seas Publishing Company
Selected for the 2022 Edition of The Close to Native Language Graded Reading List (0-12 years old)
Children's Reading Teacher Competency Certification Intermediate Required Reading List
In 1963, Little Blackfish was officially released. This is Leoni's fourth children's book. While unpacking, an agitated Leoni could not control his trembling hand. His wife, Nora, took the scissors and helped him open the cover.
"The first time I saw this book, I realized it was one of my best books." Leoni placed Little Blackfish side by side against the wall with three other books. He sat in the middle of the studio and watched them silently.
What kind of story does this book that matters in Leoni's mind tell?
In the depths of the sea lived a small school of red fish and a small black fish. One day, the ferocious tuna ate all the little redfish, and only the little blackfish escaped.
He wandered alone in the sea and encountered many strange lives.
Later, he encountered a group of small red fish. In order to survive, he thought of a good way to teach them to swim like big fish and be their own eyes!
In this way, they swam around freely and scared the big fish away!
"Little Blackfish" is undoubtedly Leoni's most prestigious work, winning the Caddick Gold Medal in the United States in the second year of publication. The book was also introduced into japanese elementary school textbooks Chinese, inspiring the Palme d'Or film Thief Family. It was Kore-eda who said, "I've never forgotten how little girl read Little Blackfish for us, and now I know that this movie was made for her." ”
During the film's work, it was Kore-eda who visited the government agency that housed the abused children, and a girl took out Chinese textbook and began to read the story of "Little Blackfish" aloud, and the staff immediately stopped her, saying, "Don't bother this gentleman, he doesn't want to hear this." But she ignored it completely and read it until the end. It was Kore-eda who applauded him, and she smiled excitedly. In Kore-eda's view, the girl must have wanted her parents to hear her read Little Blackfish. This sense of pride and happiness has always remained in Kore-eda's heart, and it has also been put into the story of "Thief Family".
Does "Daddy" know the story of Little Blackfish? Later, he also read the plot of the textbook aloud like a girl, and the little blackfish told everyone that they must not be separated from each other. When everyone can swim together like a big fish, they can drive the big fish away. But they also need an eye. The little blackfish said, let me be everyone's eyes.
This improvised family is like a big fish gathered together by people on the fringes of society, huddled together in the cruel sea. Because of this, once everyone's goals are not consistent, the illusion of the family collapses in an instant. There are also many details about "Little Blackfish" in the movie, so Kore-eda also specifically mentioned Leoni's book in his acknowledgement.
Like movies, Little Blackfish isn't just about highlighting the power of unity.
Leoni thinks the book focuses on the little blackfish's decision to be the eye. He told his terrified companions to swim together like a big fish. He taught them to take their places, which implied his place in the group. He already had the image of the big fish in his mind, and this was also the gift he received—to be an eye, to see, to lead. Shota's self-awakening in "Thief Family" also reflects his self-identification, so there is a huge reversal of the fate of the "family" brought about by his decision in the movie.
Little Blackfish, Leoni's first book of animal fables and a model for his subsequent works, said, "The principles contained in this book have guided my hands, feelings, and all my thoughts as a children's book writer." It made me start to see writing as as important as art forms like painting and sculpture. Indeed, after "Little Blackfish", Leoni's works such as "Alexander and the Clockwork Mouse", "Fish is Fish", "Vole Aver", "Crocodile Cornelius" and so on are inseparable from the exploration of the theme of self-identity.
Who am I? Where am I in this world? Do you have to be the same if you want to be accepted? This master constantly uses different stories and different angles to ask this basic proposition of life, and each book brings readers different thoughts.
"Aver, Little Blackfish, Cornelius, and all the other characters are me, and I'm among them."
--Leo Leoni
Leoni once said that each of his books is his autobiography, from his ups and downs in life, and gives him a deep thought and keen observation of life. So what overlaps does the fable master's life tidbits overlap with his stories?
Born in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1910, Leoni was different from an early age, like Aver the vole collecting sunlight, words and colors everywhere, and when others were playing, he was obsessed with painting and collecting creatures in the gallery, immersed in his own fantasy world. Although he did not receive a formal art education, Leoni was influenced by the family's good art from an early age. His father was a Belgian jewelry designer, his mother was a soprano singer, and his uncles were architects and art collectors, respectively.
Leoni, who was obsessed with painting, not only received personal guidance from his uncle, but was also allowed by the Dutch National Museum to paint there at any time. Therefore, viewing the works of artists such as Picasso and Mondrian became a large part of Leoni's childhood life. And in the attic of Amsterdam, he also raised a lot of small animals, who later transformed into the insects that can measure songs in Leoni's works, the field mouse Aver who loves to be in a daze, the brave and decisive little blackfish, the maverick crocodile Cornelius...
