by Marjorie
van Heerden
PowerPoint Presentation at the AFCC conference in Singapore May 2012
I have often been asked the question:
Do children’s books really need all those illustrations? Is it not better to
allow the child to use his or her own imagination? Or does the child need the
pictures to understand the story? I have thought about this a lot.
More than forty years ago, in 1970,
the American futurist Alvin Toffler wrote a book called Future Shock. It was the first in a series of books in which he
deals with what he calls “future shock”. He defines future shock as “too much
change in too short a period of time”. He also looks at the impact of new technologies
on individuals in a rapidly changing world. Just think about this impact on
individuals here in the twenty-first century! On you. On me. On our children.
Toffler predicted that this change,
the accelerated rate of technological and social change, will overwhelm people,
leaving them disconnected and suffering from “shattering stress and
disorientation”. Toffler went so far as to say that the majority of
social problems were symptoms of this future shock.
Looking at the world around us today,
it seems as if many of Toffler’s predictions have come true. Today people are really
being bombarded by technology and by the media. And I’m sure you can recognise
the symptoms of the “shattering stress and disorientation” that Toffler
predicted.
We are mostly talking about the adults
living in this modern world. But the reality is that most of these “media messages”
meant for the adults also radiate towards our children.
Now… just imagine for a moment what
the effect of that bombardment, the bombardment of new technology and the
bombardment from the media, have on a child – on a child who is experiencing
and discovering life with wide-open young eyes!
From colourful packaging, advertisements,
billboards and posters to television screens, mobile phones, iPhones, laptops
and personal computers – this is all part of the continuous bombardment of
very, very loud visual noise to which these wide-eyed young children are being
exposed day after day! TV’s and
computers are becoming more and more a major part even of every-day family life.
They even take up a prominent space in many households. And very often, and
very unfortunately, the PC or the TV is even used by adults as a convenient babysitter.
And it’s becoming more and more
commonplace. Today it has even become part of households in the lower-income communities
where the TV and related overwhelming media noise have become part of the
people’s everyday lives. And also part of the lives of their young children.
Of course one cannot deny that there
is a lot of positive, even educational value in the use of mobile devices,
television and computers. These technologies have made our lives more
comfortable and safer and they have made information more accessible. But the problem is that young children are,
by nature, like sponges. And they absorb the bad with the good. Unfortunately they
are too young to discriminate for themselves.
Something else, very often today’s
young child does not develop a certain part of his or her brain at all. For example,
in many cultures kids do not have to memorise, through rote learning, the times
tables any more – they just use a pocket calculator, or even a mobile phone! And that little part of
the brain remains undeveloped. But that little part of the brain actually has
many different functions (not only to remember what nine-times-eight or
six-times-seven is) – important functions that may play a part in the child’s
social and other life skills. But it is not stimulated and developed, because that
function has been taken over by a little electronic device.
That is just one, tiny example. One
of my great concerns is to what extent today’s children miss out on crucial development when these devices are over-used,
or used wrongly. Think what is happening to our children’s language
development. Not only language development; what about the all-important cognitive development processes? I’m
talking about processes that include things like the ability to concentrate, to
pay attention, to remember, the ability to truly
understand words and concepts, to solve problems, to make decisions. I’m
concerned that many of these things may be left behind today.
Of course there are concerned parents,
who diligently protect their children from the bombardment of the visual media
and technology – parents who try to control it. However, I suspect that the
largest percentage of today’s adults allow their children to be deafened by this
media and technology noise. This may be through ignorance. Or maybe they say
“these are the times we live in”. It may be that these adults are technology
addicts themselves. Or maybe they simply
do not care...
Think of some of the children you
know yourself. And remember, a day has only 24 hours. What do these kids do
with these 24 hours? Think about some things they could be doing, like imaginative play, non-systematic learning, free
exercise, down-time relaxation, time to think, time to do just nothing, time to
rest, time to recover… Do those kids have the time to do these things? Do they
have the time simply to be a child? Simply to be a toddler? Simply to be a baby?
A question: Is it not us – the
responsible adults – is it not maybe our
duty to try and balance that bombardment of our very young children? This is a
question I have wrestled with for years and years. One of the paths I followed
was to study children’s picture books
and to analyse them in depth.
I became totally fascinated when it
dawned on me what a powerful genre this was. And what an incredibly important
role it can play, not only in the development of our very young and
impressionable wide-eyed little ones –
that is obvious. ..
