Course:Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
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| Advanced Writing of Poetry |
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Wemberly Worried -- Kevin Henkes
Kevin Henkes is an American children’s book author and illustrator, who produced picture books such as Wemberly Worried, Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse, and Chrysanthemum. He has been publishing works since the mid 80’s, and is still active today. Many of his books feature characters drawn as anthropomorphic mice, and explore common childhood relationships and problems.
In particular, Wemberly Worried affected the way that I write. In this story, Wemberly is a small child that worries constantly about many different things: the big tree in her backyard falling on their house; the crack in the wall opening up; and her stuffed bunny’s ears falling off, to name a few. Henkes includes big worries (what if Mom and Dad disappear?) and small worries (what if I’m the only butterfly in the Halloween parade?) in the same context, conflating things that adults would see as drastically different in severity, but children could have equal worry about. Wemberly worries about starting nursery school for many reasons (what if nobody else brings a doll? What if I can’t find the bathroom? And, most heartrendingly: What if I have to cry?), but ends up finding another little girl who has similar worries. They become friends, and Wemberly finds she is able to have fun despite her worries.
This storybook was important for me as a child because of Henkes’s determination to show the different kinds of very serious worries a child could have. Henkes doesn’t shy away from the scary stuff, even though he writes for children, but he also gives validation to the seemingly little fears that adults may brush aside. Reading his work as a child made me feel understood, and pushed me to find a deeper understanding of life when I was too young to know what that meant.
This book also demonstrates the use of internal vs external narrative. The narrator is third-person, but there are sections -- sometimes whole spreads -- where the words are from Wemberly's POV. For example, the following:
"At home, Wemberly worried about the tree in the front yard -- What if it falls on the house? -- and the crack in the living room wall -- What if it gets bigger and something comes out? -- and the noise the radiators made -- What if there's a snake inside?"
I see myself bouncing between third- and first-person when I write in the third person. An example from a recent draft:
Juniper had been, as her therapist said, adjusted for three-quarters of a year, and her mother was constantly informing her of “news” that was several months old.
Things that have changed since Dad died:
- Uncle Ben got divorced from Aunt Cheryl
- Two new Taylor Swift albums have dropped
- And now -- new neighbours, apparently
Henkes also showed me the importance of childhood representation when writing for children. As I grew as a reader, I found that the books I treasured the most were ones that truly understood the age that they were writing for: The Hunger Games, for example, demonstrates a clear understanding of what it means to be sixteen, underneath the dystopian plot. Likewise, Henkes writes for the child and all of the misfortune that comes with being four (ish). Because of his influence, I strive to embody the subject of any work I attempt (poetry and prose alike), whether that subject is a small child or a fully-grown-adult.