Bunting and Diaz - Smoky Nights

In 1991, a black man, Rodney King, was arrested by Los Angeles police. Unbeknownst to the police, the arrest was videotaped by a witness in an adjacent building, and the resulting tape seemed to show severe police brutality; four policemen were brought to trial in an LA suburb, where a jury made up of 11 whites and one person of Filipino descent found three of the policemen innocent; the jury was hung in the case of the fourth. Violence broke out in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, 1992, following the verdict.

As the violence spread, fires were set out in numerous storefronts and looting became widespread. Targets of arson included liquor stores and various businesses perceived, rightly or wrongly, of exploiting the black community – in particular Korean-owned businesses. The rioting continued for three days, resulting in more than 50 deaths, over 4 thousand injuries, 12,000 arrests, $1 billion in property damage, and continued mistrust between ethnic communities.

Eve Bunting, a native of Northern Ireland who has been resident in the United States since 1959 (naturalized citizen in 1969), writes books that explore topical issues such as homelessness; the riots, reminiscent of the religious violence that has afflicted her homeland for several decades, seemed a natural subject for her. She told NEA Today, “The night the Rodney King verdict came in, I was speaking in the public library. When I got home and turned on the TV, almost instantly my thoughts went to the children who were there. What would it be like to be one of those children? How does a parent explain this to a child?” (Weiss 7) From those responses came the text of Smoky Night.

Diaz’s illustrations for Smoky Night have been called “reminiscent of Picasso” (Koehnecke 22). In his Caldecott acceptance speech, Diaz identified several important influences, not least of which was his wife Cecelia, herself an artist, who taught him “how to see color…the colors you can miss if you’re not paying attention. Like the color of black licorice when you bite into it – a kind of greenish, brownish, yellow black.” Those vivid, blended colors contribute strongly to Smoky Night’s visual impact.

Other influences were the sculptor Duane Hanson, with whom Diaz apprenticed; German Expressionism, which led him away from hyperrealism to “immediate, direct line [and b]old, simple, loose brush strokes”; and William Steig, a children’s book illustrator whose work, Diaz says, conveys deep characterization with only a few, loose lines.

Diaz began to work as an illustrator in 1979, working in a variety of artistic media according to the particular assignment. After completing an assignment, he used leftover materials to create a unique artwork as a thank you to the art director who had hired him; eventually he began to collect these into annual, limited edition books. In 1989, he began working with a new methodology, using “a series of bold, loose, brush-stroke faces. My goal was to create an image without hesitation, lifting the brush from the surface as few times as possible.”

In 1992, while visiting his brother in Brazil, Diaz painted a series of faces which were included in his year-end book along with text and “objects found and made,” including a latex glove, an old postcard, and waxed paper. When his editor, Diane D’Andrade, saw this book, she thought he would be the perfect illustrator to work on a new manuscript that had just come in – Bunting’s Smoky Night.

“I wanted the art to have the same dignity as the manuscript. Although I had done hundreds of faces and images in this style, I was challenged by the job of carrying out character continuity through the book. I wanted Smoky Night to achieve a balance between the text, the design, the painted illustrations, and the collaged backgrounds. I wanted each element to add to the book and to create a cohesive unit.”

Strehle comments, “Smoky Night is set in a particular moment and place in history” and suggests that readers will approach the book with their memories of the Los Angeles riots (218). Even if this were true, it would suggest that the book has become quite dated in the intervening years; no child readers are likely to have even the vicarious memories of the riots that Strehle suggests (television images or overheard adult conversations). But neither Bunting’s words nor David Diaz's illustrations make specific reference to the South Central riots; indeed, Diaz avoided visiting South Central precisely to avoid overly specific references, noting that the absence of specific reference to Los Angeles might make the book more timeless (Koehnecke 23). The book has a more generic urban setting, and also refrains from identifying the specific ethnicity of the characters[1], so that the issue in Smoky Night becomes a lack of understanding among all people and the potential injury from any riots, not just the specific conflicts of Los Angeles in 1991.

Koehnecke observes that the confusing, harsh imagery of the opening spreads “evolve[s] during the course of the story into brighter colors that evoke a positive ending” as “the mood and the background become calmer” (21-23). Thus the artwork subtly reinforces the message of Bunting’s text.

