Arts, Faculty of
iSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies)
DSpace
UBCV
Tierney, Lynda
Master of Arts - MA
University of British Columbia
This hybrid creative thesis consists of two parts: a creative portion and an academic portion. The creative portion is a printed dummy of my original picturebook The Goodbye Backpack, which portrays the complex and challenging nuances of death and the grieving process. The dummy book includes the written text and four final illustrations. The academic portion of this thesis begins by investigating the prevalence of representations of death in children’s literature, as well as how picturebooks can be used to comfort children after they encounter death. Using the ten structural principles of composition defined by Molly Bang, it continues with a detailed examination of The Goodbye Backpack. By analyzing each spread in the dummy book, it explains how compositional choices—such as the directionality of the lines and the placement of visual elements—can provoke specific emotional responses from readers. This thesis aims to demonstrate the importance of including visual representations of death in children’s picturebooks and clarify how an understanding of death can make it less frightening. It also strives to shed light on the process of creating a visual connotative picturebook that heavily relies on structural principles to tell a story that is emotionally evocative and abstract.
“The Goodbye Backpack”: Applying Structural Design Principles to a Picturebook by Lynda Tierney B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2011 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Children’s Literature) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2020 © Lynda Tierney, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: “The Goodbye Backpack”: Applying Structural Design Principles to a Picturebook Submitted by Lynda Tierney in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Examining Committee: Dr. Kathryn Shoemaker, Language, Literacy, and Education Department __________________________________________________________________ Co-Supervisor Dr. Eric Meyers, Library, Archives, and Information School __________________________________________________________________ Co-Supervisor Maggie De Vries, Creative Writing Department __________________________________________________________________ Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract This hybrid creative thesis consists of two parts: a creative portion and an academic portion. The creative portion is a printed dummy of my original picturebook The Goodbye Backpack, which portrays the complex and challenging nuances of death and the grieving process. The dummy book includes the written text and four final illustrations. The academic portion of this thesis begins by investigating the prevalence of representations of death in children’s literature, as well as how picturebooks can be used to comfort children after they encounter death. Using the ten structural principles of composition defined by Molly Bang, it continues with a detailed examination of The Goodbye Backpack. By analyzing each spread in the dummy book, it explains how compositional choices—such as the directionality of the lines and the placement of visual elements—can provoke specific emotional responses from readers. This thesis aims to demonstrate the importance of including visual representations of death in children’s picturebooks and clarify how an understanding of death can make it less frightening. It also strives to shed light on the process of creating a visual connotative picturebook that heavily relies on structural principles to tell a story that is emotionally evocative and abstract. iv Lay Summary This is a hybrid creative thesis consisting of an academic paper and a creative project. The creative project is a printed dummy of The Goodbye Backpack, a visual connotative picturebook I wrote and illustrated about the emotional journey of death and grief. The goal of the academic portion is to discuss how structural principles of composition can be applied to picturebooks in order to evoke specific emotions. The creative component strives to exhibit these principles within the illustrations and be used as a tool for analysis. It also serves as an original work that parents and guardians can use as an introduction to the challenging and underrepresented subject of death. v Preface This thesis is an original, unpublished, independent work of the author, Lynda Tierney, as a partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts in Children’s Literature Program at the University of British Columbia. This is the academic portion only of a hybrid academic/creative thesis. The creative portion is a picturebook dummy with four finished illustrations entitled The Goodbye Backpack, written and illustrated exclusively by Lynda Tierney. vi Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ...................................................................................................................... iv Preface ................................................................................................................................. v Table of Contents ................................................................................................................ vi Chapter 1: Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Inspiration and motivation ......................................................................... 1 1.2 Significance of this project......................................................................... 3 1.3 Molly Bang’s structural principles ............................................................. 6 Chapter 2: Conceptualizing The Goodbye Backpack ............................................................. 9 2.1 Setting ....................................................................................................... 9 2.2 Characters ................................................................................................ 10 2.3 Developing a visual metaphor .................................................................. 12 2.4 Choosing a colour palette ......................................................................... 13 Chapter 3: Structural analysis of The Goodbye Backpack .................................................... 15 3.1 Spread 1................................................................................................... 15 3.2 Spread 2................................................................................................... 16 3.3 Spread 3................................................................................................... 17 3.4 Spread 4................................................................................................... 18 3.5 Spread 5................................................................................................... 19 3.6 Spread 6................................................................................................... 20 3.7 Spread 7................................................................................................... 21 vii 3.8 Spread 8................................................................................................... 22 3.9 Spread 9................................................................................................... 23 3.10 Spread 10 ................................................................................................. 24 3.11 Spread 11 ................................................................................................. 25 3.12 Spread 12 ................................................................................................. 27 3.13 Spread 13 ................................................................................................. 28 3.14 Spread 14 ................................................................................................. 29 Chapter 4: Cultural context and reading images .................................................................. 