Biography and Picture Books

Childrens Literature

George Brown College

November 21, 2014

Randolph Caldecott

1846-86, British,

Childrens Book Illustrator

Picturebook

More than the sum of the words and pictures.

Compare with Illustrated

Reflect current cultural emphasis on visual communication

Part of the pleasure lies in grasping an element in one narrative that the other does not treat.

Pictures may take longer to read than the text.

Parallel Storytelling

When both text and illustration tell essentially the same story.

However, two page spread of picturebook tells stories that the words imply

Blueberries for Sal (Robert McCloskey), reader is aware of the mix-up between the mothers and their childrenbear and humanduring the berry hunt through illustration rather than the words.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx1eL1reOEU

Fish is Fish (Leo Lionni)

Picturebooks contain at least three stories: words, pictures, and their union https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crX5j5hMqqo

Word/Image Interaction

Symmetrical: words and pictures tell same story.

Enhancing: pictures add to the meaning of text; text adds to the meaning of pictures.

Complimentary: a significant enhancement

Counterpointing: words and images present differing information.

Contradictory: challenge readers to mediate between words and pictures to understand what is being communicated.

Group Assignment

In groups, come up with one example from Matilda and Charlottes Web that demonstrates each of the word/image interactions. Symmetrical: words and pictures tell same story. Enhancing: pictures add to the meaning of text; text

adds to the meaning of pictures. Complimentary: a significant enhancement Counterpointing: words and images present differing

information. Contradictory: challenge readers to mediate between

words and pictures to understand what is being communicated.

Elements of Literature

matter to picturebooks Character (The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEmBTYc7Ivo Plot (The Arrival by Shaun Tan);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAay4myoEDE Theme (The Name Jar by Yangshook Choi);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS5XRO1AUT4 Setting (Integral Setting; historical vs non- fiction) Point of View (Mirror by Jeannie Baker);

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBCBcAqQI_E Style and Tone (The Robot Book); Design elements;

Peritexthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9TM2wlHrWM

Surrealism

Anthony Brown

Flotsam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNDyJHDGLH0

Primitivism

Strega Nona by Tomie DePaolo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULUG8IIo9-8

Realism

Henrys Freedom Box, illustrated by Kadir Nelson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGW0PwvFZ04

Impressionism

Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys, illustrated E.B. Lewis

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGWObHaXcss

Cartoon/Pop Art

So You Want to Be President? Illustrated by David Small

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iERoMz3u1i0

Abstract

Big Blue and Little Yellow, Lionni and Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKqGGYcA978

Expressionism

Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge illustrated by Julie Vivas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usnOEnTXabw

Creepy Carrots (German Expressionism) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=godIw9z4Ogs

Photography

A Fairys Flight by Linda Carlin

Biography

Biography: story of the life of an individual told by a different author

Autobiography: written by the subject.

Memoir: narrower focus and more intimate tone to memories, feelings, and emotions.

Individuality of Subjects

The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de St. George by Hugh Brewster

Joseph Bologne

18C