The Hello, Goodbye Window

Rachel Wang        

Prof. Grice

EDUTL 2368

Feb 29, 2016

Picturebook Analysis Paper

Norton Juster and Chris Raschka’s Caldecott Winning picturebook, The Hello, Goodbye Window tells a warm story between a little girl and her grandparents that happens with a magic window. The little girl loves that window so much because she can see the her grandparents outside of the house and see what interesting things happen outside from the inner kitchen. I am deeply touched by the warm love revealed from the book which reminds me of the old days when I lived with my grandparents. The happy moments are quite similar between theirs and mine. Throughout the picturebook, the author utilizes different techniques to present common family things through new aspects.

In The Hello, Goodbye Window, Chris Raschka illustrates with soft and curve lines. It makes an illusion that the little girl painted all the illustrations. So readers can read the picturebook from the perspective of the little girl, which gives a real feeling that the little girl is telling you the story. Raschka utilizes different lines to present vivid images of the little girl and her grandparents. He uses simple and rough black lines to draw the outline of the figures. The childish brushwork strengthens the evidence that the little girl paints the book. In The Hello, Goodbye Window, there are a lot of smooth curve, not flat and not straight lines and round shapes. According to Molly Bang’s Picture This: How Pictures Work, “Smooth, flat horizontal shapes give us a sense of stability and calm. Curved shapes embraced us and protect us.” I believe that Raschka perfectly exhibits this theory. In the picturebook, I feel tender, warm, peace and home through those unsharp items and soft figures. Raschka painted the figure with round noses, oval heads, and curly hair and beard to show kind grandparents and an active granddaughter. Also, the round table in the kitchen is presented a lot of times because it is said Poppy and Nanna spend most time in kitchen. So the round table kind of serves the function of maintaining the relationship. Some items are not outlined with black lines but some are. Plus, Raschka draws lines with broken strokes and draws Nanna’s glasses with no-round circles. These all look like a kid’s painting drafts that she draws casually and without pressure.

Throughout the whole book Raschka adopts multiple bright and warm-toned colors. It seems like that he uses crayon. The backgrounds of all pages are white and blank. This is another application of Molly Bang’s theory that white and lighter backgrounds let readers feel safer and more comfortable than darker backgrounds as we see more clearly during the day. The illustrator intends to make readers feel comfortable and warm since this is a picturebook about family love. Readers feel calm and get delighted moods when reading this book as there is no dark color. I think white backgrounds are also a hint that it is during daytime. Because Raschka paints the background with deep blue when it comes to night. In contrast with deep blue sky outside the house, the warm orange light from the window makes people feel home atmosphere. In order to show the illustrations are from the perspective of the little girl, Raschka makes some efforts as follows. First, he paints colorful shiny stars in the sky which is not realistic. But kids like colorful things and their thoughts are unrestrained. Also, there are scratchy strokes on the edges of items. It is kind of like kids random brushwork. In The Hello, Goodbye Window, colors are blurry and always mixed together to create a messy feeling. There are some random strokes that I can’t tell what they are but we may say, “wow that’s what a child see in her eyes!” ----Every thing seems so fresh, bright and energetic.

The value and the ideology of the book is what I am interested most about the picturebook. The little girl was born in a mixed-race family as we can see in the book that nanny is brown and poppy is white. They live such a perfect and loving life that indicates the harmonious relationship between different races and it is just a normal thing. Another ideology that conveys in The Hello, Goodbye Window is that the older generation (often refers to grandparents) are always waiting their children or grandchildren. In the picturebook, the little is sent by her parents to her grandparents to spend some leisure time. After one day or two, her parents will pick her up to their own family. That’s why the hello-goodbye window comes forth so frequently. Because it is where the little girl greets her grandparents and says goodbye. As for nanny and poppy, the window becomes a symbol that they leave their love and care on. From my perspective of view, the book is trying to say that the older generation is always waiting for the busy offspring. They are always there. At the beginning of the book, there is a scene that the little girl goes to the poppy and nanny’s house and the picture depicts nanny and poppy’s faces from the window. At the second last page, when the girl is leaving, there is similar scenery that nanny and poppy’s faces appear on the window again to see their granddaughter off. In these two pictures, nanny and poppy’s faces only occupy a comparative small space compared with the big house. The contrast demonstrates grandparents’ loneliness. I feel deep love form those little happy things happen between the little girl and her grandparents. From the Caldecott Medal Acceptance of Chris Raschka (2006), he tells his experience in St. Croix in the Caribbean, where he and his wife took care of several orphans and foster children. He felt sorry for those kids as they suffered from poverty, enslavement, hunger and insecure conditions. I wonder whether this experience triggered Raschka’s desire to paint. In his picturebook, the little girl has a happy and carefree childhood. This might be a beautiful wish of Raschka that he hopes children can be loved.