31 Chapter 5: Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 34 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 351 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Inspiration and motivation I’ll get right to it: When I was 23, one of my best friends died, and I had no idea how to handle it. Until that point, death had been a stranger to me; it was something I had (thankfully) only witnessed in the movies or on the news. My life was so far removed from it that I was shocked when, without warning, it became the very centre of my life, either eclipsing or altering all other aspects. The grieving process, it turns out, is nothing like one might imagine—it’s neither predictable nor linear. The stages of grief seem to jumble together or occur out of order, and while I have encountered all of them in some form, I have also experienced other more abstract feelings as well. Since then, I have spent a great deal of time exploring these emotions, trying to pin them down and identify them. While everyone’s experience with death is unique and deeply personal, a few emotional themes rise to the top in my journey. The first is a common one: death feels heavy. Despite “losing” a friend, I find death to be more of an addition. It is an experience that can’t be undone or ignored, and I carry it with me into every new situation I enter. The second feeling I associate with death is a pervasive sense of disconnection: from other people, from my interests, and even from myself. I was so transformed by death that, for a while, I didn’t know how I related to anything anymore. When your worldview is based in relativity, an intense event like death can redefine your values and alter your perspectives. Third, and somewhat conversely, death has given me an appreciation for life. The overall negative nature of death is so palpable that it can 2 identify and amplify all of the positive aspects of life by sheer contrast. Over time, the grieving process has made me stronger. Again, this may not be a universal outcome, but dealing with such a painful loss has made me less judgmental and more empathetic—two traits that have improved my life and relationships. Through identifying these emotional responses to death, a narrative for a picturebook begins to take shape. Although my experience with death took place in 2012, it wasn’t until 2017 that I started to formulate The Goodbye Backpack, a picturebook encapsulating my journey through grief. I decided to turn this story into a hybrid project for two reasons: 1) to investigate how composition and other visual elements convey emotions, and 2) to create a comforting yet complex picturebook for children who are dealing with death. Being a multimodal form, a picturebook is an ideal way to express complicated feelings, ones that are difficult to put into words. I use as few words as possible and focus mainly on creating pictures that evoke specific emotional responses. The fewer words I use, the more heavily I rely on the structure of the picture to “speak.” As a visual artist, it can be difficult to verbalize the reasoning behind certain compositional choices; sometimes they just feel right. In this paper, I delve into why they feel right, why they resonate with me. To answer these questions and improve upon my illustrations, I turn to Molly Bang’s insightful text Picture This: How Pictures Work (Bang, 2000). Using her principles of composition, I am able to analyze my own illustrations and communicate how I use structural elements within my pictures to elicit specific emotional responses from the reader. By building on Bang’s influential theories, I aim to add my voice to the 3 discussion surrounding structural composition in picturebooks, expand on her principles, and help other artists better understand their own creative instincts. 1.1.1 The nature of this inquiry My intention is to investigate how the structural composition and visual elements of a picturebook can be used to evoke specific emotional responses from a reader. My research question is: How can Molly Bang’s structural principles be used to analyze, create, and improve illustrations for picturebooks? How do these principles interact with and impact each other? How do the text and pictures balance or affect each other? Using Bang’s structural principles as a lens for my research, my inquiry will produce a picturebook dummy and an in-depth analysis of my creative methods. 1.2 The significance of this project Death can be a difficult topic for parents to discuss with their children. In fact, approximately 35% of parents report shielding their young children from representations of death in books (Gutiérrez, Miller, Rosengren, & Schein, 2014). This impulse, however, opposes the guidance of clinical psychologists, who “have suggested that providing children with additional information about death and the opportunity to make sense of the death of a loved one can act as moderating factors in a child’s bereavement process” (Renaud, Engarhos, Schleifer, & Talwar, 2015). Since the majority of parents first introduce their child to the concept of death between 3 to 3.5 years of age, 4 picturebooks can serve as a safe and familiar tool to begin the discussion (Renaud et al., 2015). Experts on children’s bereavement even “recommend that parents and other adults working with children use books to help children grieve when a loved one dies” (Gutiérrez et al., 2014). Therefore, it would make sense for such an important topic to be widely represented in children’s literature. Yet, this is not the case. Research on popular children’s books between 1993–2004 reveals that as few as 3% of them include a representation of death (Gutiérrez et al., 2014) and between 1990 and 2013, there were no Caldecott Award winners (or honours) that addressed the topic of death (Comellas, 2014, p. 46). This disparity between the needs of parents and the availability of children’s books about death demonstrates a notable gap in the market. The Goodbye Backpack is a picturebook I created about death and how it affects those left behind. It is not didactic or informational, but rather focuses on the feelings that death brings about, thus validating a child’s experience. The intention is not to explain what happens after we die or tell children how to move on; it is simply to develop a connection between the narrative and the reader through a shared experience. The book focuses more on emotion than on plot, and it strives to create a space in which children’s common emotional responses to death—sadness, feelings of non-belonging, and changes in self-perception—are mirrored and legitimized (Andrade, Mishima-Gomes, & Barbieri, 2018, p. 26). Since death can prompt such a wide range of emotions and stem from extremely diverse circumstances, the book needs to be ambiguous enough that anyone experiencing a significant loss can relate to it. The majority of children’s books about death portray either the death of a grandparent or an immediate family member 5 (including pets), and while these are important relationships to represent, they are also quite specific, which can be restrictive (Gutiérrez et al., 2014). According to Shaun Tan, “good narrative illustration is not about illustration at all, in the sense of visual clarity, definition, or empirical observation. It’s all about uncertainty, open-mindedness, slipperiness, and even vagueness” (Tan, 2011, p. 8). Supporting this idea, Marnie Campagnaro argues that visual connotative picturebooks “have a high degree of ambiguity,” which is “an important aesthetic quality because it provides the reader with multiple opportunities to access and interpret the meaning of the story” (Campagnaro, 2015, p. 122). This suggests that the more specific and detailed a picturebook becomes, the less likely a child will be to draw on their own experiences and invest their own meaning into the text. In The Goodbye Backpack, I make ambiguity a priority by using a personified animal as the protagonist and also not specifying their exact relationship to the deceased. The illustrations and circumstances imply that they are friends, but they could just as easily be siblings or parent and child; I leave this open-ended so that readers can project their own experiences onto the narrative. Considering how few visual connotative picturebooks about death there are in publication, and even more specifically ones that do not define the relationship between the protagonist and the deceased, this book fills an important niche that serves to benefit grieving children and their families. In addition, designing The Goodbye Backpack to be a visual connotative picturebook amplifies the necessity of utilizing Bang’s structural principles. By minimizing my word count and instead looking to the visual elements of the illustrations to provoke emotional responses from the reader, my book is suitable for a creative 6 analysis that others can use to better understand the creation of visual connotative picturebooks. In