In 2017, I applied to the Super Children’s Book Boot Camp with Pat Cummings and Denise Fleming at the Highlights Foundation. Initially I was rejected for the workshop, but they asked if I had another story I’d like to use for my application. After many rejections I put the story away. I first wrote SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED 20 years ago. Thankfully, Mom keeps driving–and after everyone’s dropped off and it’s time to hustle-bustle home, Max and Molly are happy to stretch out in the back seat of their suddenly gracious-spacious automobile. When Max and Molly can’t stop complaining about being squished in the back seat of the car, their clever mom knows exactly what to do–offer rides to their animal friends, who are happy to pile in and come along! As the back seat fills up with a wiggly piglet, two flitting ducklings, and three woofing puppies, soon Max and Molly are not only squished–they’re SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED! So when they notice Mom slowing down to wave at Scooter Mooter and his calves, Max and Molly don’t say a word–they hush-mush. Thanks!Ī pair of kids learn what it is really like to be squished together during one hilarious and eventful car ride! If you have signed up to follow my blog and it is delivered to you everyday, please let me know when you leave a comment and I will give you an extra ticket. Sharing on Facebook, Twitter or reblogging really helps spread the word for a new book. Just let me know other things you do to share the good news, so I can put the right amount of tickets in my basket for you. Reblog, tweet, or talk about it on Facebook with a link and you will get additional chances to win. : 51ĭuring the 1930s, the squash and stretch were exaggerated by Disney animators, making it ever more extreme, but they had to maintain the overall volume of an object so that it did not appear to change volume as well as shape.Rebecca Kraft Rector is helping us celebrate the holidays by sharing her picture book, SQUISH SQUASH SQUISHED illustrated by Dana Wulfekotte and published by Nancy Paulsen Books with one lucky winner living in the United States.Īll you have to do to get in the running is leave a comment. The ball that would change shape, compressing ("squash") as it hit the ground, then extending (stretch) as it bounced up again, was the most simple example that was part of the preparatory training for Disney animators.
: 48 Author Walt Stanchfield said, "A simple shape plus squash and stretch are all the anatomy you need for cartoon characters." : 84 Application Using these poses as reference the animators were able to start "observing (the motion) in a new way".
To illustrate the principle, a half-filled flour sack dropped on the floor, or stretched out by its corners, was shown to be retaining its overall volume as determined by the object's Poisson's ratio.Įxamples of the elasticity of the human body in motion were found in photographs the animators found in newspaper sports pages. The principle is based on observation that only stiff objects remain inert during motion, : 47 while objects that are not stiff, although retaining overall volume, tend to change shape in an extent that depends on inertia and elasticity of the different parts of the moving object. The horse's body demonstrates squash and stretch in natural musculature.
Sequence of a race horse galloping animated from a chronophotography plate by Eadweard Muybridge.