Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives in The EFL Classroom 1645475787 138953

teseopress.
com
UNDERSTANDING AND CREATING BIMODAL
NARRATIVES IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
teseopress.com
teseopress.com
UNDERSTANDING
AND CREATING
BIMODAL NARRATIVES
IN THE EFL CLASSROOM
The Role of Images

in Picture Story Books
Alejandra Farías
María Emilia Moreschi
María Mercedes Romero Day
teseopress.com
Romero Day, María Mercedes
Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives in the EFL Class-
room: The Role of Images in Picture Story Books / María Mer-
cedes Romero Day; María Emilia Moreschi; Alejandra Beatriz Farías;
Ilustrado por Julia Civit; Clara López. – 1a ed – Mendoza: María
Mercedes Romero Day, 2022.
162 p.: il. ; 20 x 13 cm.
ISBN 978-987-88-3502-0
1. Imagen Multimodal. 2. Enseñanza de Lenguas Extranjeras. 3.
Lingüística. I. Moreschi, María Emilia II. Farías, Alejandra Beatriz III.
Civit, Julia, ilus. IV. López, Clara, ilus. V. Título.
CDD 410
ISBN: 9789878835020
Cover photo: Mikhail Nilov in Pexels
The content and opinions expressed in this publication are solely
those of the author(s).
Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives
TeseoPress Design (www.teseopress.com)
ExLibrisTeseoPress 138953. Sólo para uso personal
teseopress.com
Table of contents
Acknowledgements.........................................................................9
Overview: The Importance of Picture Story Books........... 11
Chapter 1: Theory and Definitions ......................................... 15
1.1. Theoretical framework .................................................... 15
1.2. Macro meanings in picture story books ..................... 19
1.3. Structure of narratives ..................................................... 20
1.4. Coda ...................................................................................... 22
Chapter 2: Shaping the Story World....................................... 23
2.1. Creating characters ........................................................... 24
2.2. Building action ................................................................... 29
2.3. Representing circumstances........................................... 32
2.4. Coda ...................................................................................... 38
Chapter 3: Inviting Readers into the Story World.............. 39
3.1. Positioning readers in interaction with characters . 40
3.2. Bringing readers into the story world ......................... 51
3.3. Combining resources ....................................................... 59
3.4. Coda ...................................................................................... 63
Chapter 4: Creating Active Responsive Understanding ... 65
4.1. Creating emotion............................................................... 68
4.2. Calling for judgement ...................................................... 73
4.3. Fostering appreciation ..................................................... 78
4.4. A note on graduation........................................................ 84
4.5. Coda ...................................................................................... 85
4.6. Resources in action ........................................................... 86
Chapter 5: Stages and Resources ............................................. 91
5.1. Placement............................................................................. 91
5.2. Events: Complication & Resolution ........................... 104
5.3. Bringing the story to an end: Final event & Finale 113
5.4. Moral................................................................................... 123
5.5. Coda .................................................................................... 125
teseopress.com 7
8 • Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives
Chapter 6: Suggested Activities.............................................. 127

6.1. Building up subject matter............................................ 129
6.2. Modelling the text ........................................................... 131
6.3. Joint and Independent construction .......................... 139
6.4. Coda .................................................................................... 152
Bibliography................................................................................. 153
Picture books ............................................................................... 157
teseopress.com
Acknowledgements
This book is the result of all the effort that was made in
preliminary research together with our colleagues: Jorgeli-
na Baldivia, Laura Farías, Magalí López Cortéz and Susana
Ocampo.
We wish to thank our mentors from the Genres in the
teaching of English as a foreign language Project at Facultad de
Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Cristina
Boccia and Samiah Hassan.
The illustrations in this book were created by Clara
López and Julia Civit. We are deeply grateful for their
patience, dedication and artistic sensibilities.
The images in the last chapter were made by our cre-
ative and enthusiastic students – a huge “thank you” to
them all!
Thanks also to María Victoria Magariños, our brilliant
editor and dear friend.
We would like to thank Gunther Kress, who generously
listened to our ideas and invited us to consider what it
means to be a semiotician.
Very special thanks to Len Unsworth for his constant
encouragement, ever-present kindness and invaluable
advice.
teseopress.com 9
teseopress.com
Overview: The Importance of Picture
Story Books
Storytelling is inherent to all societies. People have been

sharing stories since time immemorial to better under-
stand the world around them and to attempt to empathise
with realities different from their own. It is through stories
that we can make sense of events, phenomena and circum-
stances of life that we may have not experienced first-hand.
Stories allow us to come into contact with aspects of real-
ity that we would not otherwise encounter. In this way,
the possibility to put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes
opens up: we get to experience emotions that are com-
pletely new to us.
Stories captivate us and appeal to us; thus, they are
valuable tools for creating strong emotional bonds. Sto-
ries serve an essential socialising function, bridging the gap
between the individual and society. This means that sto-
ries provide us with the knowledge and the skills necessary
to interact with people and to deal with institutionalised
conventions.
Moreover, stories can fulfil a more ideological purpose
in transmitting powerful communal values (Rothery &
Stenglin, 1997, p. 231). Stories reflect culturally-specific
ideas about the world and, to different degrees of explicit-
ness, hold and promote significant values. Some stories are
about our family history: they offer glimpses into the lives
of previous generations. Others tell us about our origins
and heritage as a bigger community: our city, our country.
And some even explore our reality as human beings and the
connections we can discover and strengthen with others.
We learn a lot about the importance of friendship, love,
teseopress.com 11
peace, freedom, justice from the stories we share. They help

us build the paradigm through which we look at the world.
All kinds of stories can frame our worldview. Some
stories are told as oral recounts of our dreams early in the
morning, others as anecdotes at the dinner table, and yet
others as bed-side narratives, like fairy tales and picture
books. Picture story books are unique in that they bring
together two kinds of languages –the language of words
and the language of images– to convey one single message.
In doing so, they represent a true challenge for children,
since they require a more complex decoding of meanings.
But at the same time, it is this combination of text and
pictures that makes them particularly engaging and aes-
thetically attractive.
Picture books, with their singular characteristics and
intended audience, are ideal for the transmission of values
and the sharing of life experiences. Thus, these texts are
invaluable both in private, family life and public, instruc-
tional settings, since they “play a foundational role in the
lives and education of young children in several ways”
(Painter et al., 2013, p. 1). Not only can children enhance
their linguistic skills through their contact with picture
books, but they can also learn valuable lessons as regards
socialisation.
The natural richness of stories renders them useful
in educational contexts. Although this is certainly true in
the context of first language literacy, it is even more so in
second or foreign language instruction. On the one hand,
picture books allow students to come into contact with
instances of authentic use of language in approachable,
engaging contexts transmitted through the familiar rhythm
of stories. Besides, in picture books in particular, the pres-
ence of images aids interpretation. When young readers
find language well beyond their mastery as they read, they
are able to comprehend it all the same with the help of
illustrations.
teseopress.com
Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives • 13
On the other hand, because stories are vehicles for

constructing reality, exploring relationships and shaping
the understanding of experience, they are also appropriate
tools in the classroom to spark conversation about abstract
ideas and jointly held values. The world within the covers of
a picture book is more easily manageable for children than
the real world, which makes it possible for them to analyse
aspects of that world in depth and eventually transfer that
into real-life experience. In picture books, students learn
how reality works, how human relationships are estab-
lished and maintained, and how elements of experience are
put together to be meaningful. Learning about these aspects
of reality helps bring up relevant issues for discussion in
class. Their abundant linguistic and social worth, then, can
place picture books in a unique position in the classroom,
particularly in second and foreign language acquisition.
In this book we aim to explore functional ways to
incorporate picture story books in the English as a Foreign
Language (EFL) classroom, both to understand them better
and to potentially create meaning through the combina-
tion of text and image. There has been plenty of research
conducted on narratives and on the language typically used
in them and, in particular, within the Systemic Function-
al Linguistics (SFL) tradition which informs this book.
Much of this research has been built upon to suggest new
approaches for local educators to teach narratives in Work-
ing with Texts in the EFL Classroom (Boccia et al., 2013)
and Teaching and learning EFL through genres (Boccia et
al., 2019), published by the same team of researchers at
Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina, that
we belong to. Our focus now, then, will be on the visu-
al resources involved in picture story books used in the
EFL classroom.
Images and the role they play within narratives have
been systematised in several books that we will go over and
elaborate on in the following chapters; however, opportu-
nities for further analysis and application in the classroom
teseopress.com
still exist. To add to this area of research, we worked with

over seventy sample texts, including many award-winning
picture story books. Some were given awards for the stories
themselves, the illustrations, or both, such as the Calde-
cott Medal, the National Book Award in the USA, the Kurt
Maschler Award, the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Chil-
dren’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year.
We chose these books as they were written by renowned
authors and are of outstanding quality in terms of bimodal
meaning-making.
With this purpose in mind, we propose six chapters
that delve into different areas. The chapters gradually move
from understanding how words and images work togeth-
er in picture story books, through exploring how bimodal
meanings can be created, to providing teachers with effec-
tive resources to take the comprehension and production of
bimodal narratives into the EFL classroom.
In chapter 1 we present the conceptual backbone of
the book, providing teachers with the theoretical foun-
dations necessary to make the most of the multimodality
tools offered in this book. In chapters 2, 3 and 4, we look
into particular configurations of visual resources, grouped
according to their functions, which prove essential to both
understand and, later, produce bimodal narratives. Chap-
ter 2 explores how to create characters, construct plot and
represent circumstances. Chapter 3 examines the resources
to build the relationship between characters and readers.
Chapter 4 analyses ways in which feelings are expressed,
judgment is called for and valuation is fostered in readers.
In chapter 5, we deal with connections between specific
resources and stages in a story, analysing how the resources
explored in previous chapters can be put together meaning-
fully to create a single text. Finally, we reach the ultimate
ambition of our book in chapter 6, where we offer ideas for
classroom activities foregrounding the teaching and learn-
ing of bimodal resources.
teseopress.com
Chapter 1: Theory and Definitions
In this chapter, we will briefly comment on the theoretical

framework underlying our research. We will offer some
basic notions on SFL as originally theorised by Halliday
(1978, 1994), Halliday & Matthiessen (2013), Martin (1992),
Martin & Rose (2007) and Eggins (2004) –the linguistic the-
oretical core we adhere to–, Genre Theory and Pedagogy,
as proposed in Martin & Rothery (1991), Martin (1999)
and Martin & Rose (2008) –the chosen basis for text-type
analysis and teaching– and Multimodal Discourse Analysis
(MDA), as explored in Kress (2010), Kress & van Leeuwen
(2006) and Painter, Martin & Unsworth (2013) –the fun-
damentals of visual grammar. Later on, we will provide a
definition for macro meaning, a concept developed in our
analysis of picture books that will inform and organise the
content of the rest of the book. Finally, we will go over
the generic structure of narratives, specifying the stages
within this text-type and their functions. We hope these
initial remarks serve to build a shared ground for the analy-
sis and discussion of picture books that we propose in the
rest of the book.
1.1. Theoretical framework
SFL describes language as inherently functional and its

main function as that of making meaning. These meanings
are organised in sets of connected options which relate
them to concrete linguistic resources. Each choice within
a system gains meaning when contrasted to the ones that
were not made. For example, if we choose to call somebody
by their nickname (Tom), it reflects a particular type of
teseopress.com 15
relationship between the interactants. This contrasts with

alternative options of addressing someone, such as using
a first name (Thomas), surname (Smith) or adding a title
(Mr./Dr./Professor Smith). It is not only what we choose
but what we decide to leave out that makes meaning within
a particular context.
According to Halliday & Matthiessen (2013, p. 84-85),
these systems of choices correspond to three broader
realms of meaning –metafunctions– that we make simul-
taneously every time we use language, orally or in written
form: ideational meanings, interpersonal meanings and tex-
tual meanings. Ideational meanings represent experience:
they make meanings about the world, people, happenings,
actions and circumstances. In texts, they build the subject
matter that such texts are about. Interpersonal meanings
refer to social relationships and roles between the interac-
tants as well as to the expression of feelings and attitudes.
In texts, different choices, particularly vocatives and types
of sentences that interactants can resort to (imperatives,
questions, requests), reflect the relationship between them
in terms of power, frequency of contact and degree of affec-
tion (Poynton, 1990, p. 41). Finally, textual meanings organ-
ise the experiential and interpersonal meanings to render
the text a coherent whole. The textual role is reflected in a
text’s cohesion and coherence.
For example, in the following exchange between a boss
and his employee, we can identify the three metafunctions
working together:
• Tom, please make sure to have the report ready by
Wednesday.
• Would it be possible to push the deadline until Friday,
Mr. Madden? On Wednesday we have the meeting with
the Sales Department.
Experientially, the brief conversation is clearly about

