Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children's Picture Books

About this book

A pioneering study of a unique narrative form Words about Pictures examines the special qualities of picture booksbooks intended to educate or tell stories to young children. Drawing from a number of aesthetic and literary sources Perry Nodelman explores the ways in which the interplay of the verbal and visual aspects of picture books conveys more narrative information and stimulation than either medium could achieve alone. Moving from "baby" books alphabet books and word books to such well-known childrens picture books as Nancy Ekholm Burkerts Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Gerald McDermotts Arrow to the Sun Maurice Sendaks Where the Wild Things Are and Chris Van Allsburgs The Garden of Abdul Gasazi Nodelman reveals how picture-book narrative is affected by the exclusively visual information of picture-book design and illustration as well as by the relationships between pictures and their complementary texts.