Illustrating Children's Books

Paper Summary:

The paper explains how in picture books, the illustrator takes on the important role of collaborating with the author to portray the story in a particular way, thus adding meaning to the text. The paper examines "A Baby for Grace" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and compares and contrasts how the illustrator conveys the characters in these stories.

From the Paper:

"According to Sipe (1998, p17), the essence of the picture book is the way the text and illustrations relate to each other. This relationship, between written and visual texts, often contains more complex and meaningful messages than many readers would expect from a story for children (Sipe, 1998, p17). Once the reader becomes aware of the conventions that are contained in many picture books, we begin to gain a high level of respect for these books. In children's books, the author has the vital function in telling a story, and this can come in various forms of genres from fantasy to humour, folkstory genre, family relationships and many more. In picture books, the illustrator takes on the important role of collaborating with the author to portray the story in a particular way, thus adding meaning to the text (Sipe, 1998, p19)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Whybrow, I., & Birmington, C. (1998). A Baby for Grace. London: Kingfisher Publications.
• Scieskza, J., & Smith, L. (1996). The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. New York:Penguin.
• Sipes, L. R. (1998). How Picture Books Work: A Semiotically Framed Theory of Text-Picture Relationships. Children's Literature in Education 29, ( 2), 97-107.

More papers on Illustrating Children's Books:

• Analytical Essay # 74452 : "Text and Illustrations in Children's Literature"
• Comparison Essay # 36632 : "Children's Literature as a Commodity"
• Comparison Essay # 129875 : "Picture Books by Maurice Sendak"

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