Twenty Yawns

Written by Jane Smiley
Illustrator: Lauren Castillo
Two Lions (2016)

Twenty Yawns is an example of a children's picture book, and was written by Jane Smiley and illustrated by Lauren Castillo. The book is about a girl named Lucy, who is having trouble falling asleep after a day at the beach. Her mother reads to her and the two of them yawn and fall asleep. Lucy wakes up, and must get her stuffed animals to fall back to sleep. The purpose of this book is to entertain its readers and give the reader vivid illustrations to tell the story. This book's target audience is likely younger, school-aged kids, who would enjoy a book being read to them which featured more pictures rather than text. There are multiple parts that a picture book must have which would contribute to it being an example of such, and Twenty Yawns has several of them. Some of those include elements of text, patterned language, and pictures.

The textual element of the novel plays a big role in what makes a picture book qualify as pictoral. According to textual requirements, a picture book is usually 32 pages in length,Twenty Yawns is exactly 32 pages. Also, picture books typically feature short texts, as the pictures can and are supposed to do much of the storytelling. The text throughout this book is organized into quite short paragraphs, with most of the pages using only having two to three lines of text, with an outlier of at max eight lines on a single page (Smiley 22). The book does a good job of utilizing proper text themes.

Successful picture books also utilize the concept of patterned language when composing the book. Picture books should make every day routines appear amazing, or extraordinary, while using elements of rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. This book does a good job of making every day actions seem extraordinary in particular, by changing the text color, style, and size whenever the word yawn is written (Smiley 13). This makes the action of the characters yawning seem more interesting than what a child might usually find a simple yawn. The book does well in this regard, but not so much in the idea of using rhythm, rhyme, and repetition. The book does not really use much of any notable examples of rhythm or rhyme, and only uses a slight amount of repetition - when the word yawn is repeated over and over when all of the characters are yawning toward the end of the book (Smiley 30-32). Overall, the book does some things well regarding patterned language, and some things not so well.

Finally, a well-planned picture book should make strong use of - you guessed it - pictures. These pictures must be organized according to composition, medium, and style. The artist of the book uses composition, or how he or she arranges elements, to express dominance. The artist uses different colors of painted text rather than typed text to emphasize onomatopoeias in the text, like yawn (Smiley 13), swoosh (Smiley 22) and yawn again later on (Smiley 30-32). The artist uses digital art to illustrate the pictures, which gives a vivid look to the pages, and is an acceptable form of medium for illustration (Smiley). The illustrator also uses some distinct style in her drawings - in this case, Twenty Yawns was likely illustrated with an impressionistic style - which uses color to create light effects, showing light on surfaces for the purpose of highlighting certain objects or scenes. Twenty Yawns utilizes this lighting to do several things: to show nighttime approaching in the form of a sunset (Smiley 13); to show it being nighttime with the moon shining in the window (Smiley 17); and to cast a shadow on the main characters bed as she tucks her stuffed animals in, implying that it is still nighttime (Smiley 27). All in all, the illustrator does a good job in terms of using picture to express her ideas.

To summarize, Twenty Yawns, a book about a girl feeling the need to fall asleep and yawning her way there, which is written for the purpose of entertainment and for a target audience of young children (particularly those who are sleepy), does a good job of satisfying its purpose as a picture book. The author uses appropriate amounts of text throughout the novel, allowing the pictures to tell the story. There is more to be desired in terms of rhythm and rhyme when it comes to patterned language, but nevertheless the author uses repetition to make every day action seem extraordinary. Finally, the picture is developed in an original and effective way through uses of composition, medium, and style. Overall, Twenty Yawns is a well-written children's picture book.

Review by Cole Alexander