the deadline for a report; in other words, Tom and Mr.
teseopress.com
Madden are deciding on the deadline of the report. Inter-

personally, the choices these men make as regards vocatives
and mood reveal an unequal relationship. While the boss
calls his employee by his first name and can give a direct
command using the imperative mood, Tom refers to his
boss with a title plus surname and makes an indirect request
via a question. Textually, the exchange is a coherent whole
because the lexical choices form a logical chain: ideas men-
tioned by the boss are taken up by the employee, for exam-
ple, “the deadline.” Also, some of the sentences alter the
expected syntactic structure to highlight certain meanings
by starting, for instance, with a circumstance (“on Wednes-
day”) instead of the subject of the clause. As this example
illustrates, even very short texts display meanings belonging
to the three metafunctions, just as SFL proposes.
SFL, then, is our selected theoretical framework for
the analysis of verbal language in picture books. However,
as we said before, picture story books are special because
of their combination of text and images. Thus, the MDA
approach becomes crucial to describe the visual resources
in these narratives.
Since most communication is multimodal in nature,
that is, achieved through language, gesture, images, lay-
out, sound, among others, we typically decode a variety
of modalities simultaneously. In recent years, the demands
on our abilities to make sense of multimodal texts, par-
ticularly those that combine language with images, have
considerably increased. This explains the large number of
studies within Applied Linguistics, more specifically within
SFL, that study multimodality to delve into the new forms
of literacy necessary to understand multimodal messages.
Multiliteracy, then, becomes essential in the classroom in
order to hone students’ skills when it comes to interpreting
multimodal texts in depth (Christie, 2005, p. 124).
Within the SFL tradition, MDA studies texts that com-
bine language with different ‘modalities’ or semiotic modes
teseopress.com
to make meanings (Painter et al., 2013, p.2). In other words,

MDA
involves developing theoretical and practical approaches

for analysing written, printed and electronic texts, three-
dimensional sites and other realms of activity where semi-
otic resources (e. g. spoken and written language, visual
imagery, mathematical symbolism, sculpture, architecture,
gesture and other physiological modes) combine to make
meaning. (O’Halloran, 2008, p. 444)
Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) propose a vast visual

grammar made up of systems that capture experiential,
interpersonal and textual meanings in images. They mainly
focus on the analysis of charts, ads and images included
in textbooks for the teaching of social sciences. Painter,
Martin and Unsworth (2013) continue to theorise on visual
semiotics in the context of picture books, drawing upon
Kress & van Leeuwen’s grammar. Painter et al. define the
picture book as a “bimodal form of text in which the visual
modality plays just as important a role as the verbal one in
creating meaning and shaping readers” (2013, p. 2).
These authors organise the multiplicity of meanings
made in images and their realisations into different systems.
They classify these systems following Halliday’s distinction
into three metafunctions. As we said before, in SFL, Halli-
day claims that every text makes experiential, interpersonal
and textual meanings at the same time –which are alterna-
tively called representational, interactive and compositional
for images. In picture books, the experiential (representa-
tional) metafunction construes the story world: characters,
events, setting; the actions characters are depicted doing
and the context in which they carry them out. The inter-
personal (interactive) construes the social relations between
author and reader, among characters and the relationship
between characters and reader. And the textual (composi-
tional) is concerned with the composition of the image and
how the text and the image are placed on the page.
teseopress.com
1.2. Macro meanings in picture story books
In this book we present sets of visual resources drawn

from a number of systems proposed within MDA. As stated
above, Kress & van Leeuwen and Painter et al. organise
systems according to the three metafunctions –experien-
tial, interpersonal, textual. This classification is useful in
theoretical-descriptive terms, yet it may prove too techni-
cal for teachers unfamiliar with SFL to use productively
in class. Thus, for applied purposes, we have reorganised
these visual resources around specific functions that are
fulfilled in narratives, such as creating characters and con-
structing plot. We have called these groups of resources
macro meanings.
Macro meanings are high order meanings associated
with central functions that are realised in a genre. These
meanings can be encoded by resources belonging to the
same or different metafunctions. The resources work
together with a specific purpose. In combining these
resources in particular ways, authors seek to communicate
their message and to have an impact on their audience.
Macro meanings permeate the text; they have a bearing on
it as a whole, affecting it throughout. We have developed the
term in the context of our analysis of picture story books
but anticipate that this notion applies to other types of texts.
Macro meanings offer a more intuitive way of organ-
ising resources and a more practical, effective way of using
them in the EFL classroom. Teaching through macro mean-
ings implies a more concrete and transparent functional
approach to comprehending and producing visual narra-
tives. We consider that this approach can make the analy-
sis of images in picture books more meaningful, and thus,
more memorable for students. This would allow them to
better understand what happens in picture story books and
use those resources more effectively when producing their
own narratives.
teseopress.com
1.3. Structure of narratives
Different authors within SFL have studied the structure of

narratives, establishing a series of stages that make up the
text, together with the language used to fulfil each stage.
The model we have decided to adopt is that put forth by
Hasan (1996), who proposes a generic structure for nursery
tales. In her model, she suggests nursery tales unfold along
the following stages:
Placement ^ Initiating Event ^ Sequent event(s) ^ Final event

^ (Finale) ^ (Moral)1
The Placement includes the setting in time and place,

the introduction of main characters (their attributes and
habits) and the presentation of an even tenor of existence,
i.e., a stable, habitual situation. This stage can be realised
discretely as a separate stage at the beginning of the story
to present the situation and characters before the action
starts. Another option is for the story to start mid-action
and gradually include this information as the events unfold.
This is more common in narratives for older children, ado-
lescents and adults, who are able to retrieve this infor-
mation with no difficulty as they read what happens in
the story.
The Initiating event introduces a change in the rather
stable and habitual state of affairs described in the Place-
ment. In other words, in this stage the author presents a
conflict that interrupts the normalcy established so far and
creates tension. This conflict has to be faced by the main
character(s).
After introducing a break in the stable situation, the
author presents a series of events that further complicate
1 This is a simplified version of the model Hasan proposes. The symbol ^ indi-
cates that one stage follows the previous one and the parentheses signal that
stages are optional.
teseopress.com
things for the characters. This stage is called Sequent

events. The events, then, have the function of increasing
tension in the plot. The Final event provides culmination or
resolution to the complication. It shows how the problem
the character confronts is resolved, whether it is with a
positive or a negative outcome.
The Finale depicts a return to what Hasan calls an
“altered rest.” This means that a new stable situation is
established. Things go back to normal, but something has
changed for the character –be it his/her abilities, knowl-
edge, relationships or status. This stage is optional.
The Moral expresses or highlights the ethical lesson
of the story. This stage is also optional and more typical
of narratives for young children. Older readers are able to
infer the moral teaching by themselves.
Within her description of the structure of narratives,
Hasan also proposes an internal structure for events. She
states that within each event, there is a local setting that
contextualises the action, called frame. This is followed by
the main act, that is, what happens in the event, the action
itself. Finally, the sequel presents an outcome of the event,
whether it is a decision taken by the characters or their
emotional reaction.
This further distinction of phases within each event
makes Hasan’s model an excellent tool for aiding our stu-
dents not only to comprehend how events work in a story,
but also to produce their own narratives. Sometimes it is
hard for teachers to help students realise that every event
they include in a story needs to have a consequence that
somehow moves the plot forward, making the situation for
the character more and more complicated. In this way, stu-
dents are more likely to include events that strategically
contribute to the rising tension in the story.
teseopress.com
1.4. Coda
Bringing together this understanding of how stories are

built stage by stage with the notion of macro meaning pro-
vides very effective functional tools for the EFL classroom.
Acquiring greater familiarity with these concepts ensures
that students interact with picture story books more pro-
ductively both as readers and as potential writers.
In the following chapters, we aim at, first, empowering
teachers with the necessary conceptual tools, that is, knowl-
edge of the visual grammar and the structure of visual
narratives, including the typical use of resources that cor-
respond to each stage. After approaching these theoretical
concerns, we will be ready to share activities on how to
implement all this know-how in the EFL classroom.
teseopress.com
Chapter 2: Shaping the Story World
In order for readers to engage emotionally in the story

world of picture books, they first need to be fully aware
of the different elements that are part of this fictional
universe. This is made possible because authors and illus-
trators make use of various experiential (representational)
resources that construe the story world by creating char-
acters, by building the actions that the characters carry out
–which move the plot of the story forward–, and by rep-
resenting the circumstances –including the setting– under
which these actions take place. Carter (2001) explains the
rationale of analysing each element in isolation even if they
make up one coherent whole:
Because the various elements of fiction –such as plot, dia-

logue, character, setting and so on– are so interlinked it can
be very difficult to talk about each one wholly separately.
For, when you discuss your characters, invariably you will
talk about what your characters do, and therefore you will
be mentioning plot. When you talk about what your charac-
ters are saying, you will be discussing dialogue. So, to deal
with these aspects of fiction in isolation is quite artificial,
as they all exist and function together. Yet it is necessary
for students to consider each of these elements individually
in order that they can see how fiction works as a whole.
(Carter, 2001, p 79)
In this chapter we will briefly look at how characters

are represented, how the action of the story is construct-
ed and how the circumstances of the story are created. In
other words, we will discuss the role of visual resources in
building the story world in picture books.
teseopress.com 23
2.1. Creating characters
When we think about creating characters, we consider

the array of features that allow us to identify a character
as him/herself and not a different one. These include,
of course, the character’s physical appearance, but also
his/her personality, habits, routines, thoughts, dreams,
wishes, relationships, conflicts both internal and exter-
nal, among others. Naturally, physical appearance is the
easiest trait to represent visually. Even so, it would
be inaccurate to assume that physical appearance is
merely an external feature: it also manifests personal
attributes and identity. The visual choices that represent
appearance combine with other elements, such as the
context in which these characters are portrayed, their
gestures, the objects that surround them, their clothes
and possessions, in order to hint at the characters’ age,
ethnicity, role or place in the family.
In addition, we can infer a lot about characters from
the actions they perform. These actions are visually rep-
resented by vectors that show a character doing a specific
activity within a particular context, which is generally the
way most narratives start –with characters engaged in ‘nar-
rative processes’ (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 59). Since
narrative processes are at their core, these depictions are
called narrative images. These are very common in picture
story books because they are dynamic images that help
advance the plot: they develop action and typically portray
one-time events.
Even though the most frequent depiction of a character
is through narrative images, they may also be introduced in
more conceptual illustrations; that is, images in which the
participants’ representations are more static and lack the
vectors that indicate they are involved in action. Because
there is no obvious action taking place, readers naturally
gravitate towards reflection or interpretation. Thus, read-
ers are expected to observe participants’ attributes, for
teseopress.com
example, or to reflect upon a particular moment in the

story. In such cases, the verbal semiosis always facilitates
interpretation or reflection.
The following images illustrate the distinction between
narrative and conceptual images:
Examples of characters depicted in more narrative

images are the representations of the grandfather in Granpa,
by John Burningham (2003). The character is first depicted
sitting on an armchair with his arms reaching to his grand-
daughter, as if inviting the little girl to embrace him or to
sit on his lap. There is a pipe on a table next to him, which
can also tell readers about his routine activities. Not only
do readers get to appreciate the old man’s physical appear-
ance, but they can also infer some of his personality traits
and habits. The same happens in subsequent images in the
story, in which the grandfather is engaged in some specific
activity, always in the company of his little granddaughter.
It is through these depictions of the man that readers can
understand his role in the family and the importance of his
presence in the life of the girl.
An example of a more static, conceptual image is that
of Wangari on the first page of Wangari’s Trees of Peace, by
Jeanette Winter (2008), a book which we will analyse in
more depth in Chapter 4. Wangari, the main character in
the story, is introduced in the context of the town in Africa
where she lives, surrounded by nature. The girl is standing
teseopress.com
with a flower in her hands, just looking at the audience.