this paper, I provide a detailed explanation of my artistic process and reasoning behind my aesthetic choices, reviewing each illustration spread one at a time. 1.3 Molly Bang’s structural principles In her book Picture This: How Pictures Work, Bang discusses and demonstrates how structural principles can be used to create pictures that are able to affect the viewer’s emotions. Using the well-known story of Little Red Riding Hood as an example, she changes the size, placement, angles, and colours of different visual elements within an illustration to demonstrate how they can change the perceived message or feeling, thus shifting the tone. Though Bang defines ten basic structural principles, they stem from more comprehensive, psychological theories of visual perception by Rudolf Arnheim, a notable semiotic theorist for images. A scholar of Gestalt psychology, Arnheim is considered to be one of the most influential social semioticians (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2005). In his acclaimed work Art and Perception, Arnheim argues that the structure of an image guides us to a specific impression before the principle features are even recognized (Arnheim, 1954/1974, p. 8). According to him, “What a person or animal perceives is not only an arrangement of objects, of colors and shapes, of movements and sizes. It is, perhaps first of all, an interplay of directed tensions” (1954/1974, p. 11). In his later work, Arnheim asserts that human perception is dominated by our universal understanding of gravity, thus impacting the way we read images (1982). Bang uses these semiotic theories to inform her structural principles, making the lens through which I 7 analyze my own illustrations a blend of both of their work on the psychology of an image. While Arnheim goes into more depth through his research, this thesis will focus on Bang’s simplified ten key principles: 1. Smooth, flat, horizontal shapes give us a sense of stability and calm. 2. Vertical shapes are more exciting and more active. Vertical shapes rebel against the earth’s gravity. They imply energy and a reaching toward heights or the heavens. 3. Diagonal shapes are dynamic because they imply motion or tension. 4. The upper half of a picture is a place of freedom, happiness, and triumph; objects placed in the top half often feel more “spiritual.” a. The bottom half of a picture feels more threatened, heavier, sadder, or constrained; objects placed in the bottom half also feel more grounded. 5. The center of the page is the most effective “center of attention.” It is the point of greatest attraction. a. The edges and corners of the picture are the edges and corners of the picture-world. 6. White or light backgrounds feel safer to us than dark backgrounds because we can see well during the day and only poorly at night. 7. We feel more scared looking at pointed shapes; we feel more secure or comforted looking at rounded shapes or curves. 8. The larger an object is in a picture, the stronger it feels. 9. We associate the same or similar colors much more strongly than we associate the same or similar shapes. 10. We notice contrasts, or, put another way, contrast enables us to see. 8 In Chapter 3, I will be using these structural principles as a framework to examine my illustrations for The Goodbye Backpack. 9 Chapter 2: Conceptualizing The Goodbye Backpack In order to use structural principles to provoke an emotional response, the tone of the book and what emotions I want to convey must first be identified. As mentioned previously, the feelings that most resonate with me in my experience with death are emotional heaviness, disconnection, and strength. Representing these is a challenge because all three seem to contradict each other. How can I portray feeling weighed down, yet more capable? How can I depict feeling burdened, yet detached? I came to realize that portraying the inconsistent and paradoxical nature of grief in the images is actually quite powerful, and it is exactly what I will be examining. I use a great deal of contrast in my illustrations—in the colour palette, in the composition, and even by using competing styles—in an effort to epitomize this state of internal conflict and ever-changing journey through grief. In the following sections, I will explain in detail how I accomplish this. 2.1 Setting According to Bang, structural principles are “subservient to context and content—to the picture’s meaning,” so developing a setting that effectively captures the tone of the story is crucial. I need The Goodbye Backpack to take place somewhere that speaks to the tension, exhaustion, and endurance that grief involves, which is why I have set the story at a dog racing track. This could be controversial, as greyhound racing is unlegislated in Canada and actually illegal in many countries (Hirdle, 2019). I don’t want to create a book that inadvertently glorifies something cruel—especially as someone that loves 10 animals—however, I feel confident that the sadness and desperation that is often synonymous with race tracks is what makes it a powerful and relevant setting. I am not choosing it for arbitrary shock value; I am choosing it because it embodies the emotions I want to portray. As long as I portray dog racing somewhat realistically, effectively depicting the grueling nature of it, I feel safe to use it as a backdrop. Another reason I feel strongly about this setting is because of the racing aspect, this relentless marathon that occurs repeatedly. It seems to mirror the emotional endurance involved in grieving. When a significant loss is experienced, grief can start to feel like a full-time job that you wake up to every day. This notion of grief feeling like “work” ties into my character choices as well, which I will discuss in the following section. 2.2 Characters Many factors played into my decision to make the protagonist a greyhound. To start, I have already established that the setting is a race track, so now the characters must belong in that environment. I could have used a human child to fill the role of protagonist, but they would feel out of place given the setting. I considered the possibility of having an adult human protagonist, but decided against it because of the power dynamics it would form. Since the narrative focuses on the death of a dog, having another dog be the protagonist creates an equal relationship and balance of power. Had I chosen an adult human, particularly one that owns the dog, it would result in a power differential and diminish the value of the deceased. Although the deceased dog is exactly that—a dog—I want the reader to view him as a friend, not a pet. This means that the protagonist 11 has to be on an equal value level with the deceased. Children are able to empathize and connect with animal characters just as much as humans because “they realize that these characters show comparable emotions and feelings to their own” (Kümmerling-Meibauer & Meibauer, 2015, p. 156). Having a non-human protagonist also prevents the story from becoming too dark, too realistic. While children can still empathize with an animal character, it’s unrealistic enough that it “[introduces] the concept of fictional space,” which serves to add a layer of emotional protection (Kümmerling-Meibauer & Meibauer, 2015, p. 148). Lastly, greyhounds have a specific job—to run races. I want the protagonist to have an established routine or job that can echo their emotional state. A race is an ideal environment to accomplish this, as it has clearly defined outcomes of success and failure. When the reader sees the greyhound losing due to the weight of his Goodbye Backpack, they can infer their troubled emotional state. It may sound like this asks a lot of children, but research shows that they actually prefer stories that are “visually challenging...with a high aesthetic potential, emotionally pregnant, [and] full of ambiguous and controversial details” (Campagnaro, 2015, p. 131). Essentially, when children are given the opportunity to use their own life experience to interpret the message of a story, they are happy to do it. A race track may be a foreign environment to a child, but the concept of a race is likely familiar to them already. Therefore, given their ability to draw from their own experiences to create meaning, a child is still be able to relate to a greyhound as a character and empathize with their struggle to continue on after the death of a friend. 