The situation in Europe is turbulent, and the Leoni family has traveled to France, Italy, the United States and other countries. At the University of Genoa in Italy, Leoni received a doctorate in economics. But his interest in art and design never diminished. After settling in Milan, Leoni began working in advertising design, photography and architecture. With his extraordinary talent, he quickly became a sought-after up-and-coming artist, and his paintings were exhibited in various places.
Leoni, who had Jewish ancestry, was again labeled an "inferior race" and was forced to move to the United States with the rise of anti-Semiticism in Europe, where he later became an American citizen. He began working full-time in advertising, serving Ford Motor Co. Anderson, Chrysler Motors, and Fortune magazine. He served as President of the American Society of Graphic Graphic Arts and President of the 1953 International Design Congress, where he received international awards including the Best Advertising Art Direction Award and the Architectural Alliance Gold Medal Award.
However, Leoni, who was at the peak of his career, chose to resign and return to Italy, because he did not want to be a "one-inch worm" to meet the needs of business and the market, but spent the rest of his life pursuing the art he liked. Leoni began experimenting with printmaking, engraving, photography, playing guitar, and other artistic hobbies.
Later, he became obsessed with creating picture books. Born on a train trip, "Little Yellow and Little Blue" pushed Leoni to the second half of his career as a picture book creator. Leoni wrote and painted more than forty critically acclaimed picture books. He won the 1984 Academy of Graphic Arts Gold Medal and won four Caldecott Awards for "One Inch Bug," "Aver the Vole," "Little Blackfish," and "Alexander and the Clockwork Mouse."
In the last 15 years of Leoni's life, he suffered from Parkinson's disease, but still wrote, painted and sculpted, overcoming physical difficulties to complete "Tico and the High Wall". In October 1999, the picture book master died at his home in Tuscany, Italy, at the age of 89. The New York Times once said of him: "If picture books are a new visual art of our time, Leo Leoni is everyone in this style." ”
"I believe a good children's book should be able to appeal to people who haven't completely lost their true joy and fantasy in life. In fact, I'm not creating for kids. I make children's books for us, my friends and I, the 'inner child' who has never been changed. ”
--Leo Leoni
In the face of the fierce big fish, the little blackfish teaches the little redfish to swim into a bigger fish, and affirms "I will be the eye"; and Leoni, who created the little blackfish, is actually the little blackfish, he leads us to know ourselves, to see more things...
Leoni wrote a story affectionately dedicated to all adults and children. Those animal fables sow the seeds of "self-identification" in everyone's heart, and at some point in a long life practice they will turn into the courage and strength to know and find themselves.
▲ "Little Blackfish and His Friends"
How to get along with people, how to face adversity, how to find a direction that suits you... These problems, every child in the process of growing up will encounter, and all the problems, can be attributed to how to know themselves, only after a clear understanding of themselves, can we build self-confidence, know self-esteem and respect for others.
Four-time Caldecott Prize-winning picture book master Leo Leo Leoni uses vivid and interesting, philosophical stories to inspire children to know themselves from multiple angles.
There are "little blackfish" with leadership temperament, there are also "vole Afo" with poetic feelings; there are "crocodile Cornelius" who insist on being themselves, there are also little mice "Alexander" who want to become others, there are chameleons who dream of having "their own colors", and there are small snails who dream of having "the world's largest house".
These stories incorporate Leoni's deep thinking about life, but they are not preachy at all, not indoctrinated, and use small animals as the protagonists, allowing children to enter the plot without hindrance, experience the mood of the characters, and gain their own insights.
Leadership Temperament - "Little Blackfish"
(1964 Caldecott Awards, New York Times Picture Book of the Year)
Poet's Feelings - "Vole Afo"
(1968 Caldecott Awards, New York Times Picture Book of the Year)
Have a dream, do not forget the original heart - "Matthew's Dream"
(National Reading Association Children's Book Selection Award)
Perseverance – Tilly and the Wall
(Recommended by Publishers Weekly and School Library)
Dare to be the first creativity - "Crocodile Cornelius"
What suits you is the best - "The Biggest House in the World"
You're not a small piece of anyone– Pezzetino
Everyone is the most special existence - "My Own Color"
(Recommended by The New York Times and Publishers Weekly)
Embracing The True Self – Alexander and the Clockwork Mouse
(1970 Caddick Awards)
Teamwork, shared responsibility – "It's Mine!" 》
(National Society for Social Research, Children's Book Society of America Outstanding Children's Book Award)
Experience the Beauty and Power of Collaboration – The Alphabet Tree
Understanding Friendship – A Strange Egg
(School Library of the Year)
Know how to cherish and be grateful - "Fish is Fish"
(American Library Association Book of the Year)
On Self-Esteem and Lies – Theodore and the Talking Mushroom