Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

By: William Steig

Published by: Simon and Schuster Children’s Publishing Division

Received Caldecott Medal in 1970

Presentation by: Rebecca Miller

Author’s Style

• The author uses a narrative view point when telling this story.

• The illustrations help to further the plot of the story and visualize what is happening.

• The author uses formal language and creates many different emotions through his word choices.– He creates a sense of family and community.

This image depicts Sylvester turning back into a donkey after being turned into a rock. The author uses the words, “embraces, kisses, loving looks, and exclamations” to describe this part of the story. All of these emotions are easily seen from this picture.

Style and Media

• The author uses cartoon art to illustrate his book.– The characters are all anthropomorphic animals.– There are elements of real life: the following

picture shows their home, set up like a typical nuclear family.

• The author uses painterly media through bright water colors that portray the mood.

This is the first page of the book. It helps the reader visualize the family dynamic between Sylvester and his parents. The illustration style shows many items seen in real life: broom, table, fire place. However, these items are slightly distorted and made to look like a cartoon. The colors are bright and inviting.

Line

• The author uses line to create movement and depth in his pictures.

• The reader’s eye is drawn to many different parts of the picture before it is drawn to the text.

• There is a lot of detail given within the pictures to organize the space.

This picture uses diagonal lines to create the movement of rain. You can see the ducks in the background creating the illusion of moving from left to right.

This picture is a full two page spread that has curvy lines creating depth. There is also movement from the trees in the front of the picture.

Shape

• The shapes used in this book are mostly curvy.• The author only uses a few angular shapes

when depicting more serious situations.

This shapes in this picture are curvy. The characters are outside in the elements of nature. The “children” in this picture are all different shapes.

This picture shows angular shapes to help the reader visualize the seriousness of losing Sylvester. The desk is the main shape and shows the different perspective of the characters.

Color

• The author uses a variety of colors to represent the various moods of the characters as the face individual challenges through the story.

• At the end of the story the mood brightens and so does the color.

There is a distinct color brightness change as the book progresses and Sylvester is “lost” as a rock while his parents are searching for him. As you can see in this picture, there is a definite change in mood, as reflected by the darkness outside.

The color in this picture is bright and cheery because Sylvester is reunited with his parents. The warm color choice reflects the happiness in the picture. Also the use of a white background opens up the picture.

Texture

• The use of texture can be seen throughout the book.

• The fur of the donkeys have a “fluffy” look to their fur.

You can see the “fluffy” texture of Sylvester’s fur in this picture. This texture was accomplished by using blending of various textures and overlapping of lines.

Composition

• The author balances his illustrations throughout the book. Through various methods of symmetry.

• There are also illustrations that show object dominance.

This picture shows symmetry with the group of dogs in the front of the picture balanced by the dogs and houses in the background. (The line was added to show the balance)

There is an object dominance in this picture showing the division of power between Sylvester’s parents and the police.