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By Janee Trasler
I love picture books that allow the illustrations to tell a part of the story that the text doesn’t. I think it invites our audience in and gives them a chance to more actively participate as “readers” instead of just listeners.
The illustrations can tell a different story from the text, they can allow the audience to see/know something the narrator doesn’t, they can be the punch line to a textual joke, or can even tell another, parallel, story. Any of these techniques can up the ante for the listening audience.
I love picture books that allow the illustrations to tell a part of the story that the text doesn’t. I think it invites our audience in and gives them a chance to more actively participate as “readers” instead of just listeners.
The illustrations can tell a different story from the text, they can allow the audience to see/know something the narrator doesn’t, they can be the punch line to a textual joke, or can even tell another, parallel, story. Any of these techniques can up the ante for the listening audience.
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I think writers who also illustrate their own texts often have an easier time with this, because we know we’re going to capture that vision when it comes to the illustrations. But I have also seen books where the author does a terrific job of letting the illustrations talk. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the author hasn’t written that part of the story, he or she may have written it in an art note.
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The recent examples listed in this post range from wordless books, where the whole story is told in the illustrations, to books where just a portion of the story is in the art rather than the text.
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- Flora and the Flamingo, by Molly Idle
- Flora and the Penguin, by Molly Idle
- Where’s Walrus? and Penguin?, by Stephen Savage
- Who Done It?, by Olivier Tallac
- Mine!, by Shutta Crum and Patrice Barton
- Uh-Oh!, by Shutta Crum and Patrice Barton
- Your Alien, by Tammi Sauer*
- Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, by Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen
- The Adventures of Beekle: The Unimaginary Friend, by Dan Santat
- Shh! We Have a Plan, by Chris Haughton
*Tammi is fabulous at leaving room for illustrations.
Woah! Awesome examples, Janee! And folks, Janee sets a great example through her own work. CAVEMAN A B.C. STORY is one of my "go-to" books when I am studying interplay between text and illustration in sparse word counts.
Janee is giving away one copy of CAVEMAN A B.C. STORY at the conclusion of ReFoReMo! To be eligible for this prize, you must be fully registered, comment on every post, read daily, and keep a record of your progress.
 | Janee Trasler loves to make kids laugh. Whether she's writing and illustrating books, singing silly songs, or making puppets do their thing, nothing makes her happier than hearing that giggle! She is the author of the Chickies series for babies and toddlers from HarperCollins. She lives in lovely Grapevine Texas with her sweetie-pie husband John, two guinea pigs, a pack of puppies and a big ol’ pile of puppets. |
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