Reading Contemporary Picturebooks takes a look at one of the most vibrant branches of children's literature - the modern picturebook. This exciting new book takes a sample of contemporary picturebooks and closely examines the features that make them distinctive and then suggests a way of characterising the 'interanimation' of words and pictures that is the essence of the form. The reasons for the picturebook's vitality and flexibility are also explored and the close bond between the picturebook and its readers is analysed. Advances in our understanding of how visual images are organised are examined and the book concludes with an attempt to redescribe the picturebook in such a way that pictures, readers and text may be drawn together.
Picturing Text will be of interest to students, teachers and researchers interested in reading, children's literature and media studies.