12 2.3 Developing a visual metaphor Although most of the narrative content is symbolic in nature, there is one central visual metaphor: a backpack. Referred to as the Goodbye Backpack, it symbolizes the posthumous impact of the deceased on the living. I use this metaphor for several reasons, the first being that most children are at least somewhat familiar with a backpack; they understand its function and purpose, which means they know that it is used to carry things around. The idea of “carrying” grief around everywhere you go is a critical aspect of the metaphor. A backpack is also a fairly neutral object—it does not have a common positive or negative connotation. This is also important because, as mentioned in the text of the story, it doesn’t just contain bad things. It also hold precious memories about the deceased. Death brings about many upsetting feelings, but it also resurfaces positive memories which are commonly recounted at funeral services and celebrations of life. In addition, a backpack is merely a container for other things, so its impact is largely based on what it contains. This makes it effective in representing the grieving process because it is subject to change. It can feel light or heavy, it can feel cumbersome, or it can be removed altogether when it’s no longer needed. Lastly, given that the protagonist is non-human, a backpack is somewhat out of place which makes it stand out even more. If the protagonist were human, it would blend into the context more seamlessly and thus lose some of its salience. 13 2.4 Choosing a colour palette Colour is an important means of conveying the tone of a story, and different colour palettes will elicit different emotions. The Goodbye Backpack centers around death, and the overall mood feels detached, so the majority of the illustrations are painted in grayscale. Black, white, and gray are technically not colours at all, and it feels fitting that in the wake of death, life would feel devoid of colour. Furthermore, black and white both symbolize death. Bang acknowledges this, stating, “When Europeans mourn a person’s death, they wear black. Mourners in India and Korea wear white. We say ‘black as death,’ while we say ‘milk-white’ or ‘snow-white.’ But we also say ‘dead-white’” (Bang, 2000, p. 69). By using a black-and-white colour palette, my illustrations are immediately conveying the tone and content of the narrative. In addition, using opposing colours (black and white) creates a high level of contrast in the illustrations, which mirrors the contradictory emotions that the story addresses. The stark contrast within a black-and-white image can convey a sense of severity, but it also serves to minimize extraneous visual noise. I want to funnel down to the most important visual information, and restricting the colour palette allows the content to take precedence. I include one other colour—red—for the Goodbye Backpack, specifically. Being the only pictorial element in colour, especially such a bold colour, highlights its significance and makes it a salient feature of every spread it is featured in. According to Bang, red can symbolize a range of strong emotions including blood and vitality (Bang, 2000, p. 8). It feels appropriate to use a colour that has strong associations with differing sentiments. Lastly, establishing the story using a restricted colour palette allows me to create more powerful 14 full-colour images later on. There are two full-colour illustrations in the entire book, and they are meant to stand apart significantly, perhaps spiritually, from the rest. Having already developed the majority of the story using very few colours, these illustrations are much stronger since they seem unexpected. Had the entire book been illustrated in full colour, these images would have had less salience within the story. 15 Chapter 3: Structural analysis of The Goodbye Backpack In this chapter I will be using Bang’s structural principles as a lens to analyze my illustrations in The Goodbye Backpack. Initially I planned to review each principle individually, but it became clear that how they interact with one another is so important that they cannot be looked at one at a time. The content, context, colours, and structure all influence each other to create meaning, and “the addition of each new element can modify the effect of the other elements or even change them completely” (Bang, 2000, p. 58). Therefore, I will be analyzing each illustration spread, discussing how all of these principles come into play to evoke the intended emotional response from the reader. 3.1 Spread 1 In the first illustration of the book, my goal is to capture a combination of disconnection and sadness. I want the reader to immediately pick up on these heavy emotions. The most important principle I use to achieve this is Principle 8, which states that larger objects feel stronger. Since I want the deceased character’s absence to feel significant, almost palpable, I place their empty bed in the foreground, making it the largest element in the illustration. Enhancing its size gives it a stronger presence, especially in comparison to the protagonist who is quite small because they are further away. The size contrast between these two elements suggests that the protagonist is overwhelmed by the loss of their friend. It also creates a physical distance between the two—and between the reader and the protagonist—which ties into the feeling of 16 disconnection. In addition, the bed is in the bottom half of the image—an area that feels heavier and sadder (Principle 4). While placing it in the center of the page may have drawn the most attention (Principle 5), I place it in the corner because objects near the edge of the page create tension; it needs to stand out but also feel uncomfortable. I then increase this tension by angling the composition using diagonal lines (floorboards) to lead from the bottom to the top corner where the protagonist resides. Aiming the floorboards towards the protagonist also implies an emotional impasse, as “shapes that lean toward the protagonist feel as though they are blocking or stopping progress” (Bang, 2000, p. 22). Lastly, I use a black background to create a sense of “the unknown,” adding fear to the lifelessness the black-and-white images convey (Bang, 2000, p. 68). While later illustrations harbour more emotional nuance, this particular illustration is meant to be unequivocally somber, which is why I use as many structural principles as possible to communicate such a singular meaning. 3.2 Spread 2 In the second spread, the tone shifts from somber to unclear. The text asks, “Are you lost somewhere?” and I want the image to convey that same sense of uncertainty. While I don’t want the image to be as foreboding as the previous one, I still want it to feel uneasy. I achieve this by switching to a lighter background, but still using strong linework to create tension. I angle the sidewalk to form diagonal lines and add street lamps to create vertical lines. This combination conveys a strong feeling of motion and action, balancing the minimal visual content. The most pertinent visual information (the 17 characters and the poster) are kept at the outer edges of the page on opposite sides. Spacing them far apart and close to the edge intensifies the uneasiness, and it also symbolizes their separation (Bang, 2000, p. 62). Since the edges of the picture represent the edges of the “picture-world,” having the characters walking toward the left side makes it feel as though they are leaving the scene. This is done intentionally to communicate emotional forward motion. Essentially, the linework feels active and the characters are leaving it behind. For the poster, I include as little detail as possible to heighten its ambiguity, thereby increasing its sense of uncertainty and discomfort. Is this actually a poster of the deceased? Or is the protagonist imagining it? I also foreground it in the picture which makes it the most salient element, particularly in comparison to the size of the characters. 