Critical+Evaluation

[[image:stellaluna.gif align="center"]]
====** The illustrations in Stellaluna, Cannon's first published work, are captivating and can easily stand alone to tell the story of a young fruit bat struggling to find its place in a bird's world. Using varying shades of blue and green acrylic paints, Cannon creates a muted backdrop of the sky that effectively depicts different times of day and night. Only a hint of any other background, the top of trees or bushes, allows the characters to take center stage. Drawn with Primacolour pencils on bristol board, students are sure to be drawn into the illustrations, as Cannon brilliantly uses the illusion of light and detail to capture the emotions of the main character Stellaluna. The image of the baby bat clutching the side of the nest while Mama bird reprimands her for "teaching her children to do bad things" or when Mama bat and Stellaluna are reunited for the first time and wrap their wings around one another; grips my own heart each and everytime I read this story. Cannon builds just enough anticipation in the story to keep listeners eager and waiting to see what acting like a "good little bird" will look like ... eating her first bug, sleeping right side up, flying and landing on a branch during the day. Given that bats are often considered "scary", "pests" or "nuisances"; Stellaluna is drawn with such warmth and gentle vulnerbility that reader's opinions of bats are easily transformed. To further convince readers of their purpose, the story ends with pencil sketches and two pages of factual information. Cannon is able to realistically capture the textures and colour of both the bats and birds in the story. One can literally feel the soft downy nest Stellaluna falls into and the soft feathers standing upright on the baby bird's heads as they sit by and watch. The illustrations are rightfully given full page status, as they not only highlight and compliment the story, but they provide additional insight and details of how this baby bat copes it's unexpected situation. It isn't hard to imagine why so many young children, unable to yet read, are able to sit captivated, flipping through the pages of the book and a create a story of their own. In addition to the full page, color illustrations, a small pencil sketch is included at the top of each of the text pages. There is no mention of what these small drawings are depicting; perhaps that is part of their appeal. Readers are invited to infer their purpose. My personal feeling is that they are the story of Stellaluna's mom first escaping the owl attack and then looking for her baby in the trees, ponds and logs. Awed by the fact that Cannon is a self taught writer and artist, one can not help but be left inspired by her natural and exquisite talent. **====