A Turn for the Worse: Page Turn in Leave Me Alone!
Vera Brosgol’s book Leave Me Alone! is a deeply relatable tale of an old woman willing to go any distance for just a little bit of peace and quiet. The book’s comedic tale relies on a single early page-turn to sufficiently establish just how badly its protagonist needs the peace she craves. Brosgol marries text and illustration seamlessly to reveal the madness that drives a geriatric knitter into the literal void, and gets a solid laugh in the bargain as well.
Brosgol begins her book with a nearly solid white two page spread. This peaceful beginning is home to the old woman sitting with a pleasant smile in a rocking chair, knitting beside her on the floor. On the recto, just above her, is her fragmented introduction: “Once there was an old woman. She lived in a small village in a small house…” This split sentence PT, as Eva Gressnich calls it, is utilized “so that a reader has to go overleaf to finish reading the sentence” (170). It is clearly Brosgol’s intent to create suspense in her readers by writing the split sentence, but in pairing it with a primarily blank page, she has also set up the reader to notice what is missing from her illustration: mainly, the old woman’s small village and small house. This promise of a visual reveal on the following page does not quite fit in with either of Gressnich’s classifications of visual PT strategies (those being split depiction or simulated door), but rather creates anticipation for the page turn through omission. It encourages the reader to turn the page in order to see what Brosgol’s plain white page denies them.
Once the reader does turn the page, they are presented with the completion of the sentence, and a re-routing of previous expectation that creates comedic contrast. The sentence from the previous page completes itself as “…with a very big family.” The tiny house, packed to the rafters with no fewer than thirty children, and the old woman’s flat-browed scowl are a shock compared to the idyllic opening image and lines. The impact of this chaotic scene is enhanced by the fact the house is rendered on another plain white backdrop, with a good deal of white space still visible on the verso. The reader can’t quite help but compare the packed-to-the-rafters house (which is so chaotic one can almost hearthe illustration) with the clean emptiness of the previous page.
In giving readers a dramatic page turn that omitted important context, Brosgol juxtaposes the character’s desire with her reality, effectively launching readers into the story. Both text and illustration work together to create anticipation and comedy in this page turn, showcasing how seemingly simple choices in succession can have great impact on overall story.
Works Cited
Brosgol, Vera. Leave Me Alone!. Roaring Book Press, 2016
Gressnich, Eva. “Verbal and Visual Pageturners in Picturebooks” International Research in Children's Literature, vol. 5 No. 2, Dec 2012, pp. 167-183.
Stats: CIP Fall 2022, Laramie Hearn. Installment #2: Design. 461 words.