Picturebook
Picturebook
The picturebook is a storytelling medium that presents its text in both verbal and visual language. According to Barbara Bader (1976), a picturebook is words and illustrations in a total design, “an item of manufacture and a commercial product; a social, cultural, historic document; and foremost, an experience for a [reader / beholder]. As an art form it hinges on the interdependence of pictures and words, on the simultaneous display of two facing pages, and on the drama of the turning page” (ibid., p.1).
The interaction between words and pictures
The reader creates the meaning in the picturebook through both images and words. The pictures show and the words tell, which are two different modes of communication. Schwarcz (1982) states that picturebooks are a “lively complex phenomenon” (ibid., p.14). They are texts which are composite in nature; they usually rely for their effects upon an interplay or interdependence of pictures and words, which can take many different forms. Therefore, in picturebooks, multimodality goes one step further. They are also characterized by their intermodality, since both modes - verbal and visual - interact. Picturebook specialists use different terms to explain this. Lawrence Sipe (1998) refers to “synergy” as the relationship between words and pictures in a picturebook, where the total effect depends not only on the union of both but also on the interaction between them. Lewis coined the term “interanimation” to capture how each element works on the other. He states how “the words are pulled through the pictures and the pictures are brought into focus by the words” (Lewis, 2001, p. 28). Moreover, many picturebooks contain intertextual and interpictorial references to other works of art and incorporate visual codes that are typical of related multimedia art forms, such as artists’ books, comics, and movies (Kümmerling-Meibauer, 2017). Reading picturebooks demands specific linguistic, aesthetic and cognitive skills from the readers in order to grasp the complexity and sophistication of its intermodality.
The visual and verbal different relationships range from picturebooks without words, books in which the pictures more or less simply illustrate what is told by the text or those in which the words merely verbalize what is shown in the pictures, up to sophisticated forms of narrative interaction between text and picture. According to Maria Nikolajeva and Carol Scott (2001), there is a system of seven different image-text relations. On one extreme we find parallel storytelling where words and pictures tell more or less the same story. On the other extreme, there are cases with an interdependent, ironic or contradictory interaction where words and pictures tell different information. In between these two extremes we can find consonant, symmetrical, complementary, enhancement and counterpoint relations.
Picturebook categories
The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks (Kümmerling-Meibauer, 2018) classifies picturebooks in the following categories, that have crossing boundaries and might overlap:
- Early-concept books and concept books (p.149) show pictures of common, everyday objects of the child’s surroundings (balls, shoes, bananas, chairs). They are specifically for children 12-18 months and come in a handy format, are made of thick cardboard, plastic, wood, or cloth and have less than ten pages.
- Wimmelbooks (p.158) are non-directive wordless picturebooks. From the German verb wimmeln, which translates as ‘to teem’ or ‘to swarm’. They offer experience of dynamic wealth and a somewhat messy overabundance of visual material.
- ABC books (p.169) play with the ludic relations between letter and image, taking a huge variety of forms and addressing a large public, normally following the alphabetic order to inspire illustrations.
- Pop-up and movable books (p. 180) have moving parts within their printed pages. They include illustrations and text that can be rotated, lifted, pushed or pulled from side to side. In the case of pop-ups, structures arise from the flat surface in three-dimensional form when a page is turned.
- Wordless picturebooks (p.191) tell stories only through images (visual text) leaving words out (verbal text).
- Postmodern picturebooks (p. 201) are a complex and evolving genre which challenges narrative conventions and aspects of society. With a playful, parodic, and ironic multifaceted text, they blur boundaries between high and popular culture, promote the position of the marginalized, create uncertainty, and generally provide a space for resistance.
- Crossover picturebooks (p. 207) transcend the traditional boundaries between child and adult readers. They have existed for centuries, but the term was adopted when J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books gave this literature a high profile.
- Picturebooks for adults (p. 220) are art works in which the perspective, the addressee, the topics, the verbal and/or visual language, indicate that they are published exclusively for adults. They cross boundaries to other mediums and genres. Graphic novels and comics are relevant in its corpus.
- Informational picturebooks (p.231) are ʻnonfiction’ literature. They select, organize, and interpret facts and figures using verbal and visual codes making information accessible to the interested layperson, engaging readers intellectually and emotionally.
