Tuesday


                                                                                      

 

Plot Summary

 

     Tuesday by David Wiesner is about the impossible. The beginning of the book starts in a swamp around eight on a Tuesday night. A turtle and some fish seem to be surprised and scared to see frogs flying on lily pads. Hundreds of flying frogs fly into a town. Some frogs have fun chasing after birds on telephone wires. At 11:21pm, the frogs fly by a man eating a sandwich in his house, he seems very confused to see flying frogs. (Wiesner 12) The flying frogs then fly into sheets that are on clothes lines. They continue flying and some fly into houses. Then strangely, some frogs watch TV and one uses its tongue to change the channel. As the sun rises over the horizon and hits the frogs, the flying lilies cease to fly and the frogs fall back to the earth. The frogs then find their way back to the ponds from which they came. The people in the neighborhood, which the frogs flew through, are very puzzled. An investigation is started to try to figure out why there are lily pads all over the roads. The book ends with the next Tuesday at 7:58pm, when pigs begin to fly into the air. (Wiesner 30). 

     It is sometimes hard to distinguish between science fiction and fantasy, but Tuesday is not science fiction because on page 9, the TV that is illustrated looks like a TV in today's world. This TV is not any great advancement in science. A story which is classified as science fiction is when the plot could not happen now, but with scientific advancement it could be possible. Thus, I would classify Tuesday to be in the fantasy category. Fantasy stories contain events that could not occur in real life. (Ide, slide 5) Flying fish on lily pads do not and could not exist in real life nor do flying pigs exist either. Because of these events, Tuesday is a fantasy book.

 

 

Textual Elements

 

Tuesday, by David Wiesner, is about many frogs that leave their pond in the evening.  Throughout the night, these frogs fly around on lily pads, going to different houses and doing surprise visits to a couple individuals.  They reach a man’s house while the man is eating a sandwich, and they stop by a woman’s house that dozed off while watching television.  While the frogs stayed outside of the man’s house, the frogs actually went inside of the woman’s living room.  They continue to travel throughout the city during the night, even chasing a dog, until dawn comes.  The frogs then hurry off and jump back into the pond and act like they had been there all night.  Police and investigators find the lily pads that the frogs were traveling on and investigate them.  Next, the book shows a picture of a barn where pigs are flying throughout the air, and this is where the story ends.

http://thewritersideoflife.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/frogs-dogs.jpg

 

This book begins in the evening at a pond. The frogs are then on their lily pads flying around ready for their adventure around the city.  The story then shows them flying throughout different parts of the city, and over a neighborhood filled with many houses.  The next setting is in a man’s house late at night, then back outside where they continuing to fly some more.  They then reach a woman’s house and are inside her living room, then go back outside to fly some more.  The next setting is the frogs in a field where they then jump into the pond, and then pigs start flying in the air near a barn.  Therefore, it is very clear that the setting changes many times throughout the story, based on the frogs’ adventures.  It simply wouldn’t be enough to say that the setting is just in the city because the frogs take on so many situations and arrive at different places that not only contribute to the story line, but actually make the story line.

 

There are many, many frogs that are involved in the story.  These frogs are important because they are the ones traveling throughout the city, creating an adventure for the reader to witness.  There is also a man who is eating a sandwich, and a woman who dozed off while watching television.  Both of these characters receive special visits from these traveling frogs.  There is also a dog that gets chased by the frogs.  Furthermore, there are police and investigators with other dogs doing an investigation of the lily pads that were found in the street.  Lastly. there are flying pigs at the end of the story that replace the flying frogs.  There is also a turtle by the pond and some birds that are in the backgrounds in different scenes in the story.

 

Tuesday is written using third person narration.  This is because someone who is not in the story tells the story.  The book does not state or show who is narrating what is happening, however, it is clear that this person is going along the adventures of the frogs to show to the readers what is occurring in the book.  Pictures are shared as the narrator takes readers throughout the adventures and shares the story from their point of view of watching the frogs travel different places.

 

The main theme of Tuesday is the idea of using your imagination to create magical situations.  Throughout the entire book, magic happens.  The situations that occur are completely unrealistic and could not occur in the real world.  For example, the frogs are flying on lily pads all over the city.  Frogs don’t fly on lily pads in real life, but the entire storyline is focused on that happening.  Therefore, a reader definitely needs to be able to use their imagination to picture this story happening, or else the story wouldn’t exist.  As a result, this theme is extremely visible throughout the book, Tuesday.

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/wiesner/assets/process/finpaint.sm.jpg

 

Tuesday is basically a wordless picture book.  It contains a few dates and times throughout the book, but no other text exists in the book.  These dates and times are in all capital letters and appear as though they are time stamps, simply stating what time it is during that particular part of the book.  These time stamps are in Times New Roman, and they are in black font with a white background.  Therefore, they really stand out and look very simple yet professional.  There are no other texts throughout the book besides these time stamps.

 

 

 

Artistic Elements 

If a Picture Book you also need to include this section, otherwise simply delete it. Strategically and accurately describes some or all of the following artistic elements (this is not an exhaustive list – feel free to expand this). Select and link and/or upload 1-2 illustrations to support analysis: 

  1. Media and Technique
  2. Style of Art
  3. Composition
  4. Placement on page of Illustrations
  5. Line, shape, texture, color, and design
  6. Use of Negative Space
  7. Placement on page of Text
  8. Text design
    1.      Cites references in proper MLA parenthetical style. 

 

Analysis and Critique

Numbered Points are elements that should be included in a complete book entry. 

  1. Literary  and  artistic effectiveness
  2. Author’s perspective, voice, and style
  3. Social relevancy
  4. Overt and/or hidden messages
  5. Interpretation is primarily one’s own.
    1.      Cites any resources used in analysis in proper MLA parenthetically and lists them correctly in REFERENCES section. 

 

 

Citation

Wiesner, David. Tuesday. Illus. David Wiesner. New York: Clarion Books, 1991

Ide, Todd. TE 348 - Session 2, PowerPoint: Criteria for Excellence in Children's Literature

 

References