Story (original): Ali is a shepherd. He has a comfortable house, a big hat, a crutch and a flock of fat sheep. But everyone said, "Poor Ali! He really needs a new cloak. " So, in the spring, Ali cut the wool off the sheep, washed it and combed it straight with a brush. Then Ali spun the wool into yarn. However, Ali wanted a red cloak, so before the end of summer, he picked some wild fruits to dye and cooked them in a pot. Then Ali put the wool in the juice of the wild fruit and dyed it red. When the yarn was dry, Ali put it on the loom. On autumn nights, he is busy weaving thread into cloth. Ali spread the cloth on the table and cut it into pieces with scissors. Then put the cut cloth together and sew it up. Winter is coming, and Ali finally has a beautiful new red cloak.

What's the story of Ali's red cloak? The editor's recommendation of this book is written as follows: a classic picture book with a very interesting story, featuring the shepherd Ali, tells the children the process from shearing wool to making clothes with very concise pictures and texts.

Therefore, editors and publishers define this book as an intellectual picture book. In order to highlight its knowledge, it is said that there is a graphic comparison table at the end of the book to explain the name and purpose of each tool (although there is no such comparison table in my electronic version and physical book).

Perhaps it is because of this recommendation that I see that almost all the reading guidance and classroom design of this picture book are centered around the word "labor". Some, focusing on the text, let children understand the labor process of wool turning into clothes by reading the text carefully; Some people use Jin Bo's children's poem "Don't just remember" as evidence to explain the meaning of labor; Some people even think that this picture book has the power to criticize modern industrial civilization.

But the emotion and meaning of a book, as long as it does not deviate from the author's center, can be said that different people have different opinions. If I look at this picture book from the perspective of meaning and emotion, I feel the interdependence in loneliness.

I tend to think that Ali is an orphan now. Because spinning, weaving and making clothes, whether in the East or the West, are women's specialties, and adult women are dominant. Ali is a man and a little boy. A little boy wants a new cloak. Even if he is a shepherd who rolls around in the flock all day, even if he doesn't want to sell sheep to buy finished products, he can ask his mother or sister for help without taking over all. Unless there is one situation, that is, he has no one to turn to, let alone no mother or sister, not even an adult male like father or brother.

Then why didn't I say that Ali was an orphan since he was a child? Because, in the picture book, a group of photos appeared on the wall of Ali's house. This group of photos is blurred, only two big round photos seem to be a plump lady and a baby, and the others are difficult to tell whether they are male or female, old or young. But according to life experience, we know that the photos on the wall at home are usually photos of family members. So can we infer from this set of photos that Ali has a family?

Maybe his family has left him now, but they once appeared in Ali's life, giving him a warm and loving home and some property, including those sheep.

However, one of my classmates thinks that these photos may record Ali in different periods. He is wearing all kinds of new equipment made of wool, such as red scarf, red shawl, red headdress, red trousers and so on. Then her idea overturns my guess above, but it provides me with another way of thinking.

If these photos are all Ali's, it means that Ali is really an orphan. In this way, these photos are not the condensation of family warmth, but should be regarded as the record of Ali's growth.

In this case, we have another guess about Ali's age.

It can be seen from Ali's living environment that taking photos should still be a luxury for Ali. Luxury things can't be done often. The biggest possibility is to take a photo every birthday or anniversary. Then there are eight photos on the wall here. Can you boldly draw the conclusion that Ali is nine years old?

Of course, the inference that Ali was born an orphan is still debatable. If he was born an orphan, who will take him to take pictures of his infancy? However, we don't have to dwell on this issue here. Whether born an orphan or halfway an orphan, our hero Ali is a lonely child. So, at the beginning of the book, his neighbor looked at him from a distance and said, "Poor Ali!" " "

The word "poor" has strong and weak emotions in the English context. If only "poor Ali" is associated with the red cloak, then "poor" here is the lightest pity. However, if this sentence is associated with Ali's lonely life, then this pity is very important.

Poor and lonely Ali, although he has a comfortable house to shelter from the wind and rain, only his fat sheep accompany him all day. So this also explains why Ali's cloak is broken. He won't simply and rudely sell a sheep to buy a new cloak, because he can't bear to sell them. How can a person sell his other half for a dress?

Among all the sheep companions, the closest relationship with Ali is the striking black sheep. The most interesting part of this picture book is the interaction between Black Sheep and Ali. It seems that there is a lot of confrontation between them: Ali will hide from the black sheep and not let it chew his cloak; Black sheep will try their best to avoid Ali's wool scissors, and will also cause all kinds of troubles and even glare at Ali in the process of making a cloak.

However, anger and annoyance are also the embodiment of their close relationship. Because of my close relationship, I will show my true feelings to each other without scruple.

And this black sheep who accompanied Ali, he is also lonely.

In the west, people think that the hair of black sheep is not as precious as that of white sheep, and it is easy for white sheep to be afraid when black sheep and white sheep are mixed together. "Black sheep" means black sheep and black sheep in English, which is not a good word.

From the book Ali's Red Cloak, we didn't see that the black sheep frightened Aries, nor did we see that the black sheep were obviously excluded by Aries. However, what about the harmony and calm we saw before? Did Aries get along well with the grumpy black sheep from the beginning? Why are all the Aries in the picture book in groups of three or five, while the black sheep only haunt Ali? Why is the relationship between black sheep and Ali obviously better than that between black sheep and white sheep?

Being different often means being lonely. Unusual black sheep is lonely, so is Ali. Lonely hearts always attract each other. Did everyone go to see the movie "Dream of the Dream" recently? Why did the giant and Sophie become friends? Because both of them are lonely. In the book "Ali's Red Cloak", before we see this warm and interesting story, will there be a story similar to "Dream of the Dream"? Lonely black sheep and lonely Ali, although different species, can hear each other's loneliness and stay together for warmth from now on. Then, there is the joy we see in the picture book.

