Jeffers, Oliver. This Moose Belongs to Me. Philomel Books, 2012.
Scieszka writes, "when you pick up a book, you are reading its layout and typeface and color palette for clues about the story" (35). The design clues in this double-page spread materialize out of Jeffers' "mishmash of oil painting onto ... painted landscapes, and a bit of technical wizardry" (copyright page). In This Moose Belongs to Me, Marcel the moose is young Wilfred's pet. Like many pet owners, Wilfred wants to train Marcel to follow rules. Like many pets, Marcel sometimes follows them, and sometimes does not. This does not matter too much to Wilfred, though, since "[t]he moose came to him a while ago and he knew, he just KNEW that it was meant to be his." The two are bonded together as pet owner and pet.
Earlier in the book, the text reads, "The moose had a very good sense of direction, and Wilfred did not." In this spread, Marcel marches confidently through the wilderness as Wilfred nonchalantly trails behind, unraveling a ball of string in case he has to find a way back home. While Wilfred blindly–his eyes are actually closed–follows his pet, he concentrates his thoughts on the future and shares them with Marcel. The background of the illustration, the landscape, is unimportant and gray, while Wilfred and Marcel remain in color in the foreground. The text on the recto reads, "Wilfred discussed their plans for the coming year," while speech bubbles expand into and take over the verso. Wilfred's speech bubbles are comprised of colorful images instead of any form of text, which brings the definition of "speech bubble" into question. Still, the large size of the bubbles and boldness of the colors within them indicate that Wilfred's plans for his future with Marcel in the ocean are more exciting, or more important, than what is happening in the present.
Works Cited
Jeffers, Oliver. This Moose Belongs to Me. Philomel Books, 2012.
Scieszka, Jon. "Design Matters." The Horn Book Magazine, vol. 90 issue 2, March/April 2014, pp. 28-40.