Most probably, the aim of the author is to invite readers to
establish a close relationship with Wangari from the very
beginning of the story and to appreciate Wangari’s physical
attributes, as well as those less visible but still present in the
depiction: her peacefulness and her connection with nature
and the town she belongs to.
By the way characters are depicted, readers can recog-
nise them in action or reflect upon their role in the context
of the events, thus grasping their importance in the sto-
ry as well. As the story unfolds, readers are able to track
participants by identifying features of their appearance in
subsequent images. Clothing can also be evidence for read-
ers to recognise characters. The placing of a character in the
composition of the image is also meaningful: centralising
a character grants him/her greater importance, while posi-
tioning him/her in the periphery renders them secondary.
One character may shift from the centre to the margins and
vice versa, which would reflect a matter of plot or character
development. In addition, how often a specific character
reappears in a story can tell readers about the significance
of that participant in relation to the theme of the story
(Painter et al., 2013, p. 60).
DEPICTION STYLE, the system of character drawing,
shows different degrees of detail and realism of the illus-
tration, ranging from a minimalist style to a naturalistic
style. These different styles also contribute to the creation
of particular characters and the connection to be estab-
lished between them and the readers. In broad terms, these
styles involve:
• the use of dot(s) and line(s) to form a symbolic repre-
sentation of human faces (minimalist style). This is the
case of Image 3 below.
• the use of shapes (i.e., circle, oval) added to represent
two-dimensional human faces (generic style). This is
the case of Image 4 below.
teseopress.com
• the technique of shading (i.e., cross-hatching, smooth

shading and adding volume) to create a three-
dimensional effect (naturalistic style). (Tian, 2011 in
Painter et al., 2013, p. 30-31) This is the case of Image
5 below.
• the techniques involving contrast and caricature
(hyper-real style).
The minimalist style is more iconic, focusing mainly

on feelings of un/happiness. This style does not truly depict
a recognisable individual but a universal, archetypal char-
acter. The more detailed generic style enables the audience
to see themselves in the protagonist’s role, relating to the
character at a more personal level. The naturalistic style
calls for a deeper interpretation of facial features, such as
eye detail, head angle and facial proportions, together with
bodily postures, stances, and gestures. The greater amount
of detail makes meanings more intricate, rendering their
harder interpretation more rewarding for the readers, who
can engage with the characters as individuals: the character
is no longer an archetype, but a distinct person (Welch,
2005 in Painter et al., 2013, p. 31). Hyper-real contrasts and
caricatures have an alienating effect on the audience and
“create their own kind of eerie unreality” (Painter et al.,
2013, p. 34). This last choice is very unusual and therefore
we will not provide further information on it.
teseopress.com
Moreover, characters may be depicted with posses-

sions that help readers assign these characters a particular
role. These attributes appear as clearly salient in the com-
position of the picture, either because of their size, or a vari-
ation in colour or tone, or because they are foregrounded.
They are outstanding because they carry a cultural weight
and are already associated with certain themes or values.
Images where elements such as these appear invite readers
to appreciate the symbolic value of the events in a story
which construe the themes of the narrative. Even though
role-assigning possessions are most frequently depicted in
conceptual images, they may also be represented in more
dynamic images.
For example, in The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the
Old Iron Woman (Briggs, 1984), the depiction style varies
according to which character is being depicted. While the
general and the woman are caricature-like, the islanders are
generic drawings most readers would be able to sympathise
with, and the fallen soldiers and their families are mini-
malist, shadowy entities that seem removed from the real
world. The choice of drawing style not only contributes to
their characterisation but also shapes the way we, as read-
ers, relate to the characters. We also find symbolic elements
in this picture story book: the first image that introduces
the general shows him smoking a rocket, holding a sword
smeared with blood in one hand and a flaming flag in the
other. Here, these three elements stand out mainly because
of their size and their incongruency. They reveal details
about the character’s personality and ideology, since they
are culturally associated with violence, wickedness, death,
war and power.
teseopress.com
2.2. Building action
As we all know, the action of a narrative moves the story

forward, complicating the situation for the main charac-
ter(s) more and more until it reaches a point where the
conflict is resolved.
To represent action visually, it is very useful to go back
to the concept of narrative and conceptual images. As we
said above, conceptual images are static and show rather
stable, essential attributes of an element. Narrative images,
in turn, are dynamic and generally depict action that is
carried out at a certain moment in time. While conceptual
images focus more on what there is or what something/
someone is like or has, narrative images show temporary
happenings, events, processes (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006,
p. 59).
So of course, to represent action illustrators employ
narrative images. These images are characterised by the
use of diagonal lines which are associated with movement.
Illustrators can depict an array of different types of actions
or processes that are interpreted correctly by the readers
because of a shared knowledge of the world (Painter et al.,
2013, p. 68). The physical context surrounding the action,
i.e., the location and elements being used or in the back-
ground, helps readers identify the activity correctly. Thus,
characters can be depicted doing, saying, thinking or per-
ceiving, behaving, and reacting.
Many times, only one character is involved in the
action, as it is doing an individual activity, behaving in a
particular way, thinking, or reacting to something that has
happened to it or perceiving a phenomenon through its
senses. Some of these processes can be represented through
the visual modality clearly, while others need to be rein-
forced by what the text says, especially those related to
saying, thinking, and perceiving. Although readers may be
able to see characters are involved in one of these processes
and in most cases determine which one it is, to know what
teseopress.com
these characters are thinking, sensing, or saying specifi-

cally, they need the verbal modality. In some rare cases,
thoughts are represented visually when there is a thought
bubble or section of a drawing that shows what a char-
acter is imagining.
For example, in Parts, by Tedd Arnold (1997), the pro-
tagonist is a young boy who is constantly imagining scary
scenarios of what might be happening to him, such as
becoming bald and losing all his skin, because he has not
yet discovered that people naturally lose hair and skin. In
several of these images the thoughts are depicted in a con-
textualised section of the image that encloses the imagined
possible situation while the boy is drawn in the foreground,
in front of the thought being represented. The discovery
that triggers such thoughts (i.e., finding a hair in the comb)
and/or the boy’s feelings of worry and dread are general-
ly shown in the image foregrounded. This sort of thought
bubble allows readers to get a glimpse of what the boy is
thinking. These thoughts are also referred to in the text
accompanying these images.
Actions can also be directed at someone or something,
many times affecting the receiver of the action by moving
it or changing it in some way. This is represented visually
by lines or vectors that connect the doer and receiver of
the action. These vectors can be embodied in the doers’
extremities or objects they use to carry out the action. The
direction of the characters’ gaze (both doer and receiver)
is also very important to determine the connection both
elements have to the action itself (Kress & van Leeuwen,
2006, p. 59).
For example, in Wangari’s Trees of Peace, by Jeanette
Winter (2008), at one point in the story, a young envi-
ronmental activist is brutalised by a police officer using a
wooden club. The action of hitting is not visualised in any
contact between the club and Wangari’s body, but instead
becomes evident in the vector formed by the police officer’s
arm and the club itself, both directed towards the woman.
teseopress.com
In this case, then, the action is interpreted as produced by

the police officer, towards the woman, through the club
–which connects both characters. Actions such as this help
throw light on characters’ relative positioning as doer or
receiver of actions. They also reveal relationships between
characters, particularly those of unequal power. Painter et
al. (2013, p. 70) also suggest looking at the relations between
different actions. This is key in narratives because in this
type of genre the action develops through time. It is very
important for readers to be able to understand whether
the depiction of actions in subsequent images belongs to
simultaneous or successive actions.
Whenever readers see characters reappear “either
within a single page, across a double-page spread or across
a page turn, [they are] to infer a temporal relation of succes-
sion between the actions depicted” (Painter et al., 2013, p.
71). These actions may belong to the same activity sequence
or a different one.
Events can be paced differently to afford more or less
importance to given actions. If more space is granted to
a certain action, smaller steps are taken to build up to a
final action, then time is slowed down, so that readers pay
attention to each little detail. Also, if in a story where all
events take up several images suddenly one event employs
a single image, time is frozen for readers to appreciate a
sole action carefully.
For example, in The Way Back Home, by Oliver Jeffers
(2015), a boy who gets stranded on the moon meets a Mar-
tian who has also got stuck on the moon and becomes
friends with him. Together they brainstorm ways to get
back home. At that point in the story, instead of having
full-page images or two images per page at most to narrate
the event, the readers find a sequence of nine images on one
page that depict the instances of brainstorming in detail.
This helps slow down the pace of the plot to highlight a
significant moment in the narrative.
teseopress.com
2.3. Representing circumstances
So far, we have looked at ways in which we create charac-

ters and build the plot in narratives. A third element that is
closely related to these features of stories are the circum-
stances in which the characters carry out their actions. They
represent how, why, what for, who/what with, how far/long, and
of course when and where the action takes place. These last
two circumstances are also referred to as the setting in time
and place of narratives.
While some circumstances are more relevant to only
one moment in the story, for instance the how, why, what for,
who/what with of certain actions, others have an impact on
longer sections of the narrative. The background that sets
the events in place and time, for example, can help readers
interpret the chronological timeline as they notice changes
in the context along the story. It also contributes to set
the tone or atmosphere at different points in the narrative
and helps readers notice contrasts and changes in the mood
of the story. We will discuss the impact of atmosphere in
Chapter 4 below.
When creating the setting of a story, words can build a
great range of circumstances, even when details of the sto-
ry world are more readily available to the readers visually
rather than verbally. In First Light, by Gary Crew (1996),
for example, there is a very rich description of the main
character’s bedroom on the first page:
The boy worked in his room, alone and happy. Spread about
him were the plans for the aircraft that he was building. This
was no plastic model made from a toyshop kit, but a proto-
type, designed by the boy himself. The single wing, of pale
grey silk stretched over balsa wood, was a metre from tip
to tip and so light that he could balance it on his fingertips.
(Crew, 1996, p. 1)
teseopress.com
Thus, the words create a detailed world for the boy

to exist within: they add depth and specificity, making this
setting seem real. Vivid though the verbal description may
be, we need only glance at the next page to understand
how effective images can be in conveying crucial details.
Perhaps the materials from which the aircraft is built are
not apparent in the image, for example, but we do grasp
what it is the boy is building and where, while the position
of the character and his expression certainly transmit the
concepts of loneliness, satisfaction and pride that the words
imply –and all of that in the split second that it takes to
absorb the visual information.
Because it is in the very nature of images to show
–unlike language, which tells or say–, they need to explic-
itly illustrate what can be left unsaid in the text. This is
why the visual representation of some circumstances can-
not be avoided. That is the case of circumstances of man-
ner: quality (how), manner: means (what with), accom-
paniment (who with) and of location in time and place
(when and where).
Whenever an action is represented, the way in which
it is carried out is depicted in one way or another. This
is captured by circumstances of manner: quality, typically
with the use of movement lines and/or in the characters’
body posture or facial expression. In some cases, the effects
of the action on the immediate environment can also show
the manner in which the action was carried out.
For example, in the Placement of Giraffes Can’t Dance,
by Giles Andreae (2001), Gerald is shown running fast and
falling hard against the ground. While the speed with which
he runs is represented by movement lines, the strength of
his fall is depicted by the position of his body and facial
expression, as the giraffe is on the ground with his legs
in the air, his knees bent, and a painful expression on his
face. The impact of the action is also shown by a big cloud
of dust arising from the ground around him that serves to
emphasise how heavily he fell.
teseopress.com
Circumstances of means and accompaniment are