3.3 Spread 3 In this illustration, my main intention is to build on the sense of instability conveyed in the previous spread. To do this, I switch back to a black background to create a sense of anxiety. Not only does this feel less safe (Principle 6), the alternation between black and white backgrounds feels unstable, mirroring the inconsistent trajectory of grief. It also implies that time has passed, like the rising and setting of the sun. This feels unsettling because very little action has happened within the plot at this point; it’s as though time is passing the protagonist by. The tension is heightened by the slanted perspective of the street and the tall street lamps which form multiple diagonal and vertical lines crossing through each other (Principles 2 and 3). In order to make the 18 protagonist seem affected yet salient, I make him comparatively small within the picture but frame him in the brightness of the window. The contrast between the darkness outside and the light inside draws the viewer’s eye to the protagonist even though he is small. It also suggests that there exists a disconnect between the inner and outer world of the protagonist, as he is technically safe and warm inside a well-lit home, but he is staring outside where it appears unstable. 3.4 Spread 4 This illustration is meant to signify an emotional transition away from the listlessness and instability of the prior three spreads. Most obviously, this is the first instance of colour in the book, which brings attention to the Goodbye Backpack and implies significance. I use red because it is a bold colour that can symbolize a variety of strong emotions. It can feel both intimidating and lively, and I want to portray the Goodbye Backpack as a point of vitality in an otherwise dreary setting. This spread is also the first to use horizontal lines, as the previous spreads rely heavily on diagonal shapes. According to Bang, horizontal shapes create a sense of “stability and calm” because of our subconscious awareness of gravity (Bang, 2000, p. 42). When a shape lies horizontal on the page, it feels steady on the ground. For this reason, I include several horizontal shapes to signify a shift in the grieving process towards stability. I also add vertical lines to create movement between the protagonist and the Goodbye Backpack using the floorboards and bed slats. This leads the reader’s eye from one to the other, establishing a connection and movement between them. I also chose to break up this 19 spread into two separate illustrations, one showing the perspective from behind the protagonist and one from behind the Goodbye Backpack. Alternating between the two points of view creates tension because it emphasizes the space between them (Bang, 2000, p. 89). It also allows both the protagonist and the Goodbye Backpack to be the most prominent element within the same spread, strengthening the tension by making it feel like a battle between them. Which one is the strongest? 3.5 Spread 5 The fifth spread shows years of memories flying out of the backpack and is meant to provoke feelings of nostalgia. In order to make it clear that these are memories and not the present reality, this illustration needs to differentiate itself from the others in a noticeable way. By using pure black and white instead of grayscale, I signal that this illustration and scene should be interpreted differently. Since perception is based on contrast (Principle 10), seeing an abrupt change in the colour scheme implies that this moment is not based in the same reality as the others, giving it a dream-like quality. The background is entirely black, which could seem scary (Principle 6), but the content of the image balances this with visions of positive memories and associations. The stark contrast between the black background and the white line work also gives salience to the memories. Because the black masks all of the extraneous details of the picture, the memories stand out as though they are the only thing that matters in that moment. Collectively, the memories take up a large portion of the page and they arc above the protagonist. This makes them feel powerful but also magical and “spiritual” (Principle 4). 20 They fly upwards with vertical energy, but then curve downward encircling the protagonist. This illustration uses Bang’s structural principles to identify it as a spiritual turning point prompted by nostalgia and bursting with positive energy. 3.6 Spread 6 Similar to the second spread, this illustration is intended to evoke a sense of uneasiness without feeling threatening. At this point in the narrative, the protagonist has discovered what lies inside of the Goodbye Backpack, so while it may feel uncomfortable, it isn’t as ominous. According to Bang, when the identity of an “unknown menace” is revealed, it becomes less scary; the possibility of what lies hidden is always more frightening than reality (Bang, 2000, p. 28). So now that we know the Goodbye Backpack contains memories of the deceased, the scene feels more calm. I still want to keep some uneasiness, so I slant the perspective to make it look off-kilter. In film, this is a technique called a Dutch Angle, and it creates tension by forming diagonal lines which rebel against our understanding of gravity (Principle 3). I revert back to using grayscale and red for this illustration, which has now become the default palette of the book. This offsets some of the instability created by the angled composition, especially given the use of white and lighter gray tones; it feels mostly safe (Principle 6). This impression is also evident within the body language of the protagonist, as he is partially hidden and stepping gingerly into the room. The Goodbye Backpack, however, is no longer tucked away under the bed—it is centered in the room and facing the protagonist, perhaps inviting him to approach. There is a great deal of space between them as well, amplifying the sense of 21 hesitation. Balancing this, even though the Goodbye Backpack is foregrounded, the downward perspective allows it to be a similar size to the protagonist which suggests that they have equal power in the situation (Principle 8). In fact, it looks like they’re squaring off. When combined, these structural principles create an uneasy yet relatively benign tone within the illustration. 3.7 Spread 7 The aim of this spread is to portray a feeling of stagnation. This illustration depicts the protagonist participating in a race, but I negate the impression of forward motion by using only horizontal lines (Principle 1). These stabilize the picture, making it feel calm—an unusual quality for a race. I also make the perspective directly facing the characters, all of whom are the same distance from the viewer. This depletes any depth from the picture, giving it a two-dimensional appearance. In a way, the composition is intentionally dull as though the spark of life the protagonist once held has been snuffed out. I signify the protagonist’s failure by including several other greyhounds ahead of him, racing off the page. This contrast between the protagonist’s placement on the page and the other characters’ creates a sense of falling behind; without the other characters, this is less obvious (Principle 10). It also alludes to the emotional weight of the Goodbye Backpack which is hindering the protagonist’s ability to run and move forward; his grief is holding him back. I not only use a white background, but a white foreground as well. The scene is not meant to be scary, but merely static. In fact, almost the entire picture is devoid of colour or detail. By including minimal visual information, the atmosphere 22 becomes difficult to navigate. We can see that the protagonist is running, but is he gaining any ground? Without more context to ground the viewer in the setting, it feels like the protagonist is floating. He is easily identifiable by the red backpack, but against the stark white background, even that appears washed out. Vast amounts of white space activate all of the colour receptors in our eyes, preventing them from resting (Bang, 2000, p. 69). This ties into the sense of exhaustion and stagnation evident within the scene, suggesting that the protagonist has reached a temporary stalemate in the grieving process. 