Picture Book Format Research Articles

The Cloud over My Head and Other Stories: Children’s Picture Books on Children’s Anxiety

This creative work is in five children’s picture book format for the target of age five to nine and the topic focuses on children’s anxiety. My stories will be in low fantasy genre, where the anxiety in each story has various forms. The main theme of my stories is to show that what anxiety produces negative thoughts that are not based on reality. To show how children can have anxiety, I use Cognitive Distortions theory, and to show how children can cope with their anxieties, I use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) theory. Each of my stories will be about how anxiety happens to the main character and how the main character solves the problem. From the research I did, I found that anxiety happens to children and it produces negative thoughts that are later proven to be untrue. With CBT, children can also learn how to cope their anxieties by self-monitoring their own emotions and turn negative thoughts into positive ones. Keywords: Children, anxiety, cognitive distortions, cognitive behavioural therapy

The Dislocations and Transgressions in Bhajju Shyam’s The London Jungle Book (2004)

The paper explores the multiple transgressions and border-crossings elaborated in the visual travelogue The London Jungle Book (2004), by Bhajju Shyam, a Pardhan-Gond artist and produced by Tara Books, an independent artists’ collective specialising in experimental visual literature. The paper discusses the cultural history of “Pardhan-Gond art” and the dislocations and relocations of the art form in the contemporary art world. The paper argues that the personal experience of the artist appears to reflect these shifting categorizations, movements and locations of performance of the art form. The images and metaphors of displacement and transgression have varied connotations in the visual travelogue as they reveal the complex mechanisms of travel and mobility in the contemporary world. The text also articulates the response of the artist to the social, political and economic conditions surrounding the production and circulation of his art, through reimagining his homeland, his cultural ties and his own identity. In a paradoxical sense, the experience of travel and mobility does not symbolise the uprootedness or detachment of the artist, but it brings into effect, with more immediacy, the cultural identity and ties of the artist, as a Pardhan-Gond artist, in the contemporary art world. Furthermore, the materiality of the crossover text challenges the notions of media, genre and readership, associated with the picturebook format, destabilising the categories and assumptions associated with the literary genre.

Bridge to Cultural Understanding

This longitudinal study on recommended children's books translated into English and published in the United States between 1990-2003 allowed the researchers to identify trends in translations based on language, genre and subject. The most frequent language of translation was German, followed by French and Swedish. Animal Personification was the most popular genre, followed by Realistic Fiction and Information books. A majority of the translated children's books were in the picture book format, primarily from the Animal Personification genre. Popular subject headings included Animals (specific)-Fiction, Fairy Tales/Folklore, Family Relationships-Fiction and Friendship-Fiction, much the same as in the United States.

Birds: Explore Their Extraordinary World by Miranda Krestovnikoff

Reviewed by: Birds: Explore Their Extraordinary World by Miranda Krestovnikoff Elizabeth Bush Krestovnikoff, Miranda Birds: Explore Their Extraordinary World; illus. by Angela Harding. Bloomsbury, 2021 [64p] Trade ed. ISBN 9781547605293 $23.99 E-book ed. ISBN 9781547607464 $16.79 Reviewed from digital galleys R Gr. 3-6 Somewhere between primary schoolers learning bird basics and older dyed-inthe-wool birders are the kids with a general fascination for the wondrous variety, mind-boggling physiology, and aesthetic allure of the avian world. This British import hits that sweet spot, with a browser-friendly overview that features paragraphs of information beyond science class coverage, a broader scope than field guides, and sophisticated illustrations that invite engrossed lingering. Krestovnikoff is no slave to formal organization, but instead gratifies this audience’s proclivity to meander among topics of established and novel appeal, offering longer opening sections of three or four double-page spreads roughly grouped by habitat (e.g., tropics, fresh water) and crumbs of miscellanea in closing spreads (e.g., birdsong, extreme cold). Harding’s linocuts are lavishly textured and detailed; most coordinate [End Page 341] closely enough with the text to function like thoughtfully staged museum exhibits accompanied by exemplary notes. This title, which is also bound to capture the interest of passing adults, is a strong reminder that there’s no age ceiling for the picture book format. Copyright © 2021 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Livro-álbum e cinema: um diálogo interartes