also very difficult to overlook in images. If an action
is being carried out with something or in the company
of someone, it makes sense that these objects or char-
acters should appear in the image together with the
doer of the action. The first type is generally realised
by a characters’ body part, especially by their extrem-
ities, or by objects they use as instruments to perform
the action. The second is typically embodied by sec-
ondary characters.
Unless the image is decontextualised, i.e., without
a physical context, the circumstances of location in
place and time are always present in the background
of the image. As Painter et al. point out, elements in
the background “provide details of the physical envi-
ronment in which the characters act” (Painter et al.,
2013 p. 78). Visual elements like flora, fauna, geograph-
ical features, walls and furniture, buildings, landmarks,
maps and signs show readers where the action takes
place; while clocks, calendars, the appearance of the
sun, moon, stars, the colour of sky, and/or lighting
of the scene, weather conditions and clothing used by
characters reveal when the story occurs. Some of these
features are more explicit than others, but they can all
help set the events in time and place.
Other types of circumstances are more difficult to
represent visually. Although they could be represented
in images, they require more interpretation from the
reader, as they need to connect details in the same or
different images to understand the represented circum-
stance. Therefore, they are typically reinforced by what
is said in the text or represented only through words.
These are circumstances of cause: purpose (what for),
cause: reason (why) and extent: distance and dura-
tion (how far/long).
Circumstances of purpose need to be deduced by
readers. When there is an element being used to carry
teseopress.com
out an action, for example, the reader can assume they

are using it to perform the action. Some other times,
the characters’ depiction –their posture, the direction of
their gaze and facial expression– can reveal their inten-
tions. For example, in Image 6 below, the paintbrush
is clearly an element the boy is using to carry out the
action of painting the wall.
Circumstances of reason can be depicted by sub-

sequent images or different information units within
an image in which an event and its effect are shown.
Thus, readers can infer, for example, the reason why
a character reacts in a certain way because of a pre-
vious action or the appearance of another character.
For example, in Images 7 and 8 below, the sequence
of events reveals the connection: the reason for the
expression of annoyance on the character’s face is the
arrival of a boisterous group of tourists that interrupt
his quiet contemplation of the painting.
teseopress.com
Circumstances of extent that show how far a character or

object has moved or is to travel are mainly represented by the
physical distance between the element and the point of depar-
ture/arrival depicted in the image. Because of this, images that
show this type of circumstance tend to be long shots, in which
characters and objects are shown from far away.
Circumstances of extent that show how long it takes for an
action to develop can be represented specifically by tally marks
and crossed out calendars. This can also be seen in the con-
trast of the depiction of a character or the context at different
moments in the story. For example, changes in the character
that are part of growing up or in the context from a summer to
winter atmosphere can give clues to the reader as to how much
time has passed between one event and another. Here readers
need to make the connection by gathering details from differ-
ent parts of the story.
For example, in the wordless picture book The Arrival,
by Shaun Tan (2006), about the challenges of immigration, the
passing of time is represented in a spread by the inclusion of
24 small images that show a plant changing in the course of the
four seasons of a year. This sequence marks the length of time it
took the main character to get used to living in this strange place
and how long he had to live without his family.
teseopress.com
As we can see, circumstances of purpose, reason and

extent can in fact be represented visually and they help read-
ers make connections, especially in wordless picture books,
in which images are all there is. However, because the depic-
tion and interpretation of such circumstances is quite complex,
most of the time they are clarified by words that accompany
the image.
Finally, another set of circumstances seems to be too
hard or impossible to represent visually because they refer to
two parallel and different realities simultaneously, i.e., circum-
stances of condition. It would be quite difficult to represent
both possible realities at the same time and clearly signal to
readers which is the probable or hypothetical one.
The visual resources we have found for the representation
of circumstances are summarised in the following table:
Type of circumstance Realisation in images

Manner: quality (how) – movement lines
– characters’ physical features, posture, facial expres-
sions
– effects of the process in the physical context
Manner: means (what with?) – objects/parts of the body (esp. extremities) used as
instruments to carry out an action
Accompaniment (who with/ – main characters carrying out an action with someone
without?) else (in contrast to what has happened until that point
in the story) or unexpectedly without company
Location: place (where?) – background/context depicted: objects such as flora,
fauna, geographical features, buildings, landmarks and
architecture, furniture, etc.
Location: time (when?) – clocks, calendars
– background/context depicted: appearance of sun,
moon, colour of sky, and/or lighting of the scene,
weather conditions, clothing worn by characters, gad-
gets, and technology
Cause: purpose (why? what – objects that enable characters to fulfil a certain
for?) purpose
– the characters’ depiction: posture, gaze, facial expres-
sion, etc.
Cause: reason (why?) – previous actions (within or across images)
– objects/other characters that trigger a reaction (the
reason can be discovered by analysing the
consequences in the characters’ facial expressions or
behaviour)
teseopress.com
Extent: distance (how far?) – characters (generally small in size) placed on one side
of the image, at a specific point along a path and/or
at a certain distance from a specific point of depar-
ture or arrival
– movement lines that show the path the characters
have covered or followed, including the point of depar-
ture and arrival
Extent: duration (how long?) – tally marks, crossed out calendars, etc.
– series of images showing subtle changes in the char-
acters’ attributes and/or physical position that show
time has passed
Table 1 – Circumstances and realisations.
2.4. Coda
In this chapter, we have looked at how different elements

need to be thought-of, designed and combined to shape the
story world. We have reviewed the ways those elements
translate into images: how they are represented, how they
convey different meanings, how they combine to transmit
a message. In other words, we have explored the resources
that come into play to construe the story world by creating
characters, by building the actions that the characters carry
out and by representing the circumstances that surround,
accompany, or complete those actions.
teseopress.com
Chapter 3: Inviting Readers
into the Story World
In the previous chapter we explored visual resources used

to build experiential meanings in narratives. These mean-
ings have to do with the content of the narrative as they
allow writers and illustrators to shape the story world: they
define what characters are like, what they do and the cir-
cumstances in which they act. In this and the following
chapter, however, we turn to analysing groups of resources
that serve a more interpersonal meaning as they help estab-
lish relationships and express attitudes. Here, we take a look
at the resources that invite readers into the story world by
building the relationship between readers and characters.
When reading picture books, we are sometimes placed
as outside observers, far away from the characters and the
story world. In other picture books, however, we are made
to feel part of the story world or may even be positioned
as one of the characters to experience the story world from
within. These different options have a direct impact on the
way we relate to the story and the characters. Are we just
observing characters’ actions and attitudes from a distance,
or are we with them, experiencing what they are going
through first-hand?
The way illustrators choose to represent the characters
and their world can make readers feel more or less close
to them. Certain tools allow illustrators to position read-
ers in a more distant relationship with the characters and
the story world. In such cases, readers are ‘outsiders’ who
merely observe the events in the story and the characters’
actions, and possibly learn from them. This is typical of
picture story books aimed at younger readers, who find it
easier to observe the behaviour of others and learn from a
teseopress.com 39
distance (Painter et al., 2013, p. 19). In contrast, illustrators

can place the readers in a closer, more intimate relationship
with the characters, allowing them to experience events as
if they were inside the story. Picture books which allow
readers to come into the story world typically do this at
particularly tense moments in the narrative. This proximity
gives readers a higher sense of involvement with what is
going on, and thus, allows them to empathise with the char-
acters more easily. These books are generally targeted at
older readers, who can put themselves in others’ shoes and
imagine more clearly what it would be like to experience
the events in the story themselves.
We have grouped resources from different systems pre-
sented by Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) and Painter et
al. (2013) that contribute to establish a closer relationship
between readers and characters under the macro meaning
Inviting readers into the story world. This macro meaning has
an overall interpersonal function, as it helps to establish the
relationship between readers and characters.
In this chapter, then, we will take a look at the
resources illustrators can deploy to invite readers into the
story world. We have divided these resources into two sets.
First, we will explore those resources commonly used to
position readers closer to the characters, as if they were
interacting with them. Second, we will look at those that
help readers enter into the story world ‘physically,’ as if the
illustrator were opening a door to let readers inside the
world of the story.
3.1. Positioning readers in interaction with characters
As we said before, readers are sometimes invited to relate

to the characters in the story in a closer, more direct way.
When positioned either as if interacting with characters
or at a close distance from them, readers are made to
teseopress.com
participate in the story world more actively. This partici-

pation helps readers become more empathetic towards the
characters. It becomes quite difficult to ignore the charac-
ters’ reality or feelings when being involved in interaction
or in a close relationship with them.
Illustrators can position readers in interaction with
characters by making one or more of the following choices:
• establishing eye contact between characters and read-
ers (system of FOCALISATION);
• placing characters facing readers (system of INVOLVE-
MENT);
• representing characters from a close/intimate distance
(system of SOCIAL DISTANCE);
• positioning characters in a particular power relation
with respect to readers (system of POWER).
3.1.1. Focalisation: eye contact

When reading the images in a picture book,
the viewer (…) come[s] to know the story world by seeing it;
but the viewer can be positioned to assume different viewing
personas –either that of an outside observer or alternatively
of a viewer ‘participating’ fleetingly in that world through a
relationship with, or identification as, one of the characters.
(Painter et al., 2013, p. 18)
The system of FOCALISATION deals with how the reader

is acknowledged by the characters in the story and also with
the point of view assigned to the reader. In this section,
we will only consider the first aspect of this system, which
has to do with the way in which the reader is addressed
by the characters. The other aspect will be discussed in the
following section.
One clear and direct way of having characters address
readers is through eye contact. Illustrators can use observe
images, in which there is no eye contact between the partic-
teseopress.com
ipants, or contact images, in which the character makes eye

contact with the viewer.
The most common type of images in picture books are
observe images. Image 1 below is a clear example of this
type of images as there is no eye contact between characters
and readers. Here, characters are not interacting with read-
ers but involved in action or interacting with other char-
acters. This option positions readers as outside observers
of what is going on in the image. As Painter et al. observe,
“many acclaimed picture books for younger readers (…) use
only the observe option throughout the story, keeping the
reader outside the story world to observe and to learn from
what goes on within it” (Painter et al., 2013, p. 19).
However, in many picture books, contact images are

used at specific moments in the story to ‘address’ readers.
For example, in the following images the characters are
making eye contact with readers:
teseopress.com
In these images, readers are positioned to engage with

the characters as if directly addressed by them. In contact
images, the character “acknowledges the reader explicit-
ly, addressing [him/her] with a visual ‘you’” (Kress & van
Leeuwen, 2006, p. 117). This acknowledgement gives read-
ers a very clear sense of interaction with the character,
which in turn encourages them to take on a more active
role, and in most cases, to emotionally engage with the
character’s reality more easily and strongly. In Images 9 and
10, for example, it would be very hard to ignore any of these
characters’ feelings because they are making direct eye con-
tact with readers. The fact that they are looking into their
eyes gives readers the impression that they are somehow
more involved with what is happening to the characters,
and it is easier for readers to empathise with them.
In picture story books, we can typically find images
like these after conflicts or significant events “to height-
en identification or empathy at key moments in the story”
(Painter et al., 2013, p. 20). In cases like these, eye con-
tact is generally combined with close-up images (see SOCIAL
DISTANCE below) to help readers appreciate the characters’
feelings more clearly.
Contact images are also frequently used to present
characters at the beginning of the narrative. As characters
teseopress.com
make eye contact, they connect with the readers and hold
their attention as they are presented by the narrator or as
they introduce themselves. For example, in Zoo, by Anthony
Browne (1992), the story opens with the four main charac-
ters introduced in different images that simulate portraits
and each of them makes eye contact with readers. In the
second page of The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, by Jon Sci-
eszka & Lane Smith (1996), the main character and narrator
of the story, Alexander T. Wolf, introduces himself while
making eye contact with readers.
3.1.2. Involvement
Another way in which readers can have a strong sense of
interaction with the characters is related to the position
from which they can perceive the characters.
When interacting with someone, we are generally fac-
ing the other person, and our bodies’ frontal planes are
parallel to each other’s. In contrast, when we observe others
interact, we are generally looking at them from a side and
their frontal plane is not parallel to ours but to whomev-
er or whatever they are interacting with. In the analy-
sis of images, this distinction is captured in the system
of INVOLVEMENT that includes images in which there is
involvement, when characters face readers, and detach-
ment images, in which the characters are shown from an
oblique angle, facing sideways or showing their back to
readers (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 133).
In Image 1 above we see a dog chasing a cat from the
side. Neither of these characters is facing readers but they
are seen from an oblique angle instead. The characters are
not represented from an angle that would give the reader
a sense of involvement with them. Therefore, the reader is
not positioned to interact with the characters but rather to
observe what they are doing.
But what would happen if the characters’ frontal
planes were parallel to ours? Images 9 and 10 above
teseopress.com
show characters facing readers, with their frontal plane

aligned to that of the readers’, ready to interact with
them. In these cases, there is a “maximum sense of
involvement with [the characters] as part of our own
world” (Painter et al., 2013, p. 17). Besides, images that
show involvement are typically, though not necessarily,
contact images, as is the case of Images 9 and 10 above.
Both images show characters facing readers and making
eye contact with them at the same time. This combina-
tion of resources heightens the sense of interaction.
The angle chosen to depict characters, then, places
readers in a position to either feel a very strong sense
of involvement (when the characters’ frontal plane is
parallel to the readers’) or to observe the characters
from outside without feeling involved in interaction
with them (when the characters’ frontal plane is oblique
to the readers’).
3.1.3. Social distance

