For a child to find a picture of a shark that glows in the dark is probably as fascinating as a marine biologist finding a shark in a park.In this week’s book review, I am looking at “Shark in the Dark”, one of the many out of this world stories by Nick Sharratt.
對於孩子們來說，能夠找到一本繪本是有關亮晶晶鯊魚的興奮程度，絕對不亞於海洋生物學家在公園裡面發現了一條活跳跳的鯊魚。今天的繪本推薦，我要分享來自英國，創作量驚人的Nick Sharratt先生的作品：「跟鯊魚說晚安」。(p.s 書名為蔬菜小姐個人暫譯，看完繪本的人應該就知道為什麼了）
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| Book Cover 書的封面 |
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| first glowing shark on the first page翻開的第一頁就有亮晶晶的鯊魚 |
While some reviews have criticized how the glowing effect wasn’t working exactly like a spot light, I think it’s only a small upset considering how much uplifting messages are installed in the book. When I got my copy, I also noticed the glowing effect was like a dying pulse, but I suggested bookstores that they should start stock copies before publishers kill the glowing idea completely. I thought the book was still giving a “happy-gloomy” kind of different experience. Months later, the book became available in “no-glow-at-all” version only. So if you happen to stumble on a glow-in-the dark version, you should just snatch it (in a legal manner of course).
看過蠻多人對於繪本中鯊魚的亮度不是特別滿意的評語，因為這本書一定要定時把書打開來吸收光線，才能在比較暗的地方有好的效果，但是我個人覺得這個只是小問題，因為整本書，只要有鯊魚的地方，一關起燈還是一樣會亮，這個特色為說故事製造了特別的氣氛，加上這本書真正令人喜愛的地方，是整個故事的起承轉合非常有趣！所以我在書店工作的朋友們都被我大力遊說過，要多進幾本。果然在幾個月前，我就發現新出的版本沒有“亮晶晶”的效果了，所以動作要快，先搶先贏 ！
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| the new edition's cover 新版本的封面 |
From an English learning approach, young or second language readers get to review some of the toys and creatures you typically see in a boy’s room or at a beach. Bright colors were reinforced on almost every page but in a fun way. For example, when I saw an orange cabinet in Timothy’s room on the first page, I thought that was rather odd. But as I turned the pages, I noticed the color was shown on almost every page and coated on different objects. It was painted on the mainsail of a boat on one page, then on a starfish, crab and ice cream cone on other pages.
從繪本學習英文的角度來說，這本繪本的插圖非常適合剛接觸繪本的小小朋友們。每一頁的插圖除了顏色鮮豔之外，每一頁所使用的基本色系都會不斷地重複，但是出現在不同的物品上，對於剛認識顏色的小朋友來說，非常適合做為“找找書”來練習，非常有趣。舉例來說，在第一頁我看見Timonthy（繪本中得小男主角的名字）房間中有橘色的衣櫥，當下我第一個感覺是，小男生喜歡橘色好特別哦！但是當我繼續翻頁下去的時候，我發現同樣地橘色在每一頁都有出現，但是出現在不同物品上，橘色的船帆、橘色的海星、橘色的螃蟹及橘色的冰淇淋筒等等。
It was also cool to see how repetition and synonyms were at work from start to finish. For example, at the beginning of the story, the sentence “a certain small boy” was later paired with “I’m sure I’m right” on the last page. The story buildup went from Timothy’s monologue to a dialogue with dad at the end.
另外一個很令人驚豔的地方是Nick活潑地運用重複句型及同義字來貫穿整個故事，讓故事朗朗上口又別具學習的生動意義。另一個讓人驚豔的是，故事一開始的句型裡面出現了“a certain small boy一位特別的小男孩”就跟結尾的“I’m sure I’m right我相信我是正確的” 做了完整地相互呼應，也巧妙地將故事一開場Timonthy自己在房間裡面玩玩具與自己對話，然後一直到故事的結尾是Timonthy與爸爸說晚安前的對話有了一氣呵成、貫穿全場的完整性。
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| The Opening Paragraph 故事的開場 |
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| The Ending Paragraph 故事的結尾 |
As a mother of 2 boys, I found it interesting to see how of all the toys that Timothy could have picked; he chose the telescope as his favorite toy. I felt that kind of whispered much comfort in my ears. My interpretation of the telescope is that it is like the eye of a child, while kids tend to only focus on one small area of the overall picture or message, their imagination tend to help paint another one. It reminds me that letting their imagination run wild is not so cliché after all.
身為兩個男孩的母親，我發現Timonthy的房間裡面有許多男孩們特別喜愛的玩具，像是車子及球，但是Timothy的最愛不是這些而是「望遠鏡」，這給了我另外一個思考的層面﹣繪本中的「望遠鏡」就像在譬喻孩子們看事情的角度，當他們在理解事情的時候，通常就只會注意他們認為是重要的部份，往往不會像大人一樣需要站在宏觀的角度來看整件事情，而幫助孩子們理解全部事情的來龍去脈則是他們的想像力，把他們沒看到或是不確定的事情來拼湊完整。這個「望遠鏡」的譬喻，提醒我要更能夠有耐心來理解孩子們天馬行空理解周遭事情的思考方式，其實想想，也沒那麼難！你說是吧！
Shared parenting is an important part of our family. Like the other two books in the trilogy, Timothy’s dad showed up at the end to wrap up the day. Also like the other two books, the mom was nowhere to be seen. This time however, I noticed there were no drawings of the mom or family on the wall, but there was one drawing of the dad. I then realized the book is also celebrating the dads, whether he is a newbie, single, gay or soon-to-be.
在我們家，照顧小孩及做家事，是我跟先生討論好後，一人一半地分工合作，而在這套三本的鯊魚系列中，我都沒有看到Timothy的媽媽出現，都是Timothy的爸爸在帶他散步、回家整理、準備上床睡覺。而在這個繪本的最後一頁，Timothy貼在房間的圖片，也只有畫爸爸。我想這本是專門為爸爸所創造的繪本，也是本讓爸爸們覺得自己很重要的繪本，無論是新手爸爸、單身爸爸、同性家庭中的爸爸還是即將成文爸爸的爸爸們，你們都是全世界最棒的爸爸！
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| The shark from the last page, smiling to say good night! 最後一頁的亮晶晶鯊魚，微笑地跟大家說晚安！ |
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