Hannah Paster's Reviews > Wacky Wednesday

From my own memories reading literature as a child, without a shadow of a doubt, "Wacky Wednesday" was in my main library; out of all of Seuss' classics even over "Cat In The Hat", it was this (published under Theo. LeSiege) "I Spy"-almost style book, the tale of a blonde haired boy counting all of the "wacky" and unexplainable things he could find to appear a Wednesday, that captured my attention. Almost too like an alphabet book, "Wacky Wednesday" propels it's readers along and educates them in the skills of counting and numbers. Each page asks for the reader to count along the "wacky" things to solve the almost "mysteries" of the story never explaining why this Wednesday is this way, and then turn the page for a new set of finds. The wacky situations are in numbered order (page 1 has a shoe on the wall, page 3 a working hose is cut in half, bananas grow from an apple tree, etc.) and it's not until the end (the top number being 20, easy for a child) when Patrolman McGann finishes the day with: "Just find them [the 20 wacky things left] and then you can go to bed," when the reader can close the book finished and satisfied. The shoe on the wall is removed, and a normal Thursday rises. Images are everything in "Wacky Wednesday" because that is the medium in which the wacky scenarios are communicated; without images in "Wacky Wednesday," the reader wouldn't be able to play along! Theo. LeSiege built an interactive book with the images being the medium in which to interact - strictly without them, it won't be a story but a bunch of words. The style of images is noteworthy specifically because under the name, "Dr. Seuss," one sees a completely different drawing style than under "Theo LeSiege." "Theo LeSiege"'s artwork is much more realistic and human-like, rather than revolving around spinally creatures, animals, monsters, loraxes and otherwise; outside of the wacky situations, there seems to be no made up fictional creatures/characters commonly found in Dr. Seuss. It is as if Theo LeSiege is the real one so he illustrates reality, and "Dr. Seuss" is fictional, and so he illustrates the fiction. In terms of literary elements, the boy narrator in first person is meant to represent all children, little boys and little girls of all classes and races, but he is not the main focus of the story. The main focus and attention drawer of the story is, obviously, the wack-nesses that are happening, and therefore have no gender, class, race, ethnicity, etc tied to them. The mood/voice of the story does a wonderful job of speaking what all readers are thinking ("What the heck is wrong with this Wednesday??) and even that, as inanimate thoughts having no distinguishable factor ties, works in LeSiege's favor in terms of diversity/representing readers of any/all ages.