In our everyday lives, one factor that indicates how
close our relationship with other people is is the social
distance we keep from one another while we interact.
The closer we position ourselves as we interact with the
other person, the more intimate our relationship is.
As Kress and van Leeuwen (Kress & van Leeuwen,
2006, p. 124) explain, in images, SOCIAL DISTANCE is
represented by the size of the character in relation to
the frame or edges of the image. Characters can be
seen from a closer distance, in which case we can only
see a part of their body, or from farther away, where
we can see their whole body occupying the height of
the frame or less. These different distances from which
characters are depicted have a direct impact on the
way readers relate to and can empathise with charac-
ters. When characters are depicted at a close distance
from readers, a more intimate relationship is established
teseopress.com
between them, and readers can better appreciate the

characters’ feelings.
In Images 9 and 10 above, for example, we can see
the characters from an intimate distance. Image 9 is
an example of a close-up, in which the characters are
shown from the shoulders up. Extreme close-ups show
only part of the face of a character, as in Image 10. In
these images, the close distance from which readers are
allowed to observe the characters suggests they share an
intimate relationship. This sense of intimacy, of course,
has an impact on the relationship between readers and
characters, as readers are encouraged to relate to them
at a more personal level and to empathise or identify
with them. Besides, intimate images allow readers to
scrutinise the characters’ facial gestures in detail. These,
in turn, reveal the characters’ feelings and attitudes.
In images with social distance, which portray a
less intimate but still friendly or informal relationship
between characters and readers, characters are captured
from a mid-shot. At this distance, characters are depict-
ed somewhere between up to their waist and their full
figure. Examples of mid-shots are Images 11 and 12
below. Readers can still relate to the characters, but
they are not positioned at an intimate distance from
them. Besides, they are able to appreciate some of their
facial expressions, although not as clearly as from an
intimate distance.
teseopress.com
Finally, Image 1 is an example of impersonal distance,

in which the characters’ whole body is depicted occupying
half of the height of the image or less in a long shot. This
distance makes it more difficult for readers to relate to
the characters at a personal and intimate level. Sometimes
characters are so small that instead of being perceived as
individuals, they become part of the context, as if they were
one more object or element in the setting. That is why
impersonal distance is considered to be an objectifying per-
spective from which to relate to the characters. Moreover,
it becomes much harder or impossible to clearly read the
characters’ expression. Therefore, readers have more diffi-
culties identifying or empathising with characters depicted
from this distance. In long shots, then, readers tend to per-
ceive the characters as strangers and it is more difficult for
them to feel identified with characters or be affected by
their feelings since they are not clearly revealed to readers
(Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 126).
teseopress.com
3.1.4. Power
Whenever we relate to others, we do so in terms of power
relations. These are established on the basis of differences
in age, physical strength, social or economic status, cultural
heritage and acquired knowledge. These factors position
people in certain roles, which affect, of course, the way they
relate to each other.
Power relations can be visually represented between
characters and readers when we consider the angle from
which the character is depicted along the vertical plane.
When characters are placed at readers’ eye level, they seem
to have equal power. In other cases, characters are depicted
from a high angle, which gives readers the sense that they
have more power than the characters. In such cases, the
characters are placed in a position of vulnerability or help-
lessness. Conversely, when characters are depicted from
a low angle, they come across as powerful and imposing.
These choices along the vertical angle are captured in the
system of POWER (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 140) and
exemplified by the following images:
teseopress.com
In image 6, where there is equal power, the young boy

is placed at eye level with the reader, which helps depict a
relationship of parity between them. In the second image,
however, there is viewer power, as the boy is seen from
above. This gives readers a sense of power over the repre-
sented character and at the same time portrays the boy as
rather powerless and vulnerable. Finally, in the third image,
we see his mother from a low angle. From this perspective,
called representation power, she is represented as having
power over the reader, who in this case is in the position
of the young son, seeing through his eyes. Here, the mother
is represented as dominant and superior in strength and
power. She looks imposing to the boy and, therefore, to
the reader.
Whenever readers are placed at eye level with the char-
acters in a position of equality, which is the default option,
they are not necessarily being included in the character’s
world through the system of POWER. However, whenever
the character is represented either from above or below,
readers are automatically assigned a determined role of
power in relation to the character. In other words, the fact
that in Image 11 the character is portrayed as powerful
over readers means that readers are being made to relate to
the character from a position of weakness or helplessness.
teseopress.com
Therefore, power relations represented in images through

the vertical angle also help create a sense of interaction
between characters and readers. We believe that every time
readers are assigned a role of power in relation to the char-
acter in the image, whether this be of superiority or weak-
ness, they are already interacting with characters and, thus,
being made part of their world.
3.1.5. Coda
There are several resources for illustrators to place readers
in interaction with characters, and thus, make them feel
part of the story world and help them empathise more eas-
ily with the characters. In the following table, we list the
choices that position readers in a close relationship with
characters and make them feel as if they were inside partic-
ipants of the story world, and those that position readers as
outside observers to experience what happens in the story
from a distance. These choices may be used in isolation
or together in combination to invite readers into the story
world or keep them at a distance.
Readers as inside participants Readers as outside observers

Eye contact No eye contact
More involvement Less involvement
Closer, more intimate distance More social or impersonal distance
Power relations shown: superiority or Equal power
weakness
Table 2 – Readers as participants or observers.
Direct eye contact, higher involvement (by having

characters face the readers), closer or more intimate social
distance and a high or low angle from which to view the
characters, allow readers to experience certain events in the
story as if they were partaking in the action. Direct eye
contact gives readers the impression that they are more
actively involved in the story as they are directly addressed
teseopress.com
by the characters. It also makes it very hard for read-

ers to ignore the characters’ feelings. High involvement
contributes to heightening this sense of direct interaction
between readers and characters. Placing characters at an
intimate distance from readers helps them feel they share
an intimate relationship with the characters and allows
them to appreciate the characters’ facial gestures, which
reveal their emotions. This, in turn, allows readers to easily
develop empathy for the characters. Finally, a particular
position of power assigned to readers places them in direct
relation with represented characters, making readers feel
part of the story world.
3.2. Bringing readers into the story world
To invite readers into the story world, illustrators do not

only have tools to create a close relationship between char-
acters and readers. They can also create a sense of belonging
in readers by making them feel there are no boundaries sep-
arating the story world from theirs. Illustrators can invite
readers to ‘step into’ the events taking place in the story
and experience the action first-hand while accompanying
the characters. Sometimes, they may even position readers
to step into one of the characters’ shoes.
These choices, of course, help readers feel more
involved in the events of the story as they are closer to the
characters’ reality, experiencing the action from within. It
also makes it easier for them to empathise with the char-
acters, especially when they live part of the story from a
character’s perspective.
The resources available for illustrators to invite readers
‘physically’ into the story world are:
• the elision of margins and frames (system of FRAMING);
• the use of a character’s perspective to represent events
(system of FOCALISATION).
teseopress.com
3.2.1. Framing
As Painter et al. (2013, p. 103) suggest, the system of FRAM-
ING can help illustrators include readers in the story world
through the lack of frames and margins that separate the
story world from the readers’ world. Images in picture
books sometimes have margins and frames that enclose
them. The margin is the white space that surrounds the
image, and the frame is the black line that delineates the
image. Images that have margins are called bound. In them,
the margins “demarcate the story world as more distinctly
separated from the reader’s world.” Margins can also be
seen as “contain[ing] or confin[ing] the character” (Painter
et al., 2013, p. 105). The use of margins and frames, then,
serves to distance the reader from the characters and their
world. The thicker the margin or frame is, the further away
from the story the viewer is positioned.
In opposition, images can have no margins. These are
called unbound images as they present no boundaries that
separate the world of the reader and the story world. In
images of this kind, the reader can have a stronger sense of
belonging to the story world or a more active participation
in the events as there are no borders that divide and put
distance between the reader’s world and the story.
So far, we have seen examples of both types of images:
images 1 and 12 are examples of bound images, in which the
readers’ world is separated from the story world, while the
rest are unbound images with no margins and frames. This
second type of images gives readers the sense they can step
into the story world and experience action from within.
While bound images (that are framed) and unbound
images in this system represent opposing extremes, there
are some other choices within bound images that serve as
middle grounds between these two options. First, bound
images can be contained or breaching. Compare images
1 or 12, which have margins that limit and contain the
teseopress.com
elements of the story world within the boundaries of the

image, to what happens in the following image:
Images 1 and 12 are examples of a contained image.

This type of images are those in which the characters are
enclosed within the edges of the image, determined by
the frame surrounding the image or contrast in colour
between the image and the margin in images without frame.
Contained images clearly put distance between the viewer
and the story world; the reader is an outside observer of
the characters and events, which are confined within the
frames of the image. In image 12, for example, readers are
allowed to observe the characters and what they are doing,
but they are not being actively invited to enter this other
world and participate in this special moment that belongs
to this couple.
Conversely, in breaching images, such as image 14,
the character(s) and/or elements in the background break
out of the edges of the image and invade the margins.
This brings the story world and/or characters closer to the
readers, breaking the limits that demarcate the characters’
world (Painter et al., 2013, p. 106). In Image 14, the limits
that contain the story cannot hold this character; the dog
teseopress.com
is coming out of the story world, breaching its boundaries

to invade the readers’ world. When characters are breach-
ing, sometimes it helps portray them: they may break the
boundaries of the image because they are too strong, too
powerful, or too energetic to be contained. In this case, the
fact that big, sharp claws are breaching the limits enclos-
ing the story world highlights the menacing and dangerous
nature of the dog.
The use of a bound: breaching image in this case, then,
together with other resources that help position the char-
acter in interaction with readers (eye contact, involvement,
social distance, and power), helps create the impression that
this dog is much more a part of the readers’ world than
the animals in image 1.
Characters, however, are not the only elements in the
story world that can break out from the frames. The setting
or background of the image, that is the story world itself,
can be depicted as if coming out of the boundaries that
contain the story. A very good example of how breaching
images can be used to bring the story world closer to the
readers is what happens in Where the Wild Things Are by
Maurice Sendak (1963). In this picture book, there is a grad-
ual but clear passage from bound to unbound images as
the boy goes from his room to the place where the wild
things live. At the beginning of the story, when the boy is in
his house and room, the readers are detached from him by
quite thick margins. The story world is clearly demarcated
and separate from the readers’. However, as the narrative
advances, the images slowly turn into bound: breaching as
the leaves of the trees break out of the picture. This brings
the story world closer and closer to the readers, until finally
they are fully invited to enter into the story when the boy
arrives to where the wild things are. This section of the
story is represented with unbound spreads.
Another set of options within bound images is whether
they are surrounded or limited. While surrounded images
teseopress.com
have margins on all four sides, limited images do not. For

example, let’s look at image 15 below.
In limited images, although the story world is still

bound, there is a point of contact between the two worlds
because there is at least one side of the image that is not
separated from the readers’ world by a margin.
In Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak (1963),
for example, as the forest invades the margins, some mar-
gins begin to disappear. This picture book shows a very
clear use of the different choices in the system of FRAMING
to gradually bring readers into the story world. Bound:
contained, limited images progressively turn into bound:
breaching, limited images, till we find unbound images.
To sum up, in the system of FRAMING, margins and
frames separate the story world from the readers’ world.
The different options in this system can be placed in a
continuum that goes from bound images, which keep the
story world clearly demarcated and separate from the read-
ers’ world, to unbound images, which pose no boundaries
between both worlds.
teseopress.com
Figur
Figuree 1 – Readers as participants or observers.
In between these two extremes there are some choices

that offer some points of contact between the two worlds:
bound: breaching images, in which the character(s) and/
or elements of the story world break out of the frame, or
bound: limited images, in which some margins disappear,
bring readers somewhat closer to the story world. Repre-
sented characters and their world are still positioned within
limits that bound them, though some contact between the
story world and the readers’ world is established.
3.2.2. Focalisation: point of view

