Session 2

Task

Find examples of children's books to bring in to the next session. Spend time looking at the illustrative style and make notes on the following considerations:

What age do you think the title is aimed at and why do you think this?
What area does the title fit into (baby, picture / storybook, reference / information etc)
How would you describe the illustrative style of the book?
Are there any unique / unusual illustrative approaches used?
how much of what is described in the text is depicted in the illustrations. Would a child who can't yet read be able to tell the story / understand what is being conveyed?

Baby books:

Baby books are mostly aimed at babies around 4 months plus due to their often interactive and soft nature. Babies are normally teething at this age and are learning to grasp and suck and chew. So making these books textured and interactive, with attached items or teethers makes them ideal. Young babies are attracted to bright colours which is thought to be because their eye sight is not well developed enough to make out fine detail, so outline, form and scale is used as a reference, but often exaggerated to build confidence in what the child is looking at. Noises and sounds such as music or crackles can gain attention, combined with words that mommy or daddy can read to the child. This builds a relationship between sounds and shapes and objects that can later be developed into a fuller understanding and comprehension of content. The illustrative style is always basic, focusing on outline and shapes, often the characters will have large eyes which help familiarise a child with what is going on and gives them something to focus on. The books will be almost all illustration as children of this age have no real comprehension of words and certainly can't red them. But basic phonics are being recognised more and more so words such as "car" or "duck" will begin to sink in with repetition. These words which are essentially basic sounds will eventually mean more once combined with illustrations or real objects.

Picture books:

Books like the hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle are aimed mostly at 2-5 year olds. This is a good example as there is still a sense of interactivity in the book. The holes are tactile and exploratory and invite children to almost step into the story and become part of it, also making the caterpillar character more real. This provokes the imagination and also bonds the adult and child as the book becomes somewhat of a learning experience. The typeface here is organic and textured which represents the content well. Black on white makes the text more readable for the adult as well as the child which is useful as generally a book being read by an adult, to a child on their lap for example, will be holding the book at arms length. The colours are bold yet hold some truth to reality, and the forms are more to scale and will have some more detail. Generally in these books there is a simple storyline and the text will describe some but not everything going on in the image. This is good for a child as it allows them to rely visually on understanding the book and allows them to almost have the advantage over the adult because from their point of view, the adult can only understand what it is they are reading and the child effectively "sees more". This approach to children's book design is seen particularly in "Rosie's Walk" where an oblivious chicken is stalked by a not so wiley fox. The text only describes what Rosie is doing and not that there is a fox following her which allows for some excitement on for the child who can see behind her.

Reference / information books:

Books such as these rely mostly on true to life illustrations or photos, accompanied by more advanced and informative text. They educate the child and inform them of the truth. The writing progressively becomes more and more dominant within books as they are aimed at older and older children as they start to become more confident readers and rely less on visuals to grasp content. 

Somewhere in between?

This book admittedly is still one of my favourites, and even now I still read it at least once a year, and have done since I was about 6 years old. It lies somewhere in between the age brackets and i find it hard to place. The story is complex enough and detailed enough to hold an adults attention as a shorter read of about an hour, yet it is accompanied with beautiful water colour illustrations that someone a lot younger than myself can grasp. The main character, a husky/malamute is stolen during the gold rush from his manor home and thrust into life as a working sled dog where he encounters years of turmoil leading to a hopeful and inspiring end where he becomes a free and wild dog roaming with wolves. This is both educational in the sense it describes actual happenings from the time it is based, and also that it is based on a true story. But also it invites the imagination combined with beautiful illustrations that are true to life yet made almost magical through their style.