Pretende-se, neste estudo, proceder a uma reflexão sobre as diferentes possíveis relações de proximidade e de interseção entre a narrativa fílmica e o livro-álbum, identificando vários exemplos de obras destinadas à infância e juventude que tratam o cinema como tema ou motivo, ou simples alusão pontual em termos de conteúdo, mas também de outras que se socorrem de várias técnicas cinematográficas para contarem uma história. Além disso, analisa-se, ainda, o livro 1.º Direito, de Ricardo Henriques, com ilustrações de Nicolau, que, inspirado pelo enredo do filme A janela indiscreta [Rear Window, 1954], de Alfred Hitchcock, procede à sua recriação em formato de livro-álbum, revisitando, com adaptações, o imaginário fílmico.

Coloring Feelings: Concept Books Making and Remaking Racialized Color Meanings

Working with cognitive literary theory, affect theory, semiotics, and recent picturebook scholarship, this essay looks at the ways the concept book (as a subtype of the picturebook format) connects color to emotion. In doing so, it suggests that one of Western culture’s most commonly accepted ideas of color and color meaning may contribute to ongoing social inequities and injustices. The essay identifies a set of techniques the concept book uses to attach emotion meaning to color, highlighting that such connections are not merely embodied within concept books, but they are also nurtured by them. As the essay also re-introduces “nurture” into cognitive studies literary scholarship, it suggests that, while the innate, cognitive brain structure of schema and script might be immutable, the content of those structures is flexible and therein offers possibility for change. This possibility is in fact itself embodied in a small but growing body of concept books that seem to resist and push back against conventional, emotionalized color meaning, leaving meaning potentials open and promoting cognitive flexibility by engaging empathy.

Up on Bob by Mary Sullivan

Reviewed by: Up on Bob by Mary Sullivan Deborah Stevenson, Editor Sullivan, Mary Up on Bob; written and illus. by Mary Sullivan. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020 [34p] Trade ed. ISBN 978-1-328-99471-4 $17.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-358-16721-1 $12.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. K-2 Bob the dog is on a mission: set up the human bed for the best possible daytime nap. He's knocked the toys off and arranged the pillows ("Bob likes hard work. Hard work pays off"), and he's all set for his snooze, but now Someone (a cheeky gray cat) is watching him. Kitty pounces—and sets to work on arranging (and cleaning) Bob for a perfect shared nap. Sullivan (Ball, BCCB 5/13, Nobody's Duck, BCCB 1/18) again displays her gift for concise animal comedy in this strippeddown [End Page 232] beginning reader in picture-book format. The text incorporates repetition effortlessly, evincing a conversational tone even as it aids new readers, and then the cat development turns the full reiteration of the bed-preparing ritual into a comic twist. Digital line and watercolor–style art is light-hearted and spring-toned, with the strong emphasis on Bob, a long-nosed sausage (and a well-stuffed sausage at that) of a pup with expressive ginger eyebrows; the rounded toylike cat is cute even as an antagonist and adorable as a cuddle buddy. Kids just puzzling out words will appreciate the comfortable format and cozily funny story, and this is also a perfect picture book to encourage youngsters to start testing out their co-reading. Copyright © 2020 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Helping preservice teachers realize the transformative potential of read alouds

ABSTRACTA common instructional practice in early childhood classrooms is the picturebook read aloud. The purpose of this investigation was to help preservice teachers learn to plan picturebook read alouds with the goal of helping children interpret the visual affordances of picturebooks, including visual elements (e.g., cclor, line) and peritextual components (e.g., title page, endpapers) as they engage in collaborative meaning making. In this qualitative study, the participants were 12 preservice teachers enrolled in an undergraduate children’s literature course. The findings presented here are focused on three participants that represented a range of growth and understandings about the picturebook format as well as growth and understandings about designing read aloud lessons. Findings indicate that while participants grew in their understandings of picturebook formats and in their ability to develop read aloud lesson plans with a visual focus, the rates and ways in which this occurred varied. Furthermore, the findings also suggest that crafting read alouds with a focus on visual affordances is a complex process and deserves careful attention in teacher preparation programs.