As said before, the system of FOCALISATION as presented by
Painter et al. (2013, p. 18) deals with two aspects. It has to
do with how readers are acknowledged by the characters
in the story, which we already discussed in the previous
section, and it is also connected with the point of view
assigned to readers.
Choices in FOCALISATION allow the illustrator to place
the reader as different ‘viewing personas’, that is, to view
the story from different points of view. These perspectives
will, in turn, allow the reader to become part of the story
world or remain as an outsider.
teseopress.com
Most commonly, images depict action or characters

from a neutral point of view. Whenever that is the case,
readers maintain their own viewpoint as they relate from
their own perspective to the characters in the images. These
images are called unmediated. Images 1, 12, 13 and 16
above are clear examples of unmediated images, in which
characters are shown from a neutral point of view.
However, at some particular moments in the narrative,
illustrators may decide to depict a character or an event
from one of the characters’ perspectives in what Painter et
al. have called mediated images. This can be done explicitly
or implicitly. Let’s consider the following examples:
These two images are depicted from one of the charac-

ter’s point of view. These are considered mediated images.
Image 16, for instance, shows an action through the eyes
of the character carrying it out. In this case, readers are
explicitly shown whose viewpoint they are assuming by the
position of the character’s paw. Including a character’s body
part (particularly extremities) or its shadow viewed from a
position that could only mean the readers are taking the
character’s perspective is one way of explicitly giving them
the chance to stand in a character’s shoes. These images are
called mediated: as character.
teseopress.com
Image 17 represents another option within mediated

images but in this case, readers see the event from over a
character’s shoulder or head. This allows them to appreciate
what the character perceives even though readers do not
see the event through the character’s own eyes. It is also
considered an explicit way of showing a mediated perspec-
tive. This is because the point of view from which read-
ers see the event is made explicit by showing the back of
the character’s head. This option is called mediated: along
with character.
Finally, this effect can also be accomplished by using
a sequence of images, in which readers can deduce whose
viewpoint they are taking in an image because of what has
been depicted in the previous image. This implicit realisa-
tion can be appreciated in the pair of images below.
Readers can assume that they are taking the young

boy’s point of view in image 11 because in the previous
image he is looking up at his mother and appears to be
making eye contact with her. The mother’s body posture,
which coincides with the one depicted in the first image,
helps readers know that in image 11 they are looking at
her from her son’s perspective. As this example shows, the
use of other resources included in the section positioning
teseopress.com
readers in interaction with characters can also help determine

the perspective. In this case, the options of representa-
tion power, eye contact, involvement, and social distance
help readers realise from whose perspective they are being
positioned to experience the event. In this third type of
mediated images, the point of view from which they see
the character is inferred or implicit. In image 11 there is
nothing that explicitly marks from whose point of view
readers are observing the situation. They need to consider
the sequence in which the image is inserted to know that
they are seeing through a character’s eyes.
Mediated images allow viewers to become part of the
story by experiencing sections of it from a character’s per-
spective or by accompanying the character closely, seeing
the story world from over the character’s shoulder. This
possibility allows readers to enter into the story world,
heightens their sense of involvement, and helps readers
empathise with characters more easily, to feel what they
are feeling.
3.2.3. In short: Bringing readers into the story world

In this second section we have looked at some of the
resources that illustrators can use to bring readers physical-
ly into the story world. While the existence of margins and
frames in bound images, together with the use of unmedi-
ated images keep readers separate from the story world,
the choice of unbound images, where there are no frames
or margins, in combination with mediated images bring
readers into the story world and help them experience the
events from inside.
3.3. Combining resources
So far, we have gone over several options within dif-

ferent systems that convey meanings in images. They all
teseopress.com
contribute to establish the particular distance from which

readers will see, interpret, and feel the happenings in the
story. But how do these options work together in picture
books?
In general, they are used in combination to heighten
the readers’ sense of partaking in the story and closeness to
the characters or to distance the reader from the story to
observe the events as an outsider. Let’s consider the follow-
ing sequence of images as an example.
The illustrator of the sequence of events in images 19

and 1 presents bound images with thick white margins that
contain the characters and separate the world of the story
from the readers’ world. The point of view from which
readers can see the event is from their own as outsiders.
There is no eye contact between the characters and readers;
readers are mere observers of what happens. Besides, the
characters are at a considerable distance, which creates a
sense of an impersonal relationship between readers and
characters and makes it difficult for the readers to appre-
ciate the expressions and feelings of the animals. Both ani-
mals are perceived from an oblique angle, which presents
detachment and readers are not placed in any particular
power relation with the characters, neither of weakness
nor of power.
teseopress.com
A possible way of completing the sequence would be

to keep all these options unchanged in a subsequent image.
Readers could be kept as outsiders. They are not active par-
ticipants in the story but observe the events from outside
the characters’ world. Although it is more difficult for read-
ers to relate to any of the two characters in the story, maybe
that is not the particular effect the illustrator and writer of
the story want to achieve. As some authors have suggested,
readers are typically positioned as mere outside observers
of what goes on in picture story books that are aimed at
young children. This is done to position them farther away
from characters so that they can learn from the character’s
actions from a distance (Painter et al., 2013, p. 19).
But what would happen if the illustrator chose to
change some of these features in a subsequent image? Let’s
take a look at these two possibilities:
In image 18 we see that several options have changed.

The image is bound but breaching, as the character is
breaking out of the frame. Besides, this is a mediated image,
and we can infer that we are seeing the dog from the
cat’s perspective because of what happened in the previous
teseopress.com
images, which allows us to relate to the cat much more

easily than in images 1 and 19. There is eye contact with
the dog in this case and we are at an intimate distance from
it, allowing us to see and interpret its facial features much
better. This contact plus the fact that the dog is breaching
the frame of the image helps readers appreciate what the cat
would be feeling facing this big, menacing dog, which is not
constrained by the limits of the story world. This feeling is
emphasised by the maximum sense of involvement present
in this picture as the dog is facing us. The only feature that
has not changed is the fact that we are at eye level with the
dog. In this image, then, readers are placed as one of the
characters, led to experience this happening as if they were
part of the story world. They are encouraged to react and
be much more actively involved in the event.
Image 19, although similar to image 18 in many
respects, goes a step further in allowing readers to step into
the story world. In this case, the image is unbound, with
no frames or margins to separate the world of the story
from the readers’ world. This image is also mediated but
this time the point of view from which we see the event
is explicitly marked as the cat’s. The position of the paws
against the dog’s chest lets us know that we are looking at
the dog from the cat’s perspective. As in image 18, there
is eye contact and involvement with the dog, and we are
at an intimate distance from it. Perhaps in this last image,
however, we have a stronger impression that we are not
at eye level with the dog but that the dog has power over
us. All these options used in combination help give readers
a maximum sense of partaking or involvement in the sto-
ry. It is as if they were compelled to react more actively.
They are being invited to step into the story world, in this
case in the cat’s shoes, experience the event first-hand and
interact with the characters. In addition, readers’ empathy
or possible identification with the characters is strongly
evoked or motivated.
teseopress.com
3.4. Coda
It is clear that all of these visual choices discussed above

help shape the way viewers interact with the characters and
their world. They are generally combined to either create
a greater sense of belonging to the story world and of inti-
macy and identification with its characters, or to establish a
more detached relationship between readers and the story
world. These different choices affect the way readers expe-
rience the story, namely as insiders or outsiders.
As we have said before, some of these choices can
remain the same throughout the story or they may vary
along the narrative to involve readers gradually in the char-
acter’s world and help them feel closer to the characters and
their emotions at particularly tense or reflective moments
in the story.
teseopress.com
teseopress.com
Chapter 4: Creating Active
Responsive Understanding
In picture books, certain visual choices made by the authors

create in readers different types of emotion, call for judge-
ment and foster appreciation. That is, readers are expected
and encouraged to build a personal relationship with the
characters in a narrative or to feel moved by the events in
the story world. They are also expected to take a stance
with respect to characters’ behaviours and to eventually
recognise the worth of ideas presented in the story that are
central to the narrative. Regardless of what its nature is,
ultimately what is expected is an attitudinal response on
the part of the readers.
Narratives teach communal feelings as they lead read-
ers to take up different positions on certain literary ele-
ments. When readers are called upon to adopt a position
of empathy towards characters and their feelings, the read-
ers’ more primeval emotional reactions are at play. In turn,
when they adopt a position of discernment, their respons-
es take on a morally oriented quality, thus shifting from
the realm of emotions to the one of judgement, as readers
form their opinions about characters’ behaviour. Narra-
tives encourage children to explore their deeper feelings,
to eventually form opinions about what is good or bad,
right or wrong; narratives gradually –and both explicit and
implicitly– teach children to become aware of the world
around them and to place a value on different life experi-
ences. Narratives, therefore, play a vital role in children’s
literacy development. Not only does reading and discussing
stories help children learn about a language and improve
their linguistic skills, but it also helps them engage in more
complex emotional and mental processes.
teseopress.com 65
In other words, we believe authors make use of a set

of visual and verbal resources in order to promote in read-
ers an active responsive understanding of the narrative. We
draw upon Bakhtin’s (1953, Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 286)
concept of active responsive understanding, taken up by
Macken-Horarik (Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 286) to claim
that authors aim at positioning readers to adopt particular
attitudes towards their stories. That is to say, this under-
standing of emotion, judgement, and appreciation on the
part of the readers triggers a dynamic response in them,
allowing them to emotionally take part in the story.
It is then very interesting to analyse the resources
at play when an active response is prompted as a result
of the understanding of the emotional content of a
story. To explore feelings and attitudes in any mode
of texts, SFL offers a framework of meaning-making
choices called appraisal. Appraisal organises “the kinds
of attitudes that are negotiated in a text, the strength of
the feelings involved and the ways in which values are
sourced and readers aligned” (Martin & Rose, 2007, p.
25). Appraisal is basically a framework of interpersonal
meanings; because of that, the types of attitudes that can
be identified have to do with evaluating people’s feelings
and behaviour, and with evaluating things. Within the
framework of appraisal, different areas organise mean-
ings related to various targets of evaluation. AFFECT
explores how people express their feelings. JUDGEMENT
is related to how people judge others’ behaviour per-
sonally (by admiring or criticising them) and morally
(by praising or condemning them). APPRECIATION is con-
cerned with how people express their attitudes about
things and ideas.
With respect to the strength of the feelings involved,
GRADUATION becomes crucial in scaling up and down the
intensity of emotions. As regards the ways in which values
are sourced and readers aligned, the system of ENGAGE-
MENT, which will not be included in this analysis as it is not
teseopress.com
typical of narratives, comes into play to adopt a position

with respect to propositions.
In this chapter we group certain visual resources that
serve a key interpersonal purpose: triggering active respon-
sive understanding in readers. We explore how meanings
of emotion, judgement and appreciation are expressed by
authors through both visual and verbal choices in picture
books to elicit attitudinal responses from readers.
Narratives give readers the opportunity to go through
a complex and gradual process of understanding of char-
acters and of the world they live in. This process entails
different moments in the reading comprehension of picture
books, which allows readers to move from more primeval,
empathetic emotional reactions to moral evaluations of
human behaviour, to more insightful, critical responses to
the value of things and phenomena connected to the themes
underlying the narrative.
Active responsive understanding can be represented as
a continuum, in which emotion, judgement and apprecia-
tion are consecutive stages, from the more personal, to the
more communal to the more cultural values.
Figur
Figuree 2 – Active Responsive Understanding Continuum.
Emotion is always related to personal feelings, either

positive or negative. Judgement involves institutionalised
feelings in terms of what behaviours are morally accepted
or not. Similarly, appreciation has to do with the value of
things and ideas –including our attitudes about ideas in
films, books, paintings, plays, performances of any kind;
and feelings about nature: panoramas, sunrises and sun-
sets, constellations, shooting stars. As with emotion and
teseopress.com
judgement, things can be appreciated positively or nega-

tively (Martin & Rose, 2007, p. 37; Martin & White, 2005,
p. 43). Therefore, emotion sits at the more personal end
of the continuum, judgement is placed in the more com-
munal area, and only after we have considered these two
aspects of attitude can we move into the realm of appreci-
ation, which is placed at the more culturally oriented end
of the continuum.
4.1. Creating emotion
To create emotion, authors invite their audience to take up

a position of empathy towards the characters’ feelings. This
implies emotional solidarity with characters or, at least,
understanding of their motives for feeling the way they do.
To achieve this, authors resort to the readers’ capacity to
‘feel with’ a character (Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 287).
But what kinds of emotions can be afforded?
When analysing texts from an SFL perspective, emo-
tions are organised into four different clines presented as
a system called AFFECT, as illustrated in the tables below.
These tables, a summary of those proposed by Martin &
White (Martin & White, 2005, p. 48-56), show different
types of emotion. There are stronger and more intense
emotions that naturally stand out –this is what the authors
call surges of behaviour. Other emotions are less powerful
and more constant in characters’ personalities –these are
labelled dispositions. These concepts can serve as the starting
point for analysing emotion in picture books, as these clines
can be recontextualised for the analysis of images. When
analysing emotion in picture books, it becomes easier to
observe behaviours rather than dispositions. To analyse dis-
positions more thoroughly, the words and the overall con-
text of the narrative should be especially taken into account.
teseopress.com
DIS/INCLINATION Surge (of behaviour) Disposition