But what about the role these picture
books can play in the social and cognitive sensibility and development
of the adults and the parents and the leaders and the decision-makers of
tomorrow and the day-after-tomorrow! Those who will grow out of these wide-eyed
little ones...
First I studied exactly how the young
mind develops. And I learnt how high-quality picture books were much more than fun
and entertainment. I learnt how a single high-quality picture book can play a
role in shaping a child’s mind. I learnt how it could even contribute to that little
child becoming a compassionate, caring adult.
Here I want to mention a few of the
brilliant scholars I came across during my own journey of discovery:
-
I
was much impressed by the writings of Bruno
Bettelheim: He was a well-known child psychologist and writer who wrote up and
published his work from the nineteen-forties into the nineties.
-
I
was fascinated by the immense depth in the published works and the children’s
books of Ursula Le Guin: She is a brilliant
academic and writer of fantasy and science fiction and she started publishing
in the 1960’s when I was an art student at university in Cape Town.
-
A lot of what I talk about here today I
gathered from my studies of the books by Joseph
Schwarcz, particularly his 1983 book, Ways
of the Illustrator: Visual Communication in Children’s Literature and the one
he published in 1991: The Picture Book
Comes of Age: Looking at Childhood Through the Art of Illustration. One of
his comments had a particularly strong influence on my own approach to picture
books: he said, “Do not let us treat children’s literature as a
well-kept garden, thus robbing it of it’s nature as a windswept field.” I think
that’s brilliant!
-
And then, of course, there was Joseph Campbell,
the mythologist, writer and
crystal-clear lecturer who had such a profound influence on George Lucas and
his Star Wars series. I cannot
over-emphasize the impact Campbell’s thoughts and brilliant insights had on my
own thinking and my work. He is the one who said, “...stories are the only lasting way to teach children codes of social
behaviour.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if our own
children – those little ones who will one day be the adults and the leaders –
if they could really learn and absorb
the codes of social behaviour! ... the codes of civilised social behaviour! And Campbell said that, if those little
ones are to live the rest of their lives according to those codes and values,
then they must learn at a young age and through the medium of tales and stories.
“...stories are the only lasting way to teach children codes of social
behaviour.” This is so immensely important and fundamental
and challenging that I am tempted to get stuck here, but unfortunately we don’t
have time to go into that discussion – we’ll have to leave it for another time.
These clever people helped me to open
up my little world – they got rid of the boundaries and the limitations for me.
And so, this brings me specifically
to the importance of illustrations in books for children. Every newborn baby is like a
clean sheet of white paper – ready for adults to start writing on it. And then
that young, impressionable and hungry little mind, from the very start, is
bombarded with messages, as I mentioned before, often through the noise of the
various media and technologies. But, what if we, if you, could balance or even intercept
that bombardment?
The creative artist who focuses specifically on a child audience, implicitly
accepts the responsibility of supporting parents and care-givers in shaping the
young minds. And also the responsibility of helping the young ones to discover
and to develop. Little children learn
subtly and naturally, almost intuitively, while experiencing, wide-eyed and with pumping heart and bated breath, the exciting
and unforgettable actions and adventures of the characters in the stories we tell them.
And, I must stress, this apparently “educational” (in inverted
commas) challenge should never be pursued at the cost of joy and pleasure,
wonder and excitement – the wide eyes and
bated breath I talk about. The children’s book and specifically the picture
book for the younger ones, is one of the few art forms specifically practised
with the child in mind. And in my experience it is nearly always practised by
individuals who honestly care for the child, the child’s interests and,
eventually, the adult and future parent who will emerge out of that child.
The kind of children’s book I am talking about here has the
potential to powerfully balance, to counteract and even to defuse the
relentless bombardment I speak about.
Those few moments of
reading the illustrated book or being read to in the safety of the parent’s or
care-giver’s or teacher’s arms is like a safe island in a wide and chaotic sea;
they are like a few moments of calm. The information can be absorbed without fear
and in the child’s own time – wide-eyed and with bated breath.
For example, a child with a problem, whether a perceived or a real
problem, can find comfort and strength in reading about another child or even an animal who is in the same situation. He or she can then build
up the inner strength to cope with similar situations.
The toddler can learn to cope with fears – fears such as Where’s my mommy? or There
are monsters under my bed! This way they can gain the security that will help
propel them to the next stage of development.
