From: Lisa Cinelli <lisacinelli>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 13:47:44 -0600

Hi, hi, my understanding is that in a true picture book, words and pictures can stand alone, but together they tell the whole story. The words and pictures tell parallel stories. A true picture book text cannot be read over the radio and have the whole vision of the published picture book realized. The pictures echo the text, but tell the story in a visual language. Whether the "reader" can understand the words or not, the reader can read the illustrations to ask "What's next?", and need to turn the page to follow a story line. There is action and reaction in the pictures as well as in the text. A true picture book works when there is a seamless marriage of words and pictures. I understand Brian Selznick needed to add text to his book THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET to have the story better understood when recorded as an audio book. Kadir Nelson's paintings are elegantly rendered for WE ARE THE SHIP, but after several "readings" of the images, I still see a line up of portraits and not a story unfolding with a resolution of any kind in the pictures. Sincerely, lisa cinelli Teaching Artist The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Marwen Institute www.lisacinelli.com
Received on Tue 10 Feb 2009 01:47:44 PM CST