Fear tremble, shudder… fearful, terrorised…
Desire suggest, request… miss, long for…
UN/HAPPINESS Surge (of behaviour) Disposition

Unhappiness
Misery (mood: ‘in me’) whimper, cry… sad, miserable…
Antipathy (directed feeling: abuse, revile… hate, abhor…
‘at you’)
Happiness
Cheer chuckle, laugh… cheerful, jubilant…
Affection hug, embrace… love, adore…
IN/SECURITY Surge (of behaviour) Disposition

Insecurity
Disquiet restless, twitching… uneasy, anxious…
Surprise cry out, faint… startled, staggered…
Security
Confidence assert, proclaim… confident, assured…
Trust commit, entrust… comfortable with, trusting…
DIS/SATISFACTION Surge (of behaviour) Disposition

Dissatisfaction
Ennui fidget, yawn… flat, stale…
Displeasure caution, scold… cross, bored of…
Satisfaction
Interest attentive, busy… involved, absorbed…
Pleasure complement, reward… satisfied, impressed…
Table 3 – affect (Adapted from Martin & White, 2005, p. 48-56).
Characters’ emotions in images are afforded by overt

reactions –such as laughing or crying–, face gestures, and
body posture. Other, more subtle resources that come into
play are the style of character drawing, DEPICTION STYLE,
and the illustrators’ colour choices, AMBIENCE.
First, DEPICTION STYLE (Painter et al., 2013, p. 30),
the system of character drawing, shows different degrees
of detail and realism of the illustration, ranging from a
teseopress.com
minimalist style to a naturalistic style, which were dis-

cussed in general terms in chapter 2 above.
When emotion is concerned, the minimalist style,
illustrated in image 3, is more iconic and stylised, focus-
ing mainly on feelings of un/happiness. This style seems to
entail a rather detached attitude from the audience towards
the characters, in that it does not truly depict a recognisable
individual but a universal, archetypal character, establishing
some kind of emotional distance between them.
The more detailed generic style, exemplified by image
4, allows for a greater emotional repertoire in charac-
ters, including actions that externalise emotions associated
with watching, doing and concentrating. The generic style
enables the audience to see themselves in the protagonist’s
role, taking up a somewhat empathetic stance.
In contrast with the highly schematic minimalist style,
which conveys characters’ emotions more explicitly, the
naturalistic style, illustrated in image 5, conveys more
implicit, indefinable, subtly differentiated emotions. This
style, then, calls for a deeper interpretation of facial fea-
tures, such as eye detail, head angle and facial propor-
tions, together with bodily postures, stances and gestures,
so that readers can ‘feel with’ the characters. The greater
amount of detail makes meanings more intricate, rendering
their harder interpretation more rewarding for the readers.
Thus, the naturalistic style leads to a stronger emotional
response in relation to themes, by sympathetically engaging
with the characters as individuals: the character is no longer
an archetype, but a distinct person (Welch, 2005 in Painter
et al., 2013, p. 31).
In terms of the position of emotional solidarity that
authors expect the audience to take up, the style of charac-
ter drawing calls for different kinds of alignment. In other
words, DEPICTION STYLE enables and encourages readers to
‘feel with’ the characters to varying degrees.
Second, AMBIENCE (Painter et al., 2013, p. 35), the sys-
tem of choices in colour, allows for an immediate con-
teseopress.com
nection between readers and characters. Although colour

obviously represents the appearance of things in the
world –events and circumstances in the case of narratives
(ideational meanings)–, it also has an emotional, interper-
sonal impact on the audience. This system includes choices
of outline drawing and choices of colour and texture, both
for the design of individual characters and the atmosphere
of the story.
There might be images with no colour but texture, in
which the use of light levels creates different effects. For
example, more lighting effects create more dramatic images
and less lighting effects, flatter images.
When the choice involves colour, three sub-systems
have been further developed to capture more delicate
choices. These sub-systems have to do with (i) how satu-
rated colours are, (ii) how warm or cool they are, and (iii)
how familiar or unfamiliar they are in reality and with-
in a culture, and how comfortable or alienated they make
readers feel. The options within these sub-systems work
simultaneously to display different feelings that readers can
empathise with. Authors express characters’ feelings not by
choosing ‘starkly opposed choices’ but alternatives within
clines (Painter et al., 2013, p. 36).
For instance, one cline ranges from vibrant, fully
saturated images to muted images with low saturation.
When colours are more vibrant, images generate a sense
of excitement and vitality; when there is lower satura-
tion, images create a gentler and more restrained feeling.
This last option, in turn, can be made up of lighter shades
(+white) or darker shades (+black). Lighter shades are relat-
ed to feelings of calmness and quietness, while darker ones
tend to express gloomier feelings such as loneliness, sad-
ness and emptiness.
As we mentioned before, in some cases, this range
between vibrant and muted images fits the plot of the sto-
ry together with the characters’ feelings. In image 20, to
characterise the couple’s close and loving relationship and
teseopress.com
render feelings of excitement and vitality, the colours are

vibrant, warm and familiar. The emotions triggered by
those colours become even more intense when contrasted
with what can be seen through the window: a background
of muted, cool and removed colours that suggest loneli-
ness, detachment and even aloofness. Colour choices are at
the service of both the plot and the emotions experienced
by the characters.
Apart from interpersonal systems, there exist resources

that make textual meanings that also add to the identifica-
tion and understanding of emotion. The system of FOCUS
(Painter et al., 2013, p. 109) is one of these resources. This
system is about the choices that illustrators can make when
arranging the composition of pages in picture books. In
other words, FOCUS considers where an element is placed
within the composition of the page. If an element is made
centrifocal, that is, “placed in or balanced around a centre”
(Painter et al., 2013, p. 111), the degree to which an element
draws the readers’ attention is maximised.
For instance, in image 20 above, the couple is balanced
around the centre and linked through physical and eye con-
tact to form a single unit of visual information. Analysing
teseopress.com
other resources in the images helps us infer what kind of

shared emotion this is.
4.1.1. In short: Creating emotion

We have shown how resources coming from the interper-
sonal systems of DEPICTION STYLE and AMBIENCE, together
with the textual system of FOCUS, work to create emotion
in picture books. The choices regarding style of character
drawing, colour and arrangement of elements in the image
are key to triggering in readers an active responsive under-
standing of the feelings expressed by characters and the
feelings suggested by the atmosphere of the story. Famil-
iarity with these choices makes it possible for readers to
explore feelings in a picture book more deeply and to inter-
act with these aspects of the story more consciously, which
in turn improves bimodal literacy and boosts the potential
for personal production.
4.2. Calling for judgement
Authors also make use of certain resources so that readers

adopt different attitudes towards characters and the way
they behave. Judgement, as emotion, can be positive or
negative. Positive judgement implies admiring or praising
behaviour, while negative judgement entails criticising or
condemning it. Judgements on people’s behaviour can be
related to how special they are, how capable they are, how
resolute they are, how truthful they are and how far beyond
reproach they are (Martin & White, 2005, p. 52).
Certain words generally express these different areas
of judgement, as illustrated in the tables below, adapted
from Martin & White (2005, p. 53).
teseopress.com
SOCIAL ESTEEM Positive (admire) Negative (criticize)

Normality ‘how special?’ lucky, normal, stable, unlucky, odd, dated,
fashionable, celebrated… obscure…
Capacity powerful, fit, mature, witty, mild, sick, childish, dreary,
‘how capable?’ clever, balanced, sensible, thick, neurotic, foolish,
educated, competent, ignorant, incompetent,
successful… unaccomplished…
Tenacity brave, patient, thorough, gutless, rash, reckless,
‘how dependable?’ resolute, reliable, loyal, despondent, undependable,
flexible… unfaithful, stubborn…
SOCIAL SANCTION Positive (praise) Negative (condemn)

Veracity truthful, frank, discrete… deceitful, manipulative,
‘how honest?’ blunt…
Propriety moral, fair, sensitive, humble, evil, corrupt, cruel, arrogant,
‘how far beyond reproach?’ polite, generous… rude, greedy…
Table 4 – judgement (Adapted from Martin & White, 2005, p. 53).
In picture books, it is the combination of words and

images that makes judgement more evident. To be able to
fully interpret the meanings conveyed by images, the role of
many visual resources should be borne in mind. Identifying
and following characters throughout the narrative is the
first step in achieving this. Very often the actions going on
in the narrative, together with the circumstances that con-
textualise them, offer readers a chance to judge characters’
behaviour. Moreover, relying on acquired knowledge of the
world helps interpret human conduct.
Recognising and tracking characters throughout the
story in order to judge their actions indicates a focus on
experiential (representational) meanings which are, in turn,
working towards the higher interpersonal meaning of cre-
ating active responsive understanding in readers. Judging
characters’ behaviour implies analysing a character at cer-
tain moments of the narrative, when particular and mean-
ingful behaviours are displayed.
As sequences of images depict different stages of an
action, characters can be tracked both verbally and visual-
ly through reference. While verbally the use of pronouns
teseopress.com
constructs the system of REFERENCE (Halliday & Hasan,

1976, p. 31) or IDENTIFICATION (Martin, 1992, p. 93), visu-
ally, this system is built through the way characters –or
their distinctive features– are manifested and repeated in
subsequent images signifying a single constant identity. In
images, these meanings are captured by the systems of
CHARACTER MANIFESTATION and CHARACTER APPEARANCE
proposed by Painter et al. (2013, p. 58). Characters may
reappear in full or by showing only a salient feature of
their bodies, a shadow or silhouette. Thus, though readers
generally judge characters’ behaviour in a single image, they
should bear in mind all the knowledge about characters
expressed as the sequence of events unfolds.
As stated above, we judge behaviour by observing what
characters do as the narrative moves forward (see also chap-
ter 2 above). In verbal texts, characters’ actions are commu-
nicated in a more straightforward way by verbs (processes)
themselves. When analysing visual narratives, however, the
depiction of actions is not as transparent. It is the use of
vectors and oblique lines that visually implies the presence
of a narrative process. Narrative processes can be classified
into action processes (Max chasing his dog in Where the
Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak [1963], for example,
with his limbs functioning as vectors to signal movement),
verbal processes (Max ordering the monsters to be still)
and mental processes (Max longing to be with someone
who loves him best). If the process has an effect on another
character or object, the positive or negative nature of that
effect generally helps readers judge the action itself as good
or bad, right or wrong.
More narrative, dynamic images may contain sec-
ondary participants that function as circumstances: they
could be left out without affecting the basic message of the
story. However, circumstances are important inasmuch as
they add information to what is going on (see also chapter 2
above). For instance, in image 3, the watering can the bunny
uses in her giant carrot garden is not there just to build the
teseopress.com
material world the bunny lives in, but rather to help better
understand the events in the story, as caring for her orchard
is important to the bunny.
When dealing with judgement, circumstances of means
become particularly revealing. This type of circumstance is
represented by the tools used in action processes, and these
processes are the ones that make character behaviour visu-
ally accessible to readers. In image 6, the circumstance of
means, namely, the paintbrush, adds symbolic value, height-
ening the meanings expressed by the processes and helping
readers critically judge the boy’s behaviour, as it points to
the type of reprehensible actions he usually engages in.
Acquired knowledge of the world allows readers to
assign these circumstances of means an important role
when it comes to judging characters’ behaviour. We can-
not understand the information our eyes provide “until we
interpret [it] in the light of previous experience (…) not
just personal associations but also cultural assumptions”
(Nodelman, 1988, p. 8-9).
Keeping in mind that one event may relate to another
in successive images both verbally and visually, comparison
and contrast are some of the strategies deployed to make
sense of the relations between events. The analysis of these
relations may reveal patterns in the storyline. These pat-
terns are regular arrangements of meanings that can help
judge characters’ behaviour. Sometimes they confirm one
another; others, they oppose one another, and yet some oth-
ers, they filter experience through a character’s conscious-
ness (Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 293-294).
Images 23, 7 and 8 illustrate this point. In a story about
a man who walks around the museum and enjoys art on
his own, the first two images show positive dispositions
that initially invite readers to align with the quiet joy of
contemplating works of art. The third image breaks the
sequence and may lead readers to judge the tourists’ actions
in opposition to the man’s: his negative emotional reaction
reflects his own negative judgement of their taking over the
teseopress.com
museum and thus invites us to criticise them as ignorant