3.8 Spread 8 Immediately this illustration appears more active than the previous one. Even though both use the same race track setting, this one has a sense of movement and energy. I achieve this by using diagonal lines in the structure of the picture, showing the race track from an angle that makes it recede into the distance (Principle 3). The white background remains, continuing the sense of safety from the previous spread. The protagonist is now at the right edge of the picture, pulling tension in that direction and ostensibly exiting the frame which creates forward movement. Although the protagonist is clearly visible, the main focus of this picture is the owner watching from the stands. He is the most prominent element within the frame, as he is foregrounded and taking up substantial space. He was technically introduced in the second spread when he is walking with the protagonist, but he had no depth to his character; our focus was still on the emotions of the protagonist. In this scene, however, we learn that he too is grieving the same loss, as he is also pictured wearing a Goodbye Backpack. Colour association is a 23 strong tool in this illustration, especially given the limited use of colour (Principle 9). By having the owner wear a backpack the same red colour as the protagonist’s, it conveys that he is enduring a similar experience. Until this point, he was a flat character. By using the principle of colour association, he becomes dynamic and we gain insight into his emotional state. Essentially, a subplot is formed in this illustration, adding depth to the narrative. The sterile and static structure of the previous spread juxtaposes the active and emotionally engaging structure of this one, emphasizing the inconsistent and paradoxical nature of grief. Furthermore, the characters are spaced far apart but making eye contact, implying an understanding of the grief they both carry but not acknowledging it outright. This strengthens the tension between them. 3.9 Spread 9 This is the first illustration in which the protagonist’s strength begins to shine through. All of the illustrations prior to this focused on the disconnection and emotional heaviness associated with losing a loved one, but this picture signifies the start of healing. In Spread 7, the protagonist was pictured in a static composition and losing a race due to the heaviness of the backpack. In this illustration, despite being in the same setting, it feels energized. The composition uses diagonal lines to create movement, making the protagonist appear more lively (Principle 3). He is placed in the foreground and also centered on the left page which makes him the most salient element and attracts the viewer’s attention (Principles 8 and 5). His size on the page positions him as strong, suggesting that this is a turning point in the narrative. This is confirmed by the text. The 24 white background continues the sense of safety, but it feels less bland because of the action within the scene. This supports Bang’s assertion that structural principles work by interacting with each other to create meaning. All of the visual elements of the picture come together to transition the story from a somber and detached tone to one of resilience and strength. 3.10 Spread 10 In this illustration, the protagonist is shown receiving an award for winning the race, and the atmosphere is joyful and excited. However, we are not really celebrating his win—we are celebrating his triumph over the negative impacts of death. It’s not about his ability to run fast, but his ability to move on and succeed even under the weight of grief. The Goodbye Backpack is still visible, but it is partially obscured by the rose garland—a symbol of his success—draped around his neck. According to Bang, “As soon as two objects overlap, the overlapping object ‘takes the space’ of the covered one” (Bang, 2000, p. 86). This is important in this composition because it suggests that his grief and memories of his friend still exist, but they are no longer as dominant. The protagonist is placed in the center of the right page to draw attention to him in a positive way and all of the other elements in the image are situated at a lower point. Making him the highest element portrays a feeling of freedom—from grief and sorrow—and happiness (Principle 4). A subtle diagonal line is created using the bleachers in the background, and this amplifies the excitement from the crowd (Principle 3). I want it to feel as though everyone is cheering on the protagonist for successfully progressing through his 25 emotional journey. If I had used a horizontal line for the background composition, it would have felt more static and, therefore, less emotive, much like Spread 7. I use a white background for this spread but include vague impressions of the crowd, making it more lively. The owner is present in this illustration as well, and we can see his Goodbye Backpack partially visible behind his body. Once again, the colour association between the two backpacks creates a connection between the characters, only this time it suggests that the owner is progressing in tandem with the protagonist. 3.11 Spread 11 The purpose of this spread is to provoke a sense of nostalgia in order to begin to bring the narrative full circle. I achieve this by using a similar setting to Spread 4 when the protagonist discovers the Goodbye Backpack for the first time. In Spread 11, he is revisiting the Goodbye Backpack—and the memories it contains—for the first time in many years, so using a similar scene harkens back to the original feeling of discovery. Although colour association is often stronger, developing an association through the use of similar composition still has a subtle impact. I place ample space between the protagonist and the Goodbye Backpack by putting them on opposite pages, and I foreground the latter. This makes it the most prominent feature of the illustration and signifies its salience (Principle 8). It is also hanging on the back of a door that overlaps a portion of the illustration, suggesting that it is invading the space of the protagonist, but also joining them “together into a single unit” (Bang, 2000, p. 86). Having gradually diminished its salience over the duration of the story, placing the Goodbye Backpack at 26 the foreground once again conveys a need to reconnect with it. The colour palette is much lighter in this spread than in Spread 4, however, implying that the protagonist is revisiting these memories and emotions from a place of calm acceptance. The Goodbye Backpack is still a strong force, but it feels inviting rather than foreboding because of the implied safety of the light background (Principle 6). I use the angle of the room to create diagonal lines, drawing the viewer’s eye from the protagonist to the Goodbye Backpack and portraying a sense of movement in the scene (Principle 3). There are also vertical lines created by the corner of the room and the door frame which makes the composition feel more active and implies “energy and a reaching toward heights or the heavens” (Principle 2). This is an important connotation because the story is based around death, and suggesting the possibility of an afterlife (either real or metaphorical) gives a sense of hopefulness in an otherwise challenging narrative. Lastly, while the structure of the picture plays a role in conveying a nostalgic tone, it is amplified by the content as well. A photograph of all three characters hangs on the wall, generating a sense of sentimentality and recalling a memory from happier times when they were all together. Looking at this spread, the photograph, protagonist, and Goodbye Backpack form a triangle in the composition. This signals that all three are connected and relevant in this scene which emphasizes that nostalgia and a reconnection to old emotions are important overtones. 3.12 Spread 12 Right away, there is an obvious shift in this spread. I want this illustration to be high-impact and symbolize a release from the emotional shackles of the physical world. While the majority of the previous illustrations portrayed the dark emotions associated 27 with death, this one portrays the other side of it: the release from suffering. This juxtaposition ties to the theme of death being a paradoxical experience, and it also introduces the idea of continuing on in some form—whether that be in an afterlife or in the memories of those left behind. Basically, this spread needs to counter the negative emotions initially established (heaviness and disconnection) with their polar opposites (freedom and reunification). To accomplish this, I use a wider range of colours to paint the illustration rather than using a limited palette. This immediately differentiates it from the rest of the book by creating a strong contrast, indicating that there has been a major shift in tone (Principle 10). I intentionally include a lot of red using red flowers to create a colour association between the Goodbye Backpack and this new spiritual plane. This suggests that the backpack is connected to this place, and perhaps even served to lead the protagonist to it. It’s as though all of the grief and sorrow he carried until this point now makes sense. I also add more detail and blending which makes the atmosphere appear less harsh. Since pointed shapes are discomforting, giving the setting a softer appearance