A few weeks ago, I wrote about my disappointment in the fact that most children's books about winter seem to center mostly around snow. At that point, we on the east coast were suffering through a cold month sans snow. Well, be careful what you wish for. Now the snow outside our home is taller than my two-year-old. We have so much snow here that it's hard to even go sledding! And so I began a search for some new (or new to us) books about snow. I searched our collection for the word 'snow' but titles can be deceiving. Though there are great books on snow with 'snow' in the title, there are many that don't include the word - some of my favorites: Owl Moon and The Mitten, Annie and the Wild Animals, to name a few. This search got me thinking about titles (I felt like Carrie Bradshaw as I wrote that line. Or Jerry Seinfeld: What's the deal with titles?) When I taught my middle and high school students how to come up with a title for their work, we focused on these four different approaches:
The Main Idea: The Snowy Day
A line from the story: Going on a Bear Hunt
A Metaphor: The Mitten, Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird
A Question: Where is Baby's Belly Button?
Obviously many of these approaches overlap. The main idea could be a metaphor and a line from the story, but you get the idea. But there's no doubt that a title is important. It's one of the key factors that draws a reader to a particular work--or repels them from it.
I think the idea of titles is most interesting when thinking of artwork and how knowing the title may influence your opinion of the work. A year or so ago I wrote about one my favorite books that I read to both of my kids when they were babies: baby loves by William Lach featuring the art of Mary Cassatt (one of my favorite artists). Click here to read more about this lovely book and other books for babies. So at the end of this book, there are thumbprints of Cassatt's work with the original titles. My favorite page is called "Baby Cuddles" - it's of a woman cradling a little girl on her lap. The woman and child stare at each other in a loving embrace.
And guess what this painting is called? "Nurse and Child"...now perhaps this shouldn't alter my view of this painting, but it does. Not that the connection between these two should appear any less significant, but in my mind this was a mother and her child - it's a snapshot of where I view myself right now. I see myself and my four-year-old daughter as this little girl. But titles are funny things. Cassatt painted many images of mothers with their children, and perhaps this is why I was thrown off by this title. This experience makes me appreciate artwork that is labeled by a number - like Rothko's late paintings or works by Jackson Pollock. There are no illuminations brought on by telling titles for these works. These are the kind of exhibits that make you run for those headphones at the museums to break it all down for you.
Oh but this post was originally about books on snow, right? We love Snow Bear by Piers Harper. In this case, what you read is what you get. Snow Bear is about a bear in the snow... it's a "Touch Me" book with soft-to-touch animals - a polar bear, an owl, a deer. A little polar bear is temporarily separated from his mother and goes on a beautiful snowy adventure, that reminded me of images from Winter's Tale (Helprin not Shakespeare). But we haven't found many more...what are your favorite books about snow?
So a little refresher course...here are three different ways I could have titles this post:
The Main Idea: On Snow and Titles
A line from the story or essay: Headphones at the Museum
A Metaphor: Nurse and Child
A Question: What's The Deal With Titles?
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