- Poetry in picturebooks (p. 246) category is self descriptive. For example, illustrated nursery rhymes and rhyming alphabet books, poetry picturebooks written and illustrated by children themselves.
- Multilingual picturebooks (p.260) merge the visual with complete text in two or more languages (bilingual) or terms and phrases in two or more languages interspersed throughout the text (interlingual). Translated picturebooks, or separate versions in different languages, can be also considered in this category.
- Digital picturebooks (p.270) refer to a wide range of texts delivered electronically. From e-picturebooks (electronic picturebooks) to texts with a high level of animation and interaction. They transgress the boundaries of books, games and films and add some level of interactivity: highlight or bookmark, consult dictionaries, connect to other readers in real time. Even may offer an audio version, adding music or sound effects of turning pages. They belong to digital culture.
Picture book or picturebook?
The use of picturebook as one word subscribes to a recent trend in research to emphasize the peculiarities of the picturebook as a unique art form. The use of one-word version, follows the suggestions by renowned researchers in the field, according to The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks (2018).
There is often confusion about the selection of the picturebook literary corpus. The controversy about what is and what is not a picturebook is still mirrored in its diverse spellings. English dictionaries clearly state that the concept is written in two words (picture book), which evokes the association of a book that includes illustrations (e.g., illustrated children’s novel, a story collection with images, a coloring book or a picturebook). However, scholars working in the field of picturebook research suggest writing the term as one word in order to emphasize the inseparable unit of pictures and text.
Picturebook’s research
During the last half of the century, a significant number of academic volumes have addressed essential features of picturebooks: the frequently used examples of it in current research are: How picturebooks work (2001), Children's picturebooks: the art of visual storytelling (2012), Learning from picturebooks: perspectives from child development and literacy studies (2015), and The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks (2018).
Current disciplines dealing with picturebooks are children’s literature research, literary didactics, art history, media studies, linguistics, education, developmental psychology, and picture theory. Besides, the increasing interest in this art form has led to the emergence of picturebook research as a special field within the broader discipline of children’s literature research.
Scholarly investigations go further than researching the history of the picturebook and the complex relationship between text and images. Scholars are currently focusing on reader-response theory, the impact of picturebooks on language acquisition and visual and literary literacies, as well as observing the significance of reading picturebook stories aloud for the child’s linguistic and cognitive development. These approaches highlight the experience of children reading picturebooks.
References
Literature references:
Bader, B. (1976). American picturebooks from Noah’s Ark to The Beast Within. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company.
Kümmerling-Meibauer, B., Meibauer, J., Nachtigäller, K., & Rohlfing, K.J. (Eds.). (2015). Learning from Picturebooks: Perspectives from child development and literacy studies (1st ed.). Routledge.
Kümmerling-Meibauer, B. (2018). The Routledge Companion to Picturebooks. Routledge.
Lewis, D. (2001). Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text (1st ed.). Routledge.
Nikolajeva, M., & Scott, C. (2001). How Picturebooks Work (1st ed.). Routledge.
O’Sullivan, E. (2010). More than the sum of its parts? Synergy and picturebook
Translation. Écrire et traduire pour les enfants: voix, images et mots = Writing and
translating for children : voices, images and texts, 133-148.
Salisbury, M., & Styles, M. (2012). Children's picturebooks: the Art of Visual Storytelling. London, Laurence King Publishing.
Schwarcz, J.H. (1982). Ways of the illustrator: Visual communication in children's literature. Chicago: American Library Association.
Sipe, L. (1998). How Picture Books Work: A Semiotically Framed Theory of
Text-Picture Relationships. Children's Literature in Education, 29(2), 97-108.
Picturebooks mentioned:
Browne, A. (1999). Voices In The Park. London: Corgi Childrens.
Kitamura, S. (1987). Lily Takes a Walk. New York: Dutton.
Klassen, J. (2021). The Rock from the Sky. Somerville: Candlewick Press.
Marsden, J. & Shaun, T. (2010). The Rabbits. Sydney: Lothian.
Sendak M. (1963). Where the Wild Things Are. New York: Harper & Row.