Ali's cloak is made of black sheep's hair, but Ali's cloak is also torn by the bite of the black sheep. Can't Ali stop the black sheep from eating his cloak? Of course he can stop it, because Aries didn't come to chew Ali's cloak, which proves that Ali has the ability to make the sheep obey. But no matter the old cloak at the beginning or the new cloak at the end, Ali indulged the black sheep to bite them. It was Ali's love and companionship for his friend Black Sheep.

So, is companionship limited to Ali and the black sheep? Of course not, because there is a third party in the picture book that cannot be ignored, and that is the mouse.

Rats are social animals. A friend said that the mouse in this book reminds her of the mouse in "Grandpa must have a way", which has a great association. But the mice in the book "Grandpa must have a way" are big families of mice and live in groups. The mouse in Ali's red cloak is a mouse, a lonely mouse. During the whole process of Ali's cloak making, the mouse stole one thing after another while Ali and the black sheep were in love and killing each other. Why did he steal? Is it because rats are born thieves?

A person who has warmth will not long for warmth. The mouse risked being trampled by sheep's hoofs, captured or killed by humans, and stole things again and again to decorate his home. Doesn't this just show his loneliness? Because of loneliness, I am crazy about warmth, and I desperately want to catch it.

And Ali, does he know that rats are stealing from him? I think I know. Ali lives alone and has few things. Small unimportant things may not be noticed when they are lost, but important tools such as wool scissors and rulers are lost, and he will definitely look everywhere. Besides, in the end, even one of my shoes disappeared, which was very easy to find. But Ali did not stop the mouse from stealing, nor did he go straight to Huanglong, destroying the mouse's home and finding his own things. He is also addicted to mice. This connivance should also be based on loneliness, sympathy or mutual appreciation. Then, between the mouse and Ali, isn't it a kind of mutual companionship?

This picture book is an omniscient narrative story of a third party. Ali is a man, black sheep is a man, and some mice are also very popular in soy sauce. However, they are all on the same plane and can only exist as a line.

What if we mention each thread, develop its warp and weft, and weave its own story?

Then the story of making a new cloak becomes a three-dimensional story. Ali, the black sheep and the mouse have all become the modules of a certain dimension or a certain side of this story. From the perspective of Ali, this story can be called "how to make a red cloak under the interference of a violent black sheep"; From the perspective of black sheep, this story can be called "recovering my hair cut by Ali at all costs"; From the mouse's point of view, this story can be called: "On how to fish in troubled waters, the fisherman gains". And each dimension has its own plot, scene and emotion. Ali's story may not be much different from what we saw, full of hard work and happiness. The story of the black sheep will see many things that Ali can't see through the eyes of the black sheep, which may be full of grief and indignation; The story of the mouse will show the scenery at a lower height, which may be full of thrills, while the red cloak may only become a signal that the mouse is stealing and become a bright background for this story.

In fact, this way of highlighting the line in the story, showing the other side of the story and making the story more three-dimensional is used in many places.

For a time, I was fascinated by online romance novels. That kind of online romance novel is particularly popular to write "Fanwai"-that is, after the big story is over, some supporting roles in the story are taken as the protagonists, and the story belonging to this supporting role is written from another angle. This story develops in parallel with the big story, which may be a back of the big story or a side of the big story, focusing on the story and emotion that the protagonist was cut out in the big story. Then this is actually a way to make the story three-dimensional and full.

Many famous novels and movies even use different people to tell the same thing to spread stories and express their feelings.

Then go back to the picture book.

In fact, this multi-dimensional narrative technique is also used in picture books, which is anthony browne's The Voice in the Park. This picture book is about two adults taking their children and puppies out for a walk and meeting in the park. The picture book takes one of them as the main line to record his/her impression of the park encounter. The whole picture book seems to be the diary of these four people about this walk. However, we read everyone's different voices and felt the different colors and temperatures of the "meeting in the park" event: either the warm and rich orange color of the orangutan's wife, or the bleak bleak bleak of the frustrated father like winter, or the gray and cold of the little boy like early spring. ...

Then why should I call this way multidimensional narration instead of multiline narration? Because, dimension, it is a surface, which is expanded by a certain line. We completely radiate the feelings, events, ideas and so on involved in this line, so that this line can develop into a complete story module and then be embedded in the central story. It can be an independent story or a part of a big story. Because of different angles and different emphases, this module will make up for the deficiency of a certain part of the central story and make the central story more complete and diversified.

By reading a picture book in this three-dimensional way, we can dig more stories in various ways and at different levels, and understand the feelings of each character, so as to achieve the effect of "looking across the ridge into a peak, the distance is different". So when we read, we will pay more attention to details and put more thoughts into it. If parent-child reading is carried out in this way, I think children's reading ability and thinking ability should be improved after long-term influence. After all, Tao Yuanming's "Swallowing Jujube without Solving" is not suitable for children to read; An accurate and detailed understanding of cattle should be the correct way to open reading.

Write in the back: Parents often worry that their children read too many picture books, but they don't like reading books with words. In fact, this kind of worry is not unreasonable, because the reading of picture books is not only in a hurry, but also requires us to dig deeper: to explore different themes, to find interesting details for reasoning, and to develop the story behind the story. Children also need the guidance of parents or teachers to read picture books: help them sum up "routines" and play with them, and embark on the treasure hunt of picture books with them. In this way, the reading of picture books will become the driving force of all reading.

So today's interpretation of this picture book provides some reading methods from the aspects of theme, details, story interpretation and summary of "routines".