by blending together the colours and avoiding the use of harsh outlines creates a sense of safety and comfort (Principle 7). I emphasize the horizon line to create a calming and stable composition, but I also use the trees to form subtle diagonal lines leading from the protagonist to the deceased (Principles 1 and 3). By doing so, I establish tension between them but in a safe environment. The lines draw them together and encourage forward motion. I reinforce this feeling by foregrounding the protagonist to make the reader feel closer to him while placing the deceased at the top of the illustration. Once again, there is distance creating tension, only this time the context and setting is welcoming and implies an imminent, joyful reunion. I considered using a white background to emphasize this 28 sentiment, but I feel that the connotation of a sunset conveys it more effectively: a sunset represents a beautiful ending. The deceased stands atop a hill in front of the setting sun, encouraging the protagonist to join them, to move on. The structure of the picture helps communicate this message by creating a sense of forward motion and calm. 3.13 Spread 13 This spread depicts the owner finding a second Goodbye Backpack, that of the protagonist. I revert back to the grayscale and red colour palette to signal the return to “reality” and the melancholic mood that accompanies it. The spread is divided into two illustrations to give two different perspectives on the same scene: one close up and one zoomed out. Since we read illustrations from left to right, the reader initially sees the two backpacks side-by-side, conveying that the protagonist has passed away. We see a shadow cast across them, but we don’t know what it is from until we shift our gaze to the second page and see the owner standing over them. Dividing the spread into two illustrations provokes two consecutive emotional responses; first the reader realizes the protagonist has died, and then they feel the emotional impact it will have on the owner. Not only does this division allow for successive reactions within the same spread, it also refers back to the composition of Spread 4, when the protagonist found his Goodbye Backpack under the bed. Essentially, this illustration brings the story full circle and hints at a new story based around the owner. 29 I considered including only the protagonist’s Goodbye Backpack in the illustration, but I want it to be clear that this is an additional backpack. Having both also suggests that the two characters are still together in some form, which builds on the message of the previous spread. Furthermore, it creates more emotional weight for the owner to carry, alluding to the long journey he has ahead of him in order to heal. This may seem like a grim intimation, but since we have already seen the protagonist work through their grief and become stronger through it, the scene does not feel hopeless. On the left page I use vertical lines in the floorboards to create movement towards the Goodbye Backpacks, but I keep the bottom of the wall horizontal on both pages to maintain stability (Principles 1 and 2). The right page has a more static composition and lighter background, much like Spread 7, which revives the sense of emotional heaviness and exhaustion that was developed earlier. In keeping with the theme of grief being a non-linear process, the structure of this illustration deviates from the structure of the one preceding it and resurrects former feelings of sorrow and disconnection. 3.14 Spread 14 The last illustration of the book sees a return of the joyful and free tone of Spread 12. Here the protagonist and his deceased friend are seen playing in a field, indicating that they have reunited in some form. By ending the book with this image, it finishes on a positive but open-ended message about the continuation of life after death. Although this illustration is not yet finalized, I plan to use the same full-colour palette and detailed blending to create a similarly soft and ethereal atmosphere to Spread 12, making sure to include the same red flowers that connect to the red Goodbye Backpack 30 (Principle 9). I am only using one page for this illustration in order to place the two characters directly in the centre of the page; this is not possible with a two-page spread because the gutter interferes with the composition. The message and emotions this illustration is aiming to evoke from the viewer are fairly simplistic, and scaling back to one page allows me to keep the characters as the main point of attraction (Principle 5) and avoid the impulse to include extraneous visual information in an effort to fill an additional page. Since so many of the prior compositions use a lot of space between the characters in order to create tension and disconnection, I want to make sure that they are close together in this illustration to strengthen the sense of togetherness and reunification. Reducing the composition to one page emphasizes their closeness. The background will be kept a light colour similar to Spread 12 in order to continue the same feeling of safety. The perspective is level but without a definite horizon line. This creates stability but feels less grounded in the real world, as this picture is meant to have a celestial quality. 31 Chapter 4: Cultural context and reading images Being a fourth-generation Canadian, my interpretation of images is solidly anchored in Western culture. Molly Bang was raised in North America, and her theories derive from Rudolf Arnheim, who is of German descent. This means my lens for analysis in this paper is Eurocentric and based in Western culture. This is not necessarily an issue, as it aligns with the setting of The Goodbye Backpack, but it does prompt questions about how people from other cultures may read the book differently. Specifically, are the structural principles applicable cross-culturally? According to Kress and Van Leeuwen, the interpretation of an image can vary based on the culture of the person viewing it. In Western cultures, images are read much like words, using top-bottom, left-right structure, but this is not consistent among all cultures. “All cultures work with margin and centre, left and right, top and bottom, even if they do not all accord the same meanings and values to these spatial dimensions. And the way they use them in their signifying systems will have relations of homology with other cultural systems, whether religious, philosophical or practical” (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2005, p. 192). Considering this, I must acknowledge that some of the subjective representations and meanings I perceive as clear may not be interpreted the same way. While this may not be a major issue for publication within Canada, the composition would need to be analyzed using a cross-cultural lens if the book were to be translated into languages that differ in directionality from English. This would impact the placement of the text as well, as the book contains several two-page spreads in which the text is split between opposite pages in order to create a specific pace and rhythm. This may result in repositioning the text in accordance 32 with the directionality of the translated language. Overall, since the structural principles are based on a universal understanding of gravity, their interpretation should remain consistent regardless of the cultural background of the viewer. Expanding beyond the structural principles, the setting of the story may hold alternate connotations among different cultures. Global views on dog racing range from entertaining to barbaric, even illegal in many parts of North America. As previously mentioned, The Goodbye Backpack is not about dog racing; this is merely the setting. Rather than glorify it, I wanted to tap into its harsh nature in order to mirror the struggle of dealing with grief. This means that I am relying on the reader to perceive dog racing as—at the very least—gritty. In the United States, “increased public awareness that dog racing is cruel and inhumane, in addition to competition from other forms of gambling, has led to the nationwide decline of greyhound racing” (Humane Society of the United States, 2019). Within Canada, greyhound racing is actually most popular in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, meaning the perception of it may be less severe there (Hirdle, 2015). My intention is that readers will pick up on the sense of brutality inherent in the setting, but also understand that it is a metaphor