Challenges and Possibilities for Bisexual Picturebooks

Since 1979, English-language picturebooks portraying lesbian, gay, and transgender characters have been published in increasing numbers, yet despite this growth bisexual people remain unrepresented within the medium. In this article, we explore the usefulness of naming and portraying bisexuality in picturebooks and argue that the present lack of bi representation constitutes a form of bisexual erasure. We develop a set of criteria for bisexual representation for future use in the picturebook format, the utility of which we test using a Spanish-language example with a bisexual character. Finally, in addition to offering much-needed representation for bi youth parallel to that which is available for lesbian, gay, and trans children, we contend that portraying bisexual characters holds liberatory potential for all children, as a means of challenging a system of attraction centered on gender.

PREPARING FUTURE LEADERS OF THEIR RACES -THE POLITICAL FUNCTION OF CHILDREN’S CHARACTERS IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN AMERICAN PICTURE-BOOKS

Aim. The aim of the article is to analyse the ways African American children’s characters are constructed in selected picture-books and to determine whether they have any impact on the conduct of contemporary black youth facing discrimination in their own lives. It also argues that picture-books are one of the most influential media in the representation of racial problems.Methods. The subjects of the study are picture-books. The analysis pertains to the visual and the verbal narrative of the books, with a special emphasis being placed on the interplay between text and image as well as on the ways the meaning of the books is created. The texts are analysed using a number of existing research methods used for examining the picture-book format. Results. The article shows that the actions of selected children’s characters, whether real or imaginary, may serve as an incentive for contemporary youth to struggle for equal rights and contribute to the process of racial integration on a daily basis.Conclusions. The results can be considered in the process of establishing educational curricula for students from minority groups who need special literature that would empower them to take action and join in the efforts of adult members of their communities.

Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer by Emily Arnold McCully

Reviewed by: Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer by Emily Arnold McCully Elizabeth Bush Mccully, Emily Arnold Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer. Candlewick, 2019 [176p] illus. with photographs Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-7636-9356-5 $19.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-5362-0406-3 $19.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 6-9 STEM education has spurred curricular interest in Ada Byron Lovelace, and much of it has recently emerged in picture-book format. Here McCully offers middleschoolers a biography at once more nuanced about Lovelace's enduring contribution to computer development and vastly more involving about the domestic dramas that marked her life with her controlling mother, her supportive but ultimately unloved husband, and her largely ignored children. There's no overt attempt at melodrama, [End Page 352] but the convincing characterization of Lady Byron (who fashioned "a career out of having suffered at Lord Byron's hands, while at the same time basking in the aura of his fame"), Ada's admission that she'd fallen out of love with William Lovelace and didn't really like children and her laudanum-induced erratic behavior make her a heroine worthy of fiction. Likewise, McCully is precise in her evaluation of Lovelace's technological contributions: "Her idea that the engine could do more than compute, that numbers were symbols and could represent other concepts, is what makes Babbage's engine a proto-computer." The eminently readable text moves swiftly, and portrait reproductions included throughout underscore the polished society in which nineteenth-century sciences flourished. End matter includes a summary of Lovelace's notes to the publication of Babbage's signature work, notes, bibliography, glossary, and index, as well as an 1878 document explaining why a scientific society would withhold their financial support of Babbage's invention—and thereby relegate Ada Lovelace to footnotes for the next century. EB Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Har du inga gummistövlar? Fattigdom i 2010-talets svenska bilderbok

Title: Representations of Poverty in Contemporary Swedish Picture Books This article explores nine Swedish children’s picture books that portray children and other people living in poverty. The aim is to scrutinize the discursive and aesthetical practices that construct the literary image of poverty, poor people, and their relationship to society and each other. The article shows that the Swedish picture book participates in recent debates on child poverty and begging EU citizens. The representations of social inequality include both depictions of poor children and of children meeting socially excluded people, such as beggars. The depictions are located in between discourses on poverty, children, and children’s rights. Inequality is, on the one hand, represented by a lack of material resources, such as new rubber boots or expensive fruit, and on the other, by adults begging in the street. The aesthetics of the picture book format is utilized in a productive way, encouraging readers to reflect on questions of poverty, power, and solidarity.

