A pioneering study of a unique narrative form, Words about Pictures examines the special qualities of picture books--books 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 children's picture books as Nancy Ekholm Burkert's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gerald McDermott's Arrow to the Sun, Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and Chris Van Allsburg's 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.
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"A brilliant, almost overwhelming study that treats Maurice Sendak and Trina Schart Hyman with the same attention to detail and nuance that Wayne Booth gives Jane Austen in The Rhetoric of Fiction. . . . An exceptionally rich book, Words About Pictures asks you to think and read and look and look again. It will open your eyes."--Washington Post Book World
"Thoughtful and thought provoking, Nodelman's discussion ranges over topics such as the ways pictures communicate information, style as meaning, the contextual meaning of visual objects, irony, and rhythms of narrative.”--Booklist
"Nodelman brings the disciplines of psychology and art history, of semiotics and reader-response theory, as well as insights from an eclectic cadre of other disciplines to this book. Words About Pictures is the most complete theoretical analysis of the genre.”--Wilson Library Bulletin
"Words About Pictures is an excellent reference book for critics, scholars and others and perhaps the best available study of the relationship between words and pictures in children's picture books."--One Minute Book Reviews
About the Author
Perry Nodelman is a professor of English at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of The Pleasures of Children's Literature, an introduction to literary and theoretical approaches to children's literature recently released in a new third edition written in collaboration with Mavis Reimer. He has also published three novels for young adults and, in collaboration with Carol Matas, the young adult Fantasies in the Minds series.
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23 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
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Jill P. May,
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This review is from: Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children's Picture Books (Paperback)
Nodelman's book is an essential purchase for anyone who wants to understand how children's picture books work. He is scholarly, witty, and informative. This is an important reference book for those of us who seriously study children's literature.
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This review is from: Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children's Picture Books (Paperback)
I bought this book for a class I am attending, and I have found it very useful. I am a graduate student, and I think it will make an excellent contribution to my thesis.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Most picture books tell stories. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
spinal moments, most picture books, good picture books, pictorial recognition, wolf suit, wordless books, wild rumpus, many picture books, implied viewer, wordless picture books, narrative information, illustrated versions Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Snow White, Peter Rabbit, Outside Over There, Van Allsburg, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Beatrix Potter, The Amazing Bone, Trina Schart Hyman, Baby's Things, Max's First Word, Maurice Sendak, Northwest Coast, People's Ears, American Picturebooks, Barbara Bader, Jack Kent, The Happy Owls, Words About Pictures, Charles Keeping, Nancy Ekholm Burkert, Peter Spier, Horton Hatches the Egg, Orbis Pictus, Sir Andrew, The Mountain Goats of Temlaham New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Most picture books tell stories. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
spinal moments, most picture books, good picture books, pictorial recognition, wolf suit, wordless books, wild rumpus, many picture books, implied viewer, wordless picture books, narrative information, illustrated versions Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Snow White, Peter Rabbit, Outside Over There, Van Allsburg, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi, Beatrix Potter, The Amazing Bone, Trina Schart Hyman, Baby's Things, Max's First Word, Maurice Sendak, Northwest Coast, People's Ears, American Picturebooks, Barbara Bader, Jack Kent, The Happy Owls, Words About Pictures, Charles Keeping, Nancy Ekholm Burkert, Peter Spier, Horton Hatches the Egg, Orbis Pictus, Sir Andrew, The Mountain Goats of Temlaham New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
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7
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- Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak on 18 pages
- Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter on 14 pages
- The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton on 14 pages
- The Amazing Bone (Reading Rainbow Books) by William Steig on 10 pages
- In the Night Kitchen (Caldecott Collection) by Maurice Sendak on 9 pages
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- How Picturebooks Work (Children's Literature and Culture) by Maria Nikolajeva on 4 pages
- Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text by David Lewis in Front Matter, page 31, and page 116
- Reading Contemporary Picturebooks: Picturing Text by David Lewis in Front Matter, page 32, and page 116
- Recycling Red Riding Hood (Children's Literature and Culture) by Sandra Beckett on page 28, and Back Matter
- Children's Literature Comes of Age: Toward a New Aesthetic (Children's Literature and Culture) by Maria Nikolajeva in Back Matter
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