The young child, through the right books or stories, can learn how to cope with the schoolyard bully. Having learnt and
absorbed this lesson lastingly, that same child, later in life, will be able to
cope better with prejudice, with abuse, with racism, with the world around us, with
nature, with people who seem to be different. He or she can learn about patience, tolerance, fears, uncertainties, blame and no
blame, self respect, self confidence – another endless list...
If we keep in mind that every writer and illustrator was also a
child once, and that they usually tend to tap from memory and personal
experience, we will understand why there is a suitable illustrated story for
practically every situation the young child may find him- or herself.
Keeping all that in mind, let’s look for a moment at the aesthetic
development of the young child. I suppose I’m talking about what is broadly
known as “good taste”.
Picture books definitely play a fundamental role in the aesthetic
development of young children. I have mentioned the development of social and
cognitive sensibilities and codes of social behaviour, but those kids who are fortunate
enough to grow up with stories and high-quality illustrated picture books will
also learn a visual sense of using shape and form and space and they could even
develop good taste later in life...
These children will also develop visual literacy which is as important as verbal literacy in the real world. Many people do not realise that
an important part of being fully literate is to be able to understand visual
symbols and visual messages, as well as words.
But there’s even more:
through the spontaneous interaction with an illustration’s aesthetic qualities
and beauty, there is the aspect of liberation – of escaping into the picture and leaving the cruel
world behind… Escaping, and then, beyond that, experiencing the world out
there, beyond the limited borders of the child’s own environment and his or her
own little world of reference… Escaping...
and broadening the mind. This, once
again, can only be done through the visual images. The images aid the text to
make the story real.
An illustration in a children’s book communicates information and
emotion in a unique way. It could cultivate a growing child’s ability to
develop his or her own creativity and through that even the ability to think
laterally. It could also play a role in developing the child’s self-initiative
skills. If, for instance, the child reader registers a certain dignity in a
character illustrated with aesthetic beauty, it could lead to a process of
humanization in the child’s mind. This way the images in an illustrated
children’s book could contribute to developing a certain humaneness in the individual child reader’s emerging personality.
An illustration can, through subtle communication of information
and emotion, through the way the illustrating artist handles the subject,
defuse stereotyped messages and labels the child might have been exposed to. An
obvious example used in many children’s stories is the old assumption: “all
that’s beautiful is good and all that’s ugly is bad”. But, even a very young child,
when reading a well-illustrated version of the old fairy-tale Beauty and the Beast, will quickly learn
that this is simply not true.
Another example is how young readers, through sensitive
illustrations, can become aware of the physical beauty of nature and the world
around us.
They can also learn about its vulnerability. These young readers
can then develop a healthy respect and a love for the environment – something
mother earth could certainly benefit from. Obviously this could be achieved
through field trips or through sensitive documentaries on TV or through other
media, but having seen the impact of a
high-quality illustrated children’s book on a sensitive young mind, I tend to
agree with Joseph Campbell when he says, “...stories are the
only lasting way to teach children codes of social behaviour.” I stress, ...the only lasting way
to teach children codes of social behaviour.” And surely this social
behaviour will include the children’s behaviour towards Mother Nature and her world.
At this point I’d like to spend a moment to look at the way
children see. How do they actually
see something when they look at it?
The illustrations in children’s books are usually two-dimensional.
And to be able to understand how children perceive these two-dimensional images,
we need to first look at how we, adult people, see. To learn more about this, I
turned to Donald Weisman.
He is a professor of Art at the University of Texas. He is also a painter and
an art historian. And Professor Weisman has done a lot of research on exactly
this subject: our visual perception. In
other words, how we see things. In 1970 he published a fascinating book on the
subject, and he called it The Visual Arts
as Human Experience.
Weisman describes three different
kinds, or levels, or ways of seeing: 1) functional, 2) associational, and 3) pure.
Let’s have a closer look at each of these three ways of seeing:
-
In
the first, the “operational” way of seeing there are no remembered feelings or ideas
concerning the object, and the object is left unexplored. An example of this
type of seeing is when a person sees a ball rolling towards him, he thinks, “I
must be careful, otherwise I can fall over it.” This kind of seeing looks towards
the future all the time. That he calls the functional way of seeing.