¿Nuevos públicos para el libro álbum?: experiencias de recepción en educación primaria

El libro-álbum mantiene hoy una enorme vitalidad en los ámbitos académicos y educativos. Actualmente, los aspectos del álbum que mayor atención requieren por parte de los expertos son el público al que va destinado de modo preferente y las posibilidades didácticas que encierra. Con respecto al público lector, las opiniones de los investigadores son variadas y a veces contradictorias. Hay quienes piensan que el álbum va dirigido de manera natural a no lectores o primeros lectores por lo que puede resultar infantil, por su formato, para mayores de 7 u 8 años. Otros estudiosos creen que el álbum es también idóneo para las etapas de Primaria, Secundaria o para adultos. Aquí presentamos un estudio de caso mediante el que pretendemos constatar los componentes actitudinales de alumnos de tercero (8-9 años) y de quinto (10-11 años) de Educación Primaria en el proceso de recepción del libro-álbum. Nuestra experiencia en las aulas nos lleva a concluir que el libro-álbum, como formato editorial, resulta adecuado para estas edades, si bien, son determinantes los modos de mediación y la selección de los textos.

Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented by Tanya Lee Stone

Reviewed by: Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented by Tanya Lee Stone Elizabeth Bush Stone, Tanya Lee Pass Go and Collect $200: The Real Story of How Monopoly Was Invented; illus. by Steven Salerno. Ottaviano/Holt, 2018 [34p] ISBN 978-1-62779-168-7 $18.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-5 Stone excavates the layers of legend that surround the popular board game now trademarked as Monopoly, hitting paydirt with Lizzie Magie, who, well before the Great Depression, devised a board game she called the Landlord’s Game to amuse and educate adults on how housing monopolies always dealt tenants a losing hand. She patented her game, and although Parker Brothers was not interested, it began to circulate informally, morphing its complex rules and amending its game board along the way. With its roots obscured, the game was ripe for plucking by the out-of-work Charles Darrow, who refined it further, was rebuffed by Parker Brothers, and again sent it into informal circulation until PB noted the error of its ways and made an offer. The previous patent was discovered, Magie was bought off, Darrow took credit, PB made scads of money, and Monopoly became an ironic object lesson of sorts for everything Magie railed against. Stone is a deft hand at balancing historical absurdities with important social themes, and here her picture book format invites middle-grade readers to benefit from a lesson in entrepreneurship, [End Page 488] even as they enjoy amassing trivia surrounding a familiar game. Salerno’s retro illustrations recreate the milieu that Rich Uncle Pennybags called home but also include plenty of visual references to the game as it evolved. An author’s note and sources are included, and “Tremendous Trivia!” and “Monopoly Math” addenda extend the fun. Copyright © 2018 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre & His World of Insects by Matthew Clark Smith (review)