“The paintings, which are framed in collages of papers, shoe leather, and other objects, also provide emotional punch to the story without overwhelming children with concepts that might be beyond them. Thick paint and black lines that frame the figures add movement and texture, which increases the emotional power of the illustrations. Artifacts in the illustrations, such as the photographs, broken glass, and pieces of plastic bags, depict the terror of the Los Angeles riots.”

First spread: “People are rioting in the street below” but the image is peaceful, w/ perhaps some apprehension in the faces – the only hint of what is happening is a yellow glow coming from the window. Strehle notes, “the portrayal of Daniel in his apartment gazing out the window with his mother’s hand around his shoulder gives the reader a feeling of safety and intensifies the horror of losing this haven during a riot” (217).

Second spread: The collage contains shards of broken glass, a piece of bubble paper, a printed notice that two people are required to handle instrument; notice the irony in the care taken by the looters hauling off the TV. The text suggests that Daniel isn’t completely innocent in that he recognizes that the men are stealing the TV; also, there’s a hint that he has some sympathy for them, observing that they look angry and happy at the same time and commenting that the looting is “hard for them because the TV is so heavy.”

Third spread: This is another scene of looting, now of a shoe store. The collage consists of pieces of shoes – separated soles, heels, and uppers – while the painted image looks through the shattered glass to show people grabbing up the shoes. At the right edge of the spread, a piece of cardboard cut from a box bears the words, “Do Not Tumble or Drop” – more irony, as everything is being tumbled and dropped during the looting.

Fourth spread introduces racial separation w/ the looting of Kim’s market. The collage is spilled cereal on a sidewalk. In the illustration, we see the victim of the looting for the first time – Mrs. Kim shouts at the looters, who are visible only as hands carrying boxes. The text reveals that Daniel’s mother is just as afflicted with tribalism as the others: “My mama and I don’t go in Mrs. Kim’s market even though it’s close. Mama says it’s better if we buy from our own people.” (Note that Mrs. Kim’s name marks her as Korean, although it is sufficiently non-specific so as not to insist on the ethnic identity. In the actual riots, Korean stores and storeowners were specifically targeted.)

Fifth spread: For the first time, the painting integrates Daniel’s apartment and the rioting outside. Daniel and the cat appear (facially only) at bottom right, looking out the window. About two-thirds of the frame is taken up by the scene in the street below, as the last of the looters goes by, “staggering under a pile of clothes he’s taken from the dry cleaners.” The collage is of various clothes, still sheathed in plastic from the cleaners, and several coathangers.

Sixth spread appears relatively tranquil. The collage is some pieces of paper and cloth, arranged fairly neatly rather than jumbled together as in the riot scenes; the painting seems quieter, in part because of the dominance of yellows in the bed and in part because it is a settled scene, not action. The only suggestion of unrest is in the text, where Daniel says he can’t sleep, and in the fact that she puts him into bed with her for comfort.

Seventh spread: The collage background is fairly plain – mostly a crumpled, then smoothed piece of brown-orange paper, with crayon marks in red, orange, and white. On the left-hand page, there is a cut paper arrangement of yellow and red, mimicking a fire, with burnt matches flaring out from it. There is rather more text than on other openings; there’s a lot to cover here, as the firt causes an evacuation. The light-colored collage contrasts dramatically with the purples and browns of the painted image.

Eighth spread: Again a light background (a board painted with white stripes, on which is mounted cut paper – making an abstract rather than a directly referential image) contrast with the somewhat darker painting, although in this case the darkness is reduced by the large splotch of bright yellow that is the fireman’s coat. Yellow appears to be an indication of comfort in this story – recall that the dominant color of the bed in the sixth spread was yellow, and the cat, which among other things represents Daniel’s security, is also yellow.

Ninth spread: The collage background is rough pavement; the image is again dark as the refugees move across the devastated landscape.

SOURCES: David Diaz, “Caldecott Medal Acceptance,” Horn Book 71, 4 (July/August 1995); Diane Koehnecke, “Smoky Night and Crack: Controversial Subjects in Current Children’s Stories,” Children’s Literature in Education 32, 1 (2001) 17-30; Elizabeth Strehle, “Social Issues: Connecting Children to Their World,” Children’s Literature in Education 30, 3 (1999) 213-220; Stefanie Weiss, “Meet: Eve Bunting. Suitable for Children?” NEA Today, April 1995: 7.

[1] Diaz said, “One decision I made was to use the same color palette for all the characters in the story. I did this to avoid any indication of ethnic background, and to let their personalities speak for themselves.”