-
In
the second, the “associational” way of seeing, a chain of reactions is
unleashed when the viewer associates the object with a word or a memory. To
follow the example of the ball, the object is related to the word “ball”. You look at the ball and from your memory you remember, perhaps
fondly, of playing with such a ball. – This way of
seeing looks at and collects from the past all the time. That he calls
the associational way of seeing.
-
In
the third, the “pure” mode of seeing, we are interested in the aesthetic
properties of the object; in the specific qualities of the object. This mode of
viewing is a learning discovery process through the study of the qualities,
characteristics, and attributes of the object. The pure mode of seeing also triggers emotion. In the example of the
ball again, we might say, “How gracefully the ball glides towards me!” OR “How
complete the sphere’s shape is!” This is seeing the situation in the present
the now. Weismann calls this pure way of seeing. And, interestingly,
this is the way we see art, when we look at it.
To summarise; In the functional way of seeing, we look
towards the future. In the associational
way of seeing, we collect from the past. And, in the pure way of seeing, we see the situation
in the present, in the now.
Adults mostly view using all three
ways of seeing at the same time, but, mostly due to all the media noise,
many adults are consciously or unconsciously suppressing the third kind of
seeing, the pure seeing. As Weisman
puts it, “One hasn’t the time to sit down and smell the flowers”.
The problem is that these adults do
not see detail, because they are too intent on gathering information and
looking ahead – while they look at something, instead of also using the pure way of seeing, they’re using their
brain for other processes.
It is very interesting to note that
more and more adults today are actually trying “to sit down and smell the
flowers” again. They call it mindfulness – experiencing the moment – getting
rid of the clutter and really seeing again. A state of heightened awareness.
This takes us all the way back to the
days of the hippies – those days when I was also one. There is a much simpler
way of looking at this: simply use all of your senses to the full!
Now, young children instinctively use
all of their senses. And Weismann found that they use the third way of seeing,
the pure way, much more than the
functional or the associational ways. They immediately zoom in on detail and
their reaction to illustrations is pure emotion. And emotions play a very
important role in aesthetic processing. They identify with the main character,
whether a child or an animal or another creature, and they experience the story
together with this character - in real time.
But, because it is a two-dimensional visual image and it doesn’t
rush past him or her, the child experiences the story through the illustration at their own, natural pace – at their own
inner rhythm.
Let’s now look at some clear,
tangible elements concerning illustrated children’s books: The illustrated
children’s book is a special case of visual communication created by adults but
specifically with the child in mind. It is therefore one of the few art forms
where adults take information and transform it into material that is digestible
specifically for the young child.
An important element of these illustrated
children’s books is that their use is
different to that of formal textbooks. They offer other possibilities. For instance, these illustrated children’s
books are not normally linked to a fixed time or place – like the classroom.
They can be picked up at any time – the child is in control! And, crucially,
there is no time limit to how long or short the child can experience the
visuals in the illustrated book. Have you ever watched a child totally
engrossed in a picture book – totally lost in the world of that one picture?
In picking up any book, one’s first
impression is the cover illustration,
if there is one.
In the case of an illustrated
children’s book, it is the emotional appeal of the picture on the cover that
attracts and draws the child into the book. A cover has to reflect the story
but it should also have an element of mystery that stimulates and attracts the
potential child reader. I always regard a cover like a poster – it must attract
attention from a distance and when viewed from closer-up, it should have a bit
of magic in it… The subject matter, the figure or figures, the shapes and the colours
should invite the child to open the book and to try and understand what it’s
all about and what it means. Inside the book the first picture should lead to
the text, the story, and from the text to the next picture and so on… The rhythm and the pacing of the text and the
pictures then take over and carry the child along the storyline to the final conclusion.
When I start planning a picture book
for a story, the first thing to consider, is the size and the format. Typical
formats are portrait, landscape or square, but of course there are all the
shapes in-between as well. Normally the story itself, its rhythm and energy
intuitively guides me to which format I should use. There are no strict rules,
but usually the story itself indicates to me what format I should use.
For instance, if it’s a story about
the stars, a portrait format is generally more suitable.
Or, let’s say the story is about a
journey, a physical or a mental
journey. Or maybe it’s a really fast-moving and quick-paced story that moves a
head quickly. Then I find that a landscape format usually works best.
And if it’s a really quiet or
intimate story, I find a square format often works very well.