Reviewed by: Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre & His World of Insects by Matthew Clark Smith Elizabeth Bush Smith, Matthew Clark Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre & His World of Insects; illus. by Giuliano Ferri. Two Lions, 2015 [42p] ISBN 978-1-4778-2632-4 $17.99 Reviewed from galleys R Gr. 3-5 At a time when naturalists were more inclined to describe the physical characteristics of species than observe their behavior, nineteenth-century Frenchman Jean-Henri Fabre translated his childhood fascination with insects into the work of a very long, if often quite secluded, life—so long and secluded, in fact, that neighbors were thoroughly baffled when the French president arrived to visit the elderly man at his home. That opening scene segues into a flashback of Fabre’s life. Frequent moves and family sorrows threatened to derail his studies, but he nonetheless established a teaching and writing career in which he reported frankly on Nature’s seamier side: “When the authorities found out what he was teaching, they were not pleased. The bloodthirsty exploits of ant warriors? The secret love life of plants? Before he knew it, Henri was out of a job.” He persisted in his writing, though, adopting an authorial style of such grace that his Souvenirs entomologiques earned him a nomination [End Page 567] for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Although the picture-book format, with its whimsical exaggeration of the insects that would dominate Fabre’s life, may suggest a primary-grade audience, the lengthy text and details of the naturalist’s studies are better suited to middle-graders, who will benefit from the two-page historical note and the timeline that sets Fabre’s life in the context of world events. A brief list of sources is also included. Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton (review)

Reviewed by: The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch by Chris Barton Elizabeth Bush Barton, Chris The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch; illus. by Don Tate. Eerdmans, 2015 48p p ISBN 978-0-8028-5379-0 $17.00 Ad Gr. 3-5 John Roy Lynch, son of an Irish overseer and a slave, lost his first shot at emancipation when his father died and the man to whom he’d entrusted his wishes failed to manumit John Roy and his family. Nor did John Roy consider the end of the Civil War as the beginning of his personal freedom: “It came instead when he sold a chicken for a dime to a Yankee soldier and bought himself a boat ride across the river back to Natchez.” There the sixteen-year-old would quickly improve his fortune, expand his meager education, and assume a role in Reconstruction politics. In 1868 he became a justice of the peace at twenty-one; a year later he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, becoming Speaker two years later. Then it was on to the U.S. House, where he served for two terms, championing a civil rights bill that became law but wasn’t enforced. As the title implies and Barton’s closing note affirms, this is as much about the era of Reconstruction as the remarkable man who experienced both its promise and its ultimate dissolution. Readers, however, are bound to be somewhat disappointed that Barton’s account stops abruptly after Reconstruction, with only the sketchiest of information included in an appended timeline to describe the subsequent life of a very interesting subject. Nonetheless, the storytelling is spirited and Tate’s line and watercolor illustrations are lighthearted yet respectful. This title makes a useful contribution to a period of American history largely unexplored in picture-book format, and it might pair well with Nelson’s Bad News for Outlaws (BCCB 1/10), another story of a former slave’s rise to lawman. [End Page 481] Copyright © 2015 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

An Investigation of Teachers’ Growing Understandings of the Picture Book Format

This study investigated the impact of a graduate course that focused on picture books on teachers’ understandings of the picture book format and the ways in which these understandings influenced their self-reports of picture book use in the classroom. Findings of this qualitative investigation revealed that immersion in and analysis of the picture book format resulted in important changes in teachers’ understandings of and literary stance toward picture books. In addition, teachers reported changes in their instructional practices which, in turn, led to reported changes in their students’ construction of meaning as they interacted with picture books.

Gift Days by K.-L. Winters

Winters, Kari-Lynn. Gift Days. Illus. Stephen Taylor. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2012. Print.A young Ugandan girl, Nassali, watches her brother go to school every day, and wishes she could go too. She wants to learn to read but her time is filled with taking care of her family, her responsibility since the death of her mother. How her life changes, and how she learns to read is told through this picture book. The author, Kari-Lynn Winters, is a Canadian author and literacy researcher and a faculty member in Teacher Education at Brock University. She is a well-known author of numerous picture books.The book is illustrated by Stephen Taylor, a graduate of the Ontario College of Art, and frequent Illustrator of children’s books. The illustrations are charming and add a great deal of depth to the story. They do an excellent job of conveying how alone and left out Nassali feels as her brother goes to school every day, and her joy and sense of pride when she learns to read.The story unfortunately, is not as engaging as the illustrations. The language is quite dry and somewhat didactic, seemingly at odds with the picture book format. There are some disconnections in the story. It is unclear, for example, why the brother decides to teach Nassali to read. For this reason it is difficult to determine the intended audience. The format suggests primary school students, but the content suggests an older audience.This book would be useful as an instructional resource in an elementary school setting for a unit on gender issues or development. It is not, however, likely to engage a self-directed reader of any age.Reviewer: Margaret Law Recommended with reservations: 2 out of 4 starsMargaret Law is the Associate University Librarian (International Relations) at the University of Alberta, responsible for developing international library partnerships. Previously, she was a public librarian, primarily involved with the development of rural libraries in Alberta.