for grief, not a literal commentary on dog racing. This is something I struggled with at length when creating the book because illustrating and acknowledging the full extent of the abuse that occurs in greyhound racing, while a valid pursuit, is simply not the point of the story. If I had portrayed an exact replication of how racing greyhounds often live, illustrating them muzzled, in cages, and isolated from human affection, the story would cease to be about the journey through grief and become too disturbing for young children. At the end of the 33 day, I have to compromise on how accurately I reflect the reality of dog racing in order to effectively reflect the reality of death and grief. Lastly, there are endless ideas of what happens to us after we die, and these vary among cultural groups. Many religions preach the existence of an afterlife, but these interpretations differ wildly from one religion or culture to the next. Some people maintain a more broad, unique understanding of mortality, while others believe there is nothing after death. I do not want to narrow my focus to a specific belief system, as this would be restrictive and non-inclusive. My intention is to instill a sense of hope and existence beyond the physical self, but keep it abstract enough to invite readers to project their own ideas onto the narrative. If a parent reading the book to their child wants to use this book as a way to begin a conversation about their own beliefs about life and death, there is ample narrative space to do so. Whether or not people go to a physical place like Heaven, the memory of them does continue in the hearts and minds of those that loved them. Furthermore, as terrible as death may seem, there is no suffering after death. By creating an ethereal atmosphere that feels warm and inviting while still ambiguous, death feels less frightening, regardless of what comes after. Overall, the metaphorical and abstract nature of The Goodbye Backpack invites readers to examine the concept of death using their own lived experience, which could result in varied but equally meaningful interpretations. 34 Chapter 5: Conclusion Chemist Antoine Lavoisier famously said, “matter is neither created nor destroyed,” a scientific truth that can be applied to the grieving process. When someone dies, what happens to the love and memories we have with them? As anyone who has experienced a significant loss can attest, they do not just disappear—They transform into a plethora of challenging emotions the survivors must navigate. The Goodbye Backpack portrays that process and the struggle of grieving. Using abstract, connotative illustrations and minimal text, the book leans strongly on structural principles of composition—in addition to context and content—to evoke powerful feelings of heaviness, disconnection, inconsistency, and resilience in the reader. Molly Bang’s book Picture This serves as the lens through which I create and analyze my illustrations, giving rationale to the often tacit reasoning behind artistic choices. The structural principles explain how the orientation of a line can create movement or the size of a shape can indicate importance. They can even describe why a specific colour makes us feel angry while another dredges up a sense of nostalgia. While all ten of Bang’s principles are used together in different combinations to provoke specific emotional responses, the most impactful ones in my project relate to the directionality of the lines (Principles 1 to 3). My illustrations demonstrate how simply changing the angle of a line can shift our perception of a scene, especially how a sense of instability can be created by repeatedly alternating between diagonal and horizontal linework in a picturebook. The use of colour also plays a prominent role in my project. 35 Picture This effectively articulates how the principle of colour association functions within an illustration, but The Goodbye Backpack focuses more closely on how the absence and delayed introduction of colour within a multi-page work can evoke emotions that are specific to the grieving process. Linework and colour work in tandem in my project to emphasize or balance out one another as needed. Thus, The Goodbye Backpack expands on Bang’s work by illustrating the interplay of the structural principles and how they operate throughout a complete picturebook, not just a standalone image. It also highlights how repetition of (and deviation from) certain structural principles can direct a reader’s emotional journey over the course of a story. This is valuable information for authors and illustrators of picturebooks, as it offers them a framework for analysis of their own stories in the same format in which they work. This will enable them to critique their illustrations more thoroughly and thereby strengthen their picturebooks. 36 References Andrade, M. L. d., Mishima-Gomes, F. K. T., & Barbieri, V. (2018). Children’s grief and creativity: The experience of losing a sibling. Psico-USF, 23(1), 25-36. doi:10.1590/1413-82712018230103 Arnheim, R. (1974). Art and visual perception: A psychology of the creative eye. University of California Press. (Original work published 1954). Arnheim, R. (1982). The power of the center: A study of composition in the visual arts. University of California Press. Bang, M. (2000). Picture this: How pictures work. Chronicle Books. Comellas, K. R. (2014). A less than perfect world: Representation of death in award-winning picture books (Document No. FSU_migr_etd-9161) [Master’s thesis, Florida State University]. DigiNole: FSU’s Digital Repository. Campagnaro, M. (2015). ‘These books made me really curious’: How visual explorations shape the young readers’ taste. In J. Evans (Ed.), Challenging and controversial picturebooks: Creative and critical responses to visual texts (pp. 121-143). Routledge. 37 Humane Society of the United States. (2019). Greyhound racing FAQ. https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/greyhound-racing-faq#public Gutiérrez, I.T., Miller, P.J., Rosengren, K.S., & Schein, S.S. (2014). III. Affective dimensions of death: Children’s books, questions, and understandings. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 79(1), 43-61. doi:10.1111/mono.12078 Hirdle, D. (2019, May 31). Greyhound racing and best Canadian greyhound racing online betting sites. Betting.ca. https://www.betting.ca/greyhound-betting Kress, G., & Van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge. Kümmerling-Meibauer, B., & Meibauer, J. (2015). Beware of the fox! Emotion and deception in Fox by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. In J. Evans (Ed.), Challenging and controversial picturebooks: Creative and critical responses to visual texts (pp. 144-159). Routledge. Renaud, S., Engarhos, P., Schleifer, M., & Talwar, V. (2015). Children’s earliest experiences with death: Circumstances, conversations, explanations, and parental satisfaction. Infant and Child Development, 24(2), 157-174. doi:10.1002/icd.1889 38 Tan, S. (2011). The accidental graphic novelist. Bookbird, 49(4), 1-9. doi:10.1353/bkb.2011.0063 The Goodbye BackpackBy Lynda Tierneyendpaper Half titlePublisher information Full titleThey told me that you died today. I’m not sure what that means. Are you lost or stuck somewhere?Are you coming back?I don’t know.But you left something behind for me ,something to remember you by.A Goodbye Backpack.It’s a gift that only I can see.Every memory we have together is tucked inside. I found it overwhelming at first. I didn’t know quite what to do with it. It made everything feel more difficult, even the things I’m usually good at doing.Other people have their own Goodbye Backpacks. Sometimes you can see them if you pay close attention. But carrying the weight of my love for you made me stronger, and so, gradually, it felt lighter and lighter.Until I was almost back to who I was when you were still here.Only now, I had the strength of an old friend with me everywhere I went.Eventually, I stopped wearing it because you had become a part of me. So I hung it up for a long, long time. Until one day, many years later, I knew it was time to open it—to remember the unspoken alliance, the silly faces, the private jokes, the mischief, the love, and ultimately the loss. one last time.Before I left my own for someone else to carry.
Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Children's Literature
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
"The Goodbye Backpack" : applying structural design principles to a picturebook
Text