The open mouths sometimes offer more in the way of expression on these sheep.
The faces of the sheep are two dots for eyes and a curve for a mouth. Or is it that older children have learnt that illustrations done in this style have been created just for them?Ĭhildren respond very well to humorous faces on animals, especially. Notice that board books also tend to make use of this illustration style - I think I heard that young eyes are better able to focus on pictures with clear delineations in form, and this book has me wondering if children prefer this style of illustration even after their eyes have become accustomed to subtle gradations of colour. Horacek’s illustrations are full of bright colours, and the shapes are outlined in black lines. This was the first book illustrated by Judy Horacek, who has since gone on to illustrate more, including Good Night, Sleep Tight and The Story of Growl. Any mention of a bush would be redundant, since there’s a picture of one. The nice thing about the final page is that there is nothing in the text which mentions the bush. But since I have to guess I’d say the author and illustrator worked quite closely on it. That said, for all we know the inspiration to make the sheep green due to the bush came from the illustrator.
Of course a sheep sleeping under a bush looks green, but who else would have thought of it? This is exactly the way a child thinks, before learning that no, the sheep is still sheep-colour - the bush is distinct but green. Mem Fox’s brilliance as a writer for children comes from her ability to see the world in a slightly off-beat way. Sometimes when reading a picturebook I think, ‘Gosh, who would have thought of that, and isn’t it clever?’ This book has that effect on me.
I’m guessing this is the reason my own daughter managed to memorise it, and it makes an excellent early reader, too, as emergent readers will be able to memorise the sentences and then connect them to the text. There will be very few words a 3 year old doesn’t already know. Some (more complex) picturebooks introduce young readers to new situations and, as a consequence, to new words. WONDERFULNESS OF WHERE IS THE GREEN SHEEP?įirst, there is the simplicity of language.
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