The Language of Picture Books

1. The Language of Picture Books English 305 Dr. Roggenkamp

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. Picture 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)

7. Victorian 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 Greenaway

8. 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.

9. Format and First Impressions

10. 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)

11. 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

12. Color . . .

13. 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

14. Elements in the Book—Shape and Line

15. 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

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

17. 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).

18. Cultural Codes

19. Other elements—light and shadow

20. Other elements—size of figures • Figures in relation to each other • Size of characters in relation to background

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

22. Other elements—way movement is suggested

23. 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?

24. 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?

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

26. 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?

27. 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