Podcasts
Introduction of guests
Zhong Yu
Editor-in-chief of Game Force Studio, senior parenting media person, former editor-in-chief of "Parents' World" and "Me and Baby" magazine; author of parenting books "Grow Up With Companionship"; translation and publication of parenting books "Friends or Enemies", "Grotesque Parenting", "Raising Daughters", "No Yelling, No Screaming, How to Calmly Let Children Cooperate with Parents", etc.; Translation of picture books "Come catch me, big monster!" "Little Me Big Me", "No Tiger Anywhere", "Rabbit Out to Sea" and so on.
Excerpts from the program
Anthony Brown, who can't be avoided
Ajia
Anthony Brown's work is numerous, and the vast majority of them are available in Chinese editions, and you may have accidentally bought one of his books. His books are rich in genres, such as "My Dad", "My Mom", "My Brother", "Our Little Girl" is a picture book with family themes, "Zhu Family Story" and "Zoo" are about social topics, "Gorilla", "Voices in the Park", etc. are picture books that talk about inner and psychological, so no matter what level you are looking for, you can always meet an Anthony Brown book, because his works are many and rich in layers. Many children's book lovers or children's book researchers will find themselves always coming across Anthony Brown's books.
Zhong Yu
No matter what the needs of parents, whether you want to be popular, lively, easy to understand, or want to be warm and can be deeply read and think with children, the reading needs of Anthony Brown at all levels can be met.
"Surreal" works
Ajia
Anthony Brown's work has a characteristic style, "surrealist", his paintings are sometimes as precise as photographs, and the content in them may exist in real life, and of course, a lot exists in the imagination. He has a lot of dreams-related works, in the bear series the bear with a pen walking on the road, when it encounters the lion and feels danger, it picks up the paintbrush and draws a pit, the lion falls into the pit The crisis is lifted, and the story is between reality and fantasy. Anthony Brown is a creator who reflects reality in a fantasy way, using the language of an original picture book to tell all problems, from children's careful thinking to major social issues. The reader can dispense with the issues reflected behind the book, because the painting itself is interesting enough to delve deeper if the reader is interested in Anthony Brown's intentions.
Image from "Playing shape games"
Zhong Yu
The reason why the master can become a master may be because he can have his own original language, just like handwriting, although the content and theme are different, but at a glance can recognize the author, which is the unique charm of the author.
Ajia
There is one thing that young creators need to pay attention to, many people want to explore their own style in the early stage of creation, and create works with very personal characteristics, but when you only do works with very personal characteristics, then this work may only be understood by yourself. Although Anthony Brown is doing a unique style of creation, but this is not unique to him, he borrowed "surrealist" from the art genre to use in the creation of picture books, and he used this style very skillfully. But it wouldn't work if others couldn't read his work, so he found a balance — the "shape game." The "shape game" is very simple, the first person draws an abstract shape at random, and the second person completes the shape and turns it into a figurative, meaningful thing. Anthony Brown grew up in the north of England, where it would always rain for a few months of the year, and he and his brother would play games at home where you draw me, and later he found that the creations he made as a child were all shape games.
Image from "Playing Shape Games Together"
Anthony Brown's work is both unique and acceptable to the general public. Creators can't just think about uniqueness, it's also important to be able to communicate with their audiences. Because picture books are for children to see, as a medium of communication with children, picture books cannot be just the author's personal expression.
The book "Playing shape games" shows the formation process of Anthony Brown's style, and he also had the experience of only knowing his own work, and then he was slowly honed by life into a creator who can communicate with the public.
Playing the Shape Game: A giant guidebook
Zhong Yu
This autobiography shattered my impression of an autobiography, which we generally think of as a person's life, growth story, social background, etc., but this autobiography mainly tells the process of his transformation from an ordinary picture book creator to a master, and his thinking about creation.
Ajia
This book was translated in collaboration with Teacher Dong Haiya, and I translated the first half of the book, which details his growth from a small baby to a picture book master. This process is very important for the children's book creator, because the biggest treasure trove of the children's book creator is his own childhood, how did he grow up? What did he think of his childhood? How he draws nourishment and spiritual strength from childhood determines the height and richness of his works.
Anthony Brown made a lot of explorations in his creations, which planted seeds as a child. The reason why "My Dad" is so moving is because in real life he has an equally moving dad, his dad taught him to draw, the important thing is not to paint itself, but his dad to paint, art as a direction of life, career to treat, dad attaches importance to painting at the same time, pay more attention to their physical fitness, Anthony Brown and his brother are professional football players, but he himself looks very elegant, forming a contrast. His father gave him strength in the process of raising them, allowing him to constantly search and explore in the process of growing up.
Image from "Playing shape games"
So the first half can also be seen as a parenting book to understand how his parents raised him. He has a book, The Tunnel, which is actually related to his and his brother's adventures, and his childhood nourished his creations.
"Playing shape games" was created by Anthony Brown and his son Joe Brown, and the creative opportunity was when he chatted with his son and found that Joe Brown was very interested in his story, and Anthony Brown just happened to be free during that time, so he told Joe Brown about his experience through storytelling, and Joe Brown wrote it down, so this autobiography was created by their father and son through communication.
Why does Anthony Brown like gorillas so much?
Ajia
Anthony Brown loved animals so much that he made a selection of "People are Animals" in college and found that the most human-like animals were gorillas. But the reason why he always paints gorillas is because when he paints gorillas, he thinks of his father, and when he recalls the scene of his father suddenly falling down in the house, he will have the picture of "King Kong" falling from the Empire State Building and collapsing. That's part of the reason.
There are many children who will ask him this question, but his answer is different every time. Once, when the child asked this question, he suddenly asked, "Why do you think?" A little friend stood up and said, "Your book is very much like a gorilla," which the child means is that his book is like a gorilla, which looks expressionless and stupid on the surface, but the longer you look at it, the more you read it, the more things you can read. Later Anthony Brown painted chimpanzees, and Willie in the Willie series is a chimpanzee, willie is like Anthony himself, Willie is always weaker, but he has become stronger through fitness. That's why Anthony Brown likes to paint gorillas.
Left: Gorilla; Right: Willie series