Suzy Lee

  How Suzy's personal life shaped her to be an illustrator In an interview with Behind the Books in 2006, Suzy Lee talks about her early childhood. Suzy explains that when she was  a child, she was not the best artist but her parents encouraged her to explore her interests. Suzy explains that she met an art teacher in primary school which inspired her to become serious in art. In Taiwan dpi Magazine, Suzy Lee explains when she started drawing and what made her want to become an illustrator. Suzy states " When I was a kid, people around me said that I drew very well. (Who didn't when we were kids?) Whatever the truth was, I never doubted to be an artist. I guess ones who really believed that compliment become artists, and those who were smart enough not to believe it are doing some other useful things."  Additionally, Suzy talks about how her life as a university student and how that shaped her illustrative choices. Suzy says " As I said earlier, being an artist w...

  Suzy's Book Making Process In the the interview with Taiwan dpi Magazine in 2006, Suzy talks about what she wants readers to get from her books. In her books, Suzy allows her illustrations to speak for themselves. Most of her books have little to no text at all, which leaves the reader to make their own narrative. Suzy says " I think in visual—always the images come first. And narratives are built up by the series of images. Once a story line is set up by images, I feel the text seems secondary or additional. Wordless picture books function differently from the text-oriented books. Readers can pay more attention to the detail of the picture and read more from it. I once received a letter from French primary school students who wrote their own text using one of my wordless book ‘La Revanche des Lapins (The Revenge of the Rabbits)’. The most fascinate thing is that readers can fill the margin between pictures and make their own story."  What Materials are Used Suzy tries ...

  Relevancy in the Classroom Suzy's work is very relevant in the elementary literacy classroom because it is very different from other picture-books. Suzy's wordless picture books can give students a new way to read books. Readers can pay more attention to the art work and interpret from it. Additionally, Suzy's style of art work is very attractive for children to look on because of all the expressive details and movement in the illustrations.  

   Wave & Shadow I would discuss these books with any level of elementary school. Specifically, I would want to teach this text to 2nd graders. I would introduce the book as an all picture book. I would engage the class in a read-aloud and ask questions before, during, and after the text. Some questions I would ask before reading the text are: what do you think the book is about based off of the title and what do you think a picture-book means? Some questions I may ask during the book are: what is happening in this scene and what do you think that means? Some questions I might ask after reading the book are: what happened from the beginning to end and what was the main point of the story? One pedagogical strategy I would implement would be to observe and listen during the read aloud of the book. This would help the students to absorb the content in their first reading. Another strategy I might use is to have the students get into groups and all talk about how they interpre...