The story tells me in which format it would like to be told. The same is true
about the size of the book: does the
story want to be told in a large, loud, dramatic book? Or does it want to
create a smaller, more attentive, quieter
experience?
The next step is to work out the how
the story should develop over the sequence of pages. Remember, a picture book
is not only a mental experience; it
is also a physical experience. The
handling and the turning of the page, forwards or backwards, is part of the experience.
The child immediately experiences the
drama of the book’s size and its format, and then turning the page becomes part
of the excitement of the unfolding story. The picture book illustrator not only
draws pictures to decorate the text of a story, he or she designs the whole
book - the book which will become the flying carpet that’s going to transport
the child reader all the way through the story. To decide what portion of the text
fits on what page, you have to look at the key elements of the story and how they
fit into the fixed number of pages the book will have. The pacing, the visual rhythm of a picture book is often
a key factor in its success or failure – the illustrator of a story becomes like
a musician interpreting a piece of
music, playing softer or louder, stronger or gentler...
Or like a filmmaker shooting a script, zooming in or zooming out, cutting
tightly or cutting loosely...
The illustrator uses colour and shape
and space to lead the reader through the sequence of pages all the way to the
story’s final conclusion.
So, it is clear that the
illustrations in a children’s book or in a picture book should take the story
to the next level. The relationship between the words and the pictures is a
complex one. But it is also a unique one. The words and the pictures should be
complementary to each other – never a duplication; Do not put into words what
can better be shown in an illustration, and do not illustrate what can better
be put into words.
Let’s look briefly at a few different
kinds of children’s books. And let’s start with picture books and illustrated
storybooks:
In a perfectly constructed picture book neither the words nor the
pictures can stand alone - they depend on each other. Neither the pictures nor
the words are totally complete until they are combined together - together they show the full picture – create
the magic.
The illustrated storybook, however, is quite different; Although there may
be a picture on every page, here the story can stand on its own and can be read and understood without the
illustrations. Here the illustrations are
provided to visually create a sense of place and atmosphere, and further to extend
the text.
As children grow older, they move
from storybooks to readers. Readers
are very much like storybooks, mostly fully illustrated, but here the text is very
carefully written, specifically to help the child with the process of learning
to read him- or herself.
And then, as children grow even older,
they move from readers to chapter books.
The books get longer, the font size gets smaller, the stories become more
complex and there are fewer illustrations.
To me, personally, a very exciting
genre is the picture book for the older child. These books often cover
quite complicated subject matter. I’ve seen many of them that are gloriously
illustrated.
Although the subject matter may be
challenging, there are sensitive and highly gifted writers and illustrators who
make these books quite accessible and digestible to young child readers.
To conclude: There are many different
types of illustrated books specifically aimed at child readers. I have tried to
focus on the different functions of the illustrations in the different types of
children’s books. But, whatever the type, the illustrator has a key role to
play in the creation of that book. And, specifically in illustrated storybooks and in picture
books the illustrations are key.
I have often been asked the question:
How do you know when an illustration is
of good quality? And of course it is something I have thought about deeply...
Over the years I have come across a number of children’s book illustrators
whose work made a deep impression on me. These are colleagues I admire. I admire their originality, their
imagination, the depth in their work, and the fact that they create their work for the
child – whether all of this is consciously done or unconsciously.
I have seen the genius in the
simplicity of their work. I have noticed the rhythm and I have discovered the
powerful story embedded in their images... the few words... the brave
creativity of their work.
But the one element that stands out the strongest for me, is that their illustrations
seem alive. Alive! It’s these
illustrators’ passion for their work
that is clearly reflected in the pictures they create - it seems to transfer
into their images and make them appear really alive.
That passion I’m
talking about somehow becomes an energy
that is clearly reflected in their work, whether they use just a few lines, like Shel Silverstein or Quentin Blake, or whether they create lavishly
luxurious illustrations, like
David Wiesner or Trina Schart Hyman.
This is not an easy question to
answer, but if I may give a short
answer, I will say: Let a child tell
you whether the illustration is good or not. My four-year-old granddaughter
once spent a long time looking at one
illustration in a picture book. Eventually, without looking up, she asked
softly, “Ouma, is it alive?” And then I knew
that illustration was a good one. My second, three-year-old granddaughter
became absorbed in a picture the other day. And, eventually, after quite a
while, when she turned the page, she drew in her breath... and she whispered,
“wow!”
Thank you.
April
2012
