Pitching The Night Before Playoffs
By Kian Lam
Why this book?
The Night Before Playoffs is a wonderful children’s picture book for children aged 3-5. Though simple and easy to read, The Night Before Playoffs matters greatly because of its themes and artistic expression. For starters, the book is strongly influenced by Canadian culture, which is fantastic to see in a children's picture book. The book is all about hockey, which is a classic Canadian sport. There is always a need to have more representation of Canadian authors and illustrators, so Stella Partheniou Grasso and Paula Becker would be the perfect candidates to fit the part.
Picture This: Principles
The next reason The Night Before Playoffs matters is because it demonstrates Molly Bang’s structural principles of illustration. Bang’s structural principles were an important component of this course, and an another book that exhibits these principles is The Night Before Playoffs. In the book, we can see that the larger the characters are, the more intimidating they appear. Rabbit also has rounder features, such as his circular nose, his oval ears, and his round face, to make the reader feel more comfortable, whereas Bighorn has more sharp and pointy features, such as his pointy teeth and sharp horns, to make readers feel more scared. These characters demonstrate a competitive nature through the added facial expressions of focus and determination as each player tries to win the game. Overall, Paula Becker paid a lot of attention to the details of her illustrations, and it certainly shows throughout the book. With a greater emphasis on the book’s illustrations, I believe that The Night Before Playoffs would be an excellent addition to this course’s reading catalogue.
Sources
Bang, Molly. Picture This: How Pictures Work., 2000.
Kapasi, Reagan. “The Night before Playoffs.” CM: Canadian Review of Materials, https://www.cmreviews.ca/node/2827. Accessed 20 February 2022.
"The Night Before Playoffs." Scholastic Inc., https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/the-night-before-playoffs/. Accessed 20 February 2022.