The Language of The Language of Picture BooksPicture BooksEnglish 305English 305Dr. RoggenkampDr. Roggenkamp

What is a picture book?

Different from an “illustrated text” or novel with pictures

Book in which illustrations and text are equally balanced, equally important

Words depend on the pictures to tell part of the story, and vice versa

Neither element can “stand alone” Together, they complete the story—create a “third story” between them

Pictures not a “universal language”

Different cultures “read” or interpret pictures differently

Children learn to “read” pictures based on the culture in which they live

Perry Nodelman, Words About Pictures Maria Nikolajeva & Carole Scott, How Picturebooks Work

Reading pictures a learned process

Pictures won’t mean anything to a child until child is old enough to develop an understanding of its own environment

Children seem to teach themselves picture reading skills at very early age

Contemporary culture FILLED with visual images—children learn visual literacy long before they learn verbal literacy

Do adults “lose” ability to read pictures?

We tend to read just the words Children (especially pre-literate children) both hear the words and “read” the illustrations at the same time—get a much fuller sense of the picture book

Picture Book MilestonesPicture Book Milestones

1658, Orbis Sensualium Pictus (Johannes Amos Comenius) argued by some to be first picture book

1744, Little Pretty Pocket Book (John Newbery)

Other didactic books like Struwwelpeter (1845)

Victorian Illustrated TextsVictorian Illustrated Texts

Genre really takes off late 19th century—publishing/printing changes make extensive illustration more feasible

Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott, et al.

Illustration becomes associated with books for children

Childhood as joyous & pleasurable; illustrations as joyous & pleasurable

Image: Illustration by Kate GreenawayImage: Illustration by Kate Greenaway

Format and First Impressions

Book’s physical format directs our response to that book before we even open it

Cover, shape, size, “feel” in our hands, kind of paper used, etc.

Format and First Impressions

Elements in the Book—Space

Way type is laid out, spaced on page

Borders—white border or not, shifting borders (e.g. Where the Wild Things Are)

Elements in the Book—Color Different hues associated with different moods/feelings

Green=peacefulness, blue=serenity or sadness, red=anger, yellow=happiness, etc.

Shades—degrees of brightness or darkness. Light usually=happier mood; dark usually=more intense mood

Saturation—relative intensity of colors. More saturated colors seem more vibrant, less seem more gentle

Color . . .

Elements in the Book—Shape and Line

Rounded shapes associated with softness

Straight, angular lines associated with rigidity, tension, energy

Can strongly affect mood of story

Elements in the Book—Shape and Line

Elements in the Book—Artistic Medium and Style Collage, oils, pastel watercolors, black and white line drawing, woodcuts, etc.

Realistic, abstract, surreal, impressionistic, etc.

Style=“the effect of all the aspects of a work considered together, the way an illustration or a text seems distinct or even unique” (Nodelman 283).

Example—style of Beatrix Potter: gentle, unsaturated watercolors, tiny size, small animals in human situations

Style affects story—Hyman’s Red Style affects story—Hyman’s Red Riding Hood vs. Marshall’s Red Riding Hood vs. Marshall’s Red Riding HoodRiding Hood

Elements in the Book—Visual Objects

Symbols—use of cross, flag, tree, etc. Cultural codes—e.g. dark=evil and light=good; slumped head=sadness and uplifted head=happiness; wolf=predator and bunny=gentle, happiness

“Picture books both depend on and teach such conventional assumptions” (Nodelman 288).

Cultural Codes

Other elements—light and shadow

Other elements—size of figures

Figures in relation to each other

Size of characters in relation to background

Other elements—focus (close up shot vs. long shot)

Other elements—way movement is suggested

Literary Elements of Picture Book

Plot—tension, action, conflict; closed ending vs. open

Characterization—full, round characters vs. flat characters; dynamic vs. static

Setting Point of view—through whose eyes is story told? Is narrator a character, or outside the action?

Literary Elements of Picture Book

Theme—even simplest picture book can offer more complex theme or significant meaning

Importance of friendship & family, role of imagination, life coming out of death, etc.

Tone—serious and somber, light and joyful, etc.

What mood provoked in reader?

Text—Context—Subtext

Text The words themselves But also the conventions that readers observe—symbolism, characterizations, genre, narrative style, open vs. closed ending, etc.

Text—Context—Subtext

Context Historical context in which work was created

How is the text “in community” with the era in which it was written/illustrated?

Text—Context—Subtext

Subtext Ways textual elements and context work together to create meanings that are not always obvious

What is the book’s possible ideology?

Example: The Story of Babar