picturebooks
Focalization in Children’s Picture Books
On 21, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Yannicopoulou, Angela. “Focalization in Children’s Picture Books: Who Sees in Words and Pictures.” Telling Children’s Stories: Narrative Theory and Children’s Literature. Ed. Michael Cadden. Lincoln: Nebraska UP, 2010. Web.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: children’s literature, picturebooks, focalization, perspective
Annotation:
This article discusses the importance and implications of our predominantly visual culture on children’s literature. Yannicopoulou outlines the differences between different types of focalization starting with nonfocalization where the main point of focus is the characters, moving to internal focalization where the narrator is seeing the story through his or her own eyes, onto fixed internal focalization where the story is given to the reader through the restricted view of a single character. Moving beyond these, variable internal focalization, multiple internal focalization, external focalization, and discrepant modes of focalization are discussed in depth. In doing this kind of defining of focal points and perspectives, Yannicopoulou considers the assumptions that must be made from an ideology standpoint for those reading picture and nonpicture books. The role of pictures for each of the aforementioned forms of focalization is varied, but overall facilitates a type of assumptive understanding of sociological, cultural, and even historical focalization of the text, it’s characters, and it’s world. The narrative text works in conjunction with the images in order push forth verbal and visual story information.
Chaperoning Words
On 21, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Sanders, Joe Sutliff. “Chaperoning Words: Meaning-Making in Comics and Picture Books.” Children’s Literature: 57-90. Web.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: picturebooks, comics, visual storytelling, methodology, image/text
Annotation:
Sanders is making the argument that comic book study and picture book study are intertwined. In this lengthy paper, we are introduced to a methodology for determining the difference and meaning between the messages and forms of these two genres. Theory is a difficult thing to apply to comics and picturebooks according to Sanders. Instead he proposes the notation of the obvious differences among the two forms in order find a solution to his defined problem. Sanders states, “if they have even the dimmest awareness of the impact of shape, line, color, and pacing (and I suspect they have quite a cunning awareness of a wide range of aesthetics), they are chaperoning key elements themselves.” Sanders section entitled “Fixing Meaning” is particularly important for it’s treatement of the word and image dynamic in these forms of literature. The two genres combine words in a fundamentally similar way. The major takeaway is as follows: “in general, if the book anticipates a solitary reader who chaperones the words as they go about their work of fixing the meaning of the images, that book is a comic; if the book instead anticipates a reader who chaperones the words as they are communicated to a listening reader, that book is a picture book.”
Radical Change Theory and Synergistic Reading for Digital Age Youth
On 21, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Dresang, Eliza T., and Bowie Kotrla. ‘‘Radical Change Theory and Synergistic Reading for Digital Age Youth.’’ The Journal of Aesthetic Education 43 (2009): 92-107.
Referrer: Chris Vitale
Categories: radical change theory, picturebooks, Black and White, visual story telling, digital picturebooks
Annotation:
Dresang and Kotrla begin by discussing radical change theory in relation to the award-winning extended length picture book The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Dresang notes that this text is an indication of the changing nature of books in response to “digital age youth.” The changing reader is one that is now concerned with interactivity, connectivity, and access. Radical Change Theory dictates that books must becomes more sophisticated in order to keep up with the demand of it’s changing audience. An important part of this article is the discussion of “Changing Children.” The preconceptions we have about children and childhood are rapidly changing into more complex and ambiguously defined identifications. By acknowledging Radical Change Theory, we can more accurately assess books created in the digital age or for the generation of people consuming this type of media. Aesthetic experiences must be responsive to what the youth demands.
Visual Narrativity in the Picture Book
On 21, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Wesseling, Elisabeth. “Visual Narrativity in the Picture Book: Heinrich Hoffman’s Der Struwwelpeter.” Children’s Literature in Education 35.4 (Dec. 2004): 319–45.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: visual story telling, picturebooks, color theory, image/text, irony, layout
Annotation:
Wesseling immediately argues, “Both words and images make their own relatively autonomous contribution to the overall semantic, aesthetic and emotional effect of the picture book. Therefore, it has often been observed that the picture book is closer to other mixed narrative forms such as drama or film than to verbal fiction.” Channeling Nodelman, Wesseling dives into a reading of Der Struwwelpeter, oder lustige Geschichten und drollige Bilder that is focused on word and image interaction. This close reading of the text and images garners observations regarding the representations, visual storytelling, and textual augmentation of the illustrations. The construction and layout of pages in relation to rhyming is discussed and categorized as Visual Rhymes. This abstract perspective on visual structure is valuable for thinking about the implications of layout in distant reading picturebooks.
Emerging Literacy of (An)Other Kind
On 21, Dec 2015 | In Picturebooks | By Chris Vitale
Stewart, Michelle Pagni. “Emerging Literacy of (An)Other Kind: Speakerly Children’s Picture Books.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 28.1 (Spring 2003): 42–51.
Referrer: Carrie Hintz
Categories: picturebooks, oral books, layout
Annotation:
Stewart stakes the claim that picturebooks function in a similar way to oral works. Most interesting, this article discusses the “Oral Performance of Illustrations.” Stewart notes that the visual construction of the page works toward creating a more oral experience for the text. This is done by using illustrations that are not exactly connected to the text of the story or the words on the page. The ambiguity of the pictures gives agency to the child to determine what is being seen. The story is made more interactive and ambiguous, similar to an oral text. Picturebooks for Stewart are by definition the polar opposite of an oral text, but have an element of orality in their execution and the experience that the audience encounters. A text that is speakerly is not necessarily oral.
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.
