Show and Tell: The Visual Evocation of Orality in Peter Sís' A Small Tall Tale From The Far Far North

Abstract

v/rality1 is inevitably an important aspect of the literature meant to educate and entertain young children. Nursery rhymes, storytelling, reading aloud from books—these offer important entry points into literary worlds, especially to pre-literate children. The relationship between the spoken and the written word, however, is typically hierarchical in that the oral is generally seen in modern culture as a stepping stone towards the higher good of reading for oneself. The phase of oral narratives and poems in many educational programs is kept as brief as possible and is more or less abruptly terminated as soon as the child begins to comprehend the printed word. The diminishing value of the oral and the increasing respect for the written has been noted by such early classics as Charlotte's Web, which emphasizes the regenerative potential of the wise spider's songs and stories even as it represents the superior power of the written word to affect individual destinies. The displacement of oral modes of literary transmission by print culture is, of course, irreversible. However, in spite of the fact that creators of children's literature are constrained to the choice of print as a medium for their art, some writers, such as Peter Sis, have sought to evoke the fading echo of the oral into the silent realm of the textual by their innovations. To date, critical interest has focused on the verbal evocation of orality, but picture books invite us to consider the visual evocation of orality. Linguistic experiments that use the printed word to suggest the richness of the spoken one have been encouraged by the growing concern with ethnic roots in the past few decades. Alfred Burns, for instance, has commented upon the adaptations of ancient Mexican myths and stories for children that seek to recreate the oral roots of the narratives by the use of rhythm and typography to convey the different voices and tones of the speakers. Michelle Pagni Stewart also notes the significance of orality in ethnic cultures. She uses the notion of