history of picturebooks
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.
Schmalz Is as Schmalz Does
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Bradford, Clare. “Schmalz Is as Schmalz Does: Sentimentality and Picture Books.” Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature 7.3 (Dec. 1997): 17–32.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, publishing, printing process, history of picturebooks, picturebook psychology, picturebook theory, sentimentality, cultural norms
Annotation:
Bradford explores how sentimentality is represented in the illustrations found in children’s picture books. In order to do this work, Bradford reads picture books that deal with trauma and extreme emotions such as sadness and grief. Sentimentality is connected to societal assumptions around gender, emotion, and cultural norms. By close reading illustrations in a range of texts that deal with complex emotions, Bradford endeavors to argue that sentimental picture books rely on the interplay of narrative textual and visual elements to manipulate the reader’s subjective understanding of the text.
Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling.
On 20, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Salisbury, Martin, and Morag Styles. Children’s Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling. Laurence King Publishing, 2012.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picturebook, visual storytelling, publishing, printing process, history of picturebooks, picturebook psychology, picturebook themes, picturebook theory
Annotation:
Salisbury and Morag begin by outlining a brief history of the picturebook from early precursors through the birth of the modern picturebook all the way to the twenty-first century. Chapter 4, titled “Word and Image, Word as Image,” explores the relationship between words and images. Other interesting points of inquiry include the relationship of picturebooks to the child, the influence of printing process and the publishing industry, as well as whether certain themes found in picturebooks are suitable for children. This text contributes to a broad overview of picturebooks as a unique form of multimodal literature that has a variety of intricacies and influences.
