9: Bringing The Story Together

Because the physical fold in the middle of each spread was crucial in directing where the reader's eye should move from wordless frame to wordless frame, Staake found it essential to create a half-sized, 40 page "dummy booklet" for the Bluebird sketches. It was this booklet that was presented to Lee Wade and Anne Schwartz at Random House for approval. A few minor adjustments were made on a couple of spreads, but the story outlined in the sketches remains virtually unchanged from the book that was published. "Every square inch of the book is used in the telling of the story of Bluebird", said Staake, "and that is pretty unusual. The story begins on the cover, continues on the front endpapers, carries through the copyright page, plays out over 40 pages, and the last scene is displayed on the final endpapers. Even the back cover of the book reads as a visual afterthought to the story."

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