The Romans: Gods, Emperors, and Dormice by Marcia Williams (review)

Reviewed by: The Romans: Gods, Emperors, and Dormice by Marcia Williams Elizabeth Bush Williams, Marcia. The Romans: Gods, Emperors, and Dormice; written and illus. by Marcia Williams. Candlewick, 2013. 36p ISBN 978-0-7636-6581-4 $16.99 R Gr. 4-6 Edward Gibbon it’s not, but Williams’ slim, richly illustrated account of Roman history will probably do the trick for middle-grade students with an enthusiasm for ancient (or at least very, very early) history. She begins her story all the way back with creation myth, the tale of Prometheus, the Roman pantheon, and the legend of Romulus and Remus. Transitions from mythology to hazy history are clearly noted, but readers may not feel historical ground firmly under their feet until dates begin to appear with the six kings who follow Romulus. The Republic gets a few pages of attention, and then it’s briskly on to Empire, with a host of focus topics from ranks of citizenry, lifestyles of the patrician and plebeian, festivals, gladiators, and the army, until Diocletian divides the empire on the penultimate page, and the entire shebang collapses on the last. Shrinking this run of centuries into a picturebook format is much of the charm—a bit like two-minute Shakespeare—and the addition of a dormouse tour guide, who has thus far avoided becoming another morsel in the Roman diet, is either a clever commentator or an outright annoyance, depending on the reader’s tolerance for whimsy. Children familiar with Williams’ customary format will feel right at home with the juxtaposition of light-hearted cartoon figures playing out their scenes against straightforward narration, and as always, it’s worth lingering over the illustrations to tease out both the nonsense and the historical detail scattered throughout. No source notes are included, but anyone who can find their way to the 937s can confirm and expand the information. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Mysterious Traveler by Mal Peet (review)

Reviewed by: Mysterious Traveler by Mal Peet Thaddeus Andracki Peet, Mal. Mysterious Traveler; by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham; illus. by P. J. Lynch. Candlewick, 2013. 48p ISBN 978-0-7636-6232-5 $15.99 R Gr. 3-5 After a massive dust storm, old man Issa—renowned as the most skilled guide in the African desert—discovers a baby girl in a basket carried by a camel that was separated from the rest of its party. Issa takes the child in, names her Mariama, and teaches her to know the desert as intimately as he does. As Issa ages, he goes blind, and Mariama learns to become his eyes as the pair leads strangers across the barren landscape. When a group of young men come through one afternoon, they scoff at the idea of a blind guide and set off through the mountains on their own—only to be caught in a storm that Issa and Mariama show up just in time to save them from. Their leader later returns to thank them, in the process discovering that he is in fact Mariama’s brother and that she is the daughter of the king of Sana. Inspired by stories of a famous blind guide of Timbuktu, this tale is rendered in sparse and poetic prose (“One was taller than a door and fierce looking, with a scar on his face that began beside his left eye and disappeared into his beard”). The relationship between Mariama and Issa is treated with compassion and respect while avoiding contrivance by quietly giving them distinct personalities, and although this isn’t strictly folklore, fans of the genre will appreciate the personable but wise narration and final plot twist. The mixed-media illustrations—some full-page panels, others as small insets, still others acting as backdrop for the text—communicate the harsh beauty of the desert with their soft and painterly outlines, vast and empty expanses, and earthy palette. The book’s picture-book format may mean it requires a little hand-selling to readers, but those who explore its pages will be rewarded with a simple tale that’s both adventurous and heartwarming. Copyright © 2013 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois