An Annotated Bibliography
Picturebooks 2.0
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Serafini, Frank, Kachorsky, Dani, & Aguillera, Earl. “Picturebooks 2.0: Transmedial features across narrative platforms.” Journal of Children’s Literature. 41(2), 2015: 16-24.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: digital picturebooks, picturebooks, visual storytelling, digitization, layout, child readers
Annotation:
Digital technology has had an augmenting affect on picture books. The author’s of this article are concerned with the transmedial features of the text as well as the work being done by visual images, sound fx and music, textual and paratextual elements of the story, as well as a range of interactivity points within the text such as navigational elements, transitions, and animations. The printed picture book is very different than the experience found on digital devices. For these authors, the content of the book is something that can be experienced in many places and many ways. The digital platform is altering the experience that one can have with a children’s narrative. The meaning garnered from stories is in effect changed as well. For picture books published in print format, digital formats present a new range of entry points for multimodal inquiry. The main primary source for these researchers is The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, a text that was published in print and digital media.
Is the Picture Book Dead?
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Schons, Lisa M. ‘‘Is the Picture Book Dead? The Rise of the iPad as a Turning Point in Children’s Literature.’’ Journal of Digital Research & Publishing 2 (2011): 120-28.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: digital picturebooks, picturebooks, visual storytelling, digitization, layout, child readers
Annotation:
From 2010’s release of the Apple iPad, digital publishing saw a drastic change in many ways. More so, the picture book genre saw a wave of new possibilities. Schons explores the market effect as well as the radical reconceptualization of the genre in this article. Using The Heart and the Bottle as an example, Schons notes the differences between the traditionally printed picture book and the new experience driven interactive iPad picture book. Multimodality is positioned as the new normal for digitally published picture book apps with an emphasis on the blurring of lines between movies, games, and books. E-literature is presented as a revolutionary tool for improving the literacy and digital literacy of the child. One important conclusion to note is the statement that the two different formats, traditional and digital, have a place in the complex and rapidly changing market.
Re-conceptualising picturebook theory in the digital age.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Al- Yaqout, Ghada and Maria Nikolajeva. “Re-conceptualising picturebook theory in the digital age.” Nordic Journal for ChildLit Aesthetics 6, (2015).
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: digital picturebooks, picturebooks, visual storytelling, digitization, layout, child readers
Annotation:
The digital age has altered the way we read and study the picture book. Al-Yaqout and Nikolajeva maintain the need to expand the theory beyond the multimodal text and image understanding of visual and verbal understandings to include the new elements of multimodal picture books: “auditory, tactile, and performative dimensions.” The article looks at both digital stories as well as apps which are shaping the way visual texts are delivered and interacted with. The immateriality of this new way of digital texts is brought forth for consideration. Interesting points such as the impact of the exploitation of interactivity, the destabilization of the confines of layout and space found in printed texts, and the performance of reading, being read to, or following along. Books that are now available in both print and augmented digital formats, like The Cat in the Hat and Goodnight Moon, are juxtaposed and discussed. Digital children’s literature commands a need for a reevaluation of picture book theory.
The Construction of meaning through image-text interaction.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Unsworth, Len and Cléirigh, Chris. “Multimodality and reading: The Construction of meaning through image-text interaction.” In C. Jewitt (Ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis (pp. 151-164). 2009. Print.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: semantics, semiotic relationship, intersemiotic relationship, visual cues, visual language, text/image
Annotation:
This scientifically oriented approach to the relationship between text and images explores multimodal texts by thinking about the ways in which the media is doing work in each. This chapter of the text attempts to forward understanding of the ways in which image artifacts and linguistics interact. There have been both descriptive and systematic research accounts of the relationship between text and images, as Unsworth and Cléirigh point out. This work is done under the lens of wanting to explore the reconceptualization of papers and digital texts. The intersemiotic and semiotic relationships between images and text are discussed in depth alongside the distillation of verbal and visual cues that we are prone to interaction with.
Ways of the Illustrator
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Schwarcz, Joseph. H. Ways of the Illustrator: Visual Communication in Children’s Literature. Chicago: American Library Association, 1982. Print.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, image/text, illustrated books, visual storytelling, genre
Annotation:
Schwarcz does a deep dive into the visual language found in picture books and more broadly children’s literature. This early exploration of the relationship between text and illustration takes color, representation, shape, and emotional experience into consideration. Maurice Sendak, Ezra Jack Keats, and Virginia Burton are areas of inquiry for the author as the picture books they created are of particular interest. Each one represents a mastery of interplay between the two commanding elements. Schwarcz looks at the mood and psychological impact of words and pictures as well.
Words About Pictures
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Nodelman, Perry. Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children’s Picture Books. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1988. Print.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, image/text, illustrated books, visual storytelling, genre
Annotation:
This text is the seminal work regarding the relationship between pictures and text in picture books. The examination that is done by Nodelman stretches in the intricacy and specialty associated with the aesthetic and literary primary source material found in the corpus of children’s picture books. Nodelman explores a range of text that spans well-known story’s like Where the Wild Things Are to more generic alphabet books. The picture book’s use of visual illustration is explored in depth. The significance of the pictorial elements of the text is brought into the limelight for one of the first times in children’s literary study. Of particular interest are the chapters regarding the relationships between multiple visual objects (Chapter 5) as well as visual objects in relation to the text (Chapter 7).
The Dynamics of Picturebook Communication.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Nikolajeva, Maria, and Carole Scott. “The Dynamics of Picturebook Communication.” Children’s Literature in Education 31.4. (2000): 225–39.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, image/text, illustrated books, narrative
Annotation:
Nikolajeva and Carole Scott discuss the groundwork for the larger book How Picturebooks Work in this article. The interplay and interaction between text and images is presented and distilled down. For Nikolajeva and Scott, the relationship between words and images is ambiguous and subjective. It is acknowledged that in an effort to categorize these kinds of relationships, some are more easily identifiable than others. The relationship is often complex and reliant on a range of factors that are different for each text. The distinction between illustrated books and picture books is also essential for these researchers. Picture books imply narrative work being accomplished by the illustrated elements of the text. Illustrated books use illustrations as decoration to complement rather than work alongside the text.
Picture Theory
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Mitchell, W. J. T. Picture Theory. Essays on Verbal and Visual Representation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994. Print.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picture theory, visual language, definitions, iconology
Annotation:
This longer work discusses picture theory in depth. The picture and it’s meaning are expounded upon to a great degree in this important endeavor. Concepts like visual language, iconology, visual narrative, are all given their footing in Mitchell’s text. Mitchell is attempting to give credence to pictures and their representational nature. Mitchell points out that there is a “pictorial” turn happening that forces us to ask what work pictures are involved in. He does this in relation to film as well as the use of visual images to influence sociopolitical and cultural moments. His main goal is to establish “picture theory” as a way to understand the function of the medium. In order to marry art, photography, and other visual cultures, we need to create a singular unifying theory.
Understanding comics
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
McCloud, S. Understanding comics: The invisible art. New York: Harper Collins (1994).
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, comics, illustration, iconology, genre, definitions
Annotation:
McCloud created a comic book that acts as a guide to reading comic books. In depth descriptions regarding visual iconography, the definitions associated with the genre, as well as the way that text and illustration are interdependent and related is the main focus of the text. The book acts as a reference point for reading both comics and other illustrated forms of literature. The dynamics between psychology and color are given fair attention. McCloud’s text is an overall analysis of the medium of comic books. By building a reference guide to illustrated literature as a piece of illustrated literature, McCloud achieves a referential work that defines and explains the importance of the multimodal narrative.
Illustrations, Text, and the Child Reader
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Fang, Zhihui. “Illustrations, Text, and the Child Reader: What are the pictures in Children’s Storybooks for?” Reading Horizons 37.2 (1996): 130-142.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, publishing, printing process, history of picturebooks, child readers, picturebook psychology
Annotation:
This article discusses the relationship between the illustration and the reader. The explicit purpose of the paper is to “delineate the main functions of illustrations in relation to the text in picture books and to examine the significance of illustrations to the child reader.” Art argued to work as a tool for storytelling as opposed to a decoration. The work being done includes establishing the setting of the story, definition and development of the characters, as an arm to extend and develop the narrative story, alter and augment the perspective of the reader, add understanding, and reaffirm elements of the narrative. After positing the previous, the author goes into a lightly psychological overview of the effect of illustrations for child readers. Illustrations are concluded to be an essential narrative device for developing readers. The interplay of text and illustration is also concluded to be supplementary for young readers.