and condemn them as greedy.
The system of FOCUS, which corresponds to textual

meanings, offers other resources that can help us judge
characters’ behaviour. As stated above, this system is about
the arrangement of elements on the page. If the resources
that call for judgement are placed in a centrifocal way on
the page, it is easier for readers to recognise the behaviour
of the character and judge it. This happens because such an
teseopress.com
arrangement of elements allows “us to attend exclusively to

the single depicted participant or group without any poten-
tial distraction” (Painter et al., 2013, p. 113).
4.2.1. In short: Calling for judgement

We have shown how resources coming from the experien-
tial and textual metafunctions work to trigger judgement
from readers. Some of these resources belong to the systems
of character MANIFESTATION and APPEARANCE. Looking at
processes and vector arrangement becomes useful as well.
There is no visual system for kinds of circumstances, yet we
can look at images in terms of secondary participants and
other elements accompanying the action carried out by the
main characters. The patterns processes and circumstances
create are crucial to either praising or condemning charac-
ters’ behaviour and to actively responding to them. More-
over, the arrangement of elements on the page should also
inform our analysis and judgement of characters’ behav-
iour. Thus, readers are now able to move from the more
personal realm of feelings to the more institutionalised area
of judgement, which relies on moral principles about what
is socially accepted or not.
4.3. Fostering appreciation
As we move from the area of more straightforward emo-

tions into the realm of complex abstract assessment of enti-
ties and themes in a story, it becomes more difficult to
pinpoint all the resources used to provoke the desired effect
on the audience. The resources to prompt emotion and call
for judgement are more easily available to readers because
feelings and behaviour have observable manifestations, and,
on the other hand, the expression of feelings and judge-
ments is more closely connected to everyday life.
teseopress.com
To take matters one step further, the patterns indi-

vidual emotions and judgements create can be identi-
fied. These patterns may reveal different states of affairs
and propositions about feelings and behaviours. Howev-
er, appreciation implies more abstract reasoning, thorough
knowledge of the world and broad cultural background.
Appreciation implies what Hasan (Hasan, 1996a, p. 54)
calls “higher levels of articulation,” in other words, “deep-
er hypotheses about the conditions of human existence,”
which constitute the themes in a narrative.
Together with those for creating emotion and judging
behaviour, there are resources that authors make use of to
foster readers’ appreciation of concrete or abstract entities.
Readers can appreciate things or ideas in terms of reaction:
the impact things have on us (I found the story fascinating.
ascinating.)
and the quality of these things (The idea was gr
grotesque.
otesque.). They
can also appreciate composition: the balance (The painting
was pr
proportioned.
oportioned.) and complexity of things (The plot was too
simplistic.
simplistic.). Lastly, readers can value the worth of things (It
was an ex
exceptional
ceptional film!) (Martin & White, 2005, p. 56). This
classification of verbal resources can be recontextualised
for the analysis of images.
Appreciation implies a higher level of interpretation
than that necessary when we look at emotion and judge-
ment. Thus, we typically evaluate ideas –entities that are
more abstract– once we have considered feelings and
behaviours in the narrative. As appreciation is a step for-
ward in the analysis of narratives, all the visual and verbal
resources authors make use of for creating emotion and
calling for judgement come into play when fostering appre-
ciation. As with emotion and judgement, appreciation can
be positive or negative.
In verbal narratives, mental processes (verbs), which
mainly encode meanings of perceiving and knowing
(Eggins, 2004, p. 225) help communicate the appreciation
expressed by adjectives, as these verbs show how we per-
ceive and how we know things. In picture books, however,
teseopress.com
it is difficult to identify these types of processes, since they

correlate to inner activity that is hard to illustrate. Thought
bubbles obviously represent characters’ projected thoughts
and ideas about the world. For instance, in image 22, the
fuzzy thought bubble (circular in shape but with spikes)
enhances the worth the character assigns to his idea: it is
a super idea. Thus, projected thoughts, which can be given
even more strength with certain shapes or colours, can help
readers to value the quality, complexity and worth of things.
However, to transmit more complex processes that foster
appreciation, the projection may illustrate a complete event
or authors may resort to a strategic combination of text and
image, in which gestures, postures and facial expressions
are quite revealing.
Key ideas or important entities can be made salient

to make it easier for readers to appreciate them. The sys-
tems of FRAMING and FOCUS are useful when detecting
such salient elements. As discussed in chapter 3, the sys-
tem of FRAMING considers whether the image is framed or
not, and, if framed, how framing is realised (Painter et al.,
2013, p. 103). Elements which break through the edges of
an image, for instance, are clearly prominent. In image 23
teseopress.com
below, the spoon stirs the potion in the cauldron. The spoon
breaches through the margin of the image, which makes it
even more outstanding. As we said before, salience allows
us to interpret the spoon as a symbolic attribute standing
for a witch’s magic and power.
Besides, a very well-defined frame or, paradoxically,

the absence of a depicted context within the frame in
an image can also make elements salient. The purpose of
choosing such resources is to highlight the importance of
the element in the composition. This is the case of the
spoon in image 24 below. This “magical spoon” stands alone
against a white background with no frame at all, which
makes it unequivocally salient.
teseopress.com
In addition, authors resort to situations in their illus-

trations that have already been assigned cultural values in a
given society, such as freedom, peace, love, repression, war
and hatred, among others.
Thus, authors rely on the community of values readers
have access to through their knowledge of the world.
For instance, in image 25 below, the polar bears in their
natural habitat, contemplating the aurora borealis high-
lights the intrinsic connections within the natural world.
Today, seeing a group of polar bears happily roaming
through the snow immediately triggers the certainty that
environmental concerns make that less of a reality and
more of a dream every day. Anyone wondering in the Arctic
would be hard pressed to find care-free bears enjoying the
Northern lights, and that is exactly what makes this image
powerful: the bears can appreciate the beauty of nature and
feel closely connected to their surroundings and looking at
them do so can help readers appreciate the importance of
caring for the environment.
Clearly, then, our interpretation of values in images is

enriched and sometimes determined by our shared knowl-
edge of the world, since even though “a society, its cultures
teseopress.com
and the representation of their meanings, form a tightly

integrated whole […], there are some highly general semi-
otic principles, which are common to all human communi-
cation” (Kress, 2010, p. 8). As with emotion and judgement,
patterns of meaning also play a pivotal role in the analysis
of appreciation. Patterns of repetition, contrast and trans-
formation are mainly used as a resource to build the themes
of the story (Macken-Horarik, 2003, p. 300).
As we said before, appreciation is the final stage in the
process of creating active responsive understanding, which
implies integrating the resources that express emotion and
judgement in the process as well. For example, colour
choice, which is generally associated with the expression of
feelings, can also help us reinforce a theme, as in image 25
above, since in this case the lively colours outside the cage
contrast with the cold palette of the cell.
4.3.1. In short: Fostering appreciation

After considering the choices regarding emotion and judge-
ment, experiential and textual resources and their pattern-
ing can foster appreciation in readers. It is important to
trace the typical stages readers go through as they move
from responding to feelings, to judging behaviour, to valu-
ing ideas because this process is crucial for facilitating lit-
eracy.
The use of thought bubbles to reinforce what char-
acters think about the world, together with the way the
images are framed and the elements within them grouped
compositionally, help readers better understand and value
the themes explored in the story. Analysing visual resources
alone, however, is not enough to assess the underlying
themes in a narrative –it is also knowledge of the world
that guides and adds to the understanding of abstract ideas
in a story.
teseopress.com
4.4. A note on GRADUATION
Even though we will not explore the applications of the

system of GRADUATION (Martin & White, 2005, p. 135) for
the analysis of images in detail, we will introduce a few key
concepts that can be extremely useful to understand and
exploit the enhancement of meanings in images. GRADUA-
TION is a system in appraisal that can be used to scale up or
scale down attitudinal meanings in language, according to
intensity or amount (how much or how many of something
there is) or to prototypicality and preciseness of category
boundaries (how specific or how clear something is).
In images, GRADUATION can be deployed to heighten
the attitudinal impact of visual elements, so that the reader
responds accordingly. The first scale, then, is the most prac-
tical for images, since it either amplifies or diminishes the
impact of a depicted element by altering its size or extent
(making it bigger or smaller in relation to other elements
in the image or the space the element occupies within the
frames of the image), multiplying or diminishing its num-
ber (more or fewer), or varying the intensity of its texture
(making it brighter or duller).
For example, in image 3, the exaggerated size of the
carrot helps us recognise and evaluate its importance for
the bunny. Image 12 illustrates an old couple dancing at
night, but the intensity of the colours has been dulled for
this activity to be judged as peaceful and calm. In image 26,
in turn, instead of displaying the character next to a single
tree, there is a dense jungle enveloping him, which not only
increases the importance of the setting for the story but also
hints at the direction of the plot henceforth, considering
the darkness of the jungle and the creatures that might be
lurking within its vastness.
As can be seen from this brief explanation, Painter et
al.’s words ring true: “quantification choices can play an
important role in ensuring an attitudinal response in the
teseopress.com
reader, often working together with other interpersonal

choices” (2013, p. 45).
4.5. Coda
In this chapter, we analysed how meanings of emotion,

judgement and appreciation are expressed through visual
and verbal choices in picture books to trigger certain
responses in readers. This response moves gradually
from more primeval emotional reactions, to morally-
defined judgements, to culturally-determined appreciations
of abstract themes.
As stated above, active responsive understanding can
be thought of as a continuum, going from more personal
responses to feelings, to more institutionalised judgements
of behaviour, to deeper appreciation of abstract themes in
the narrative. It is important to be aware of these stages,
since the continuum reflects the process of reading com-
prehension and is therefore extremely useful for promot-
ing children’s literacy. Exploring visual semiosis in the
narrative structure of picture books, then, has important
teseopress.com
implications in the EFL classroom. Not only does this mean

providing tools to understanding interpersonal meanings
in picture books, but it also opens the possibility for stu-
dents to create patterns of verbal and visual resources in
similar contexts.
4.6. Resources in action
To further illustrate the resources explored in this chapter,

we will include a brief analysis of the picture story book
Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa, by Jeanette
Winter (2008). This is the story of a girl called Wangari,
who lives in Kenya surrounded by the beauty of nature.
She helps harvest the produce of the rich soil of Africa and
wins a scholarship to study in America. When she returns
six years later, she witnesses a terrible change in her native
country: the land is barren where crops once grew; “thou-
sands of trees have been cut down to make room for build-
ings, but no one planted new trees to take their place” (p.
7). Heart-broken yet determined, Wangari starts planting
seedlings to make a tree nursery. With the help of the village
women, Wangari plants the “seeds of hope” (p. 10). Gov-
ernment men laugh at their efforts; however, they endure
and eventually their ideals spread: other women start plant-
ing trees throughout Kenya. “But the cutting continues” (p.
17). When Wangari tries to protect the trees by preventing
the government men from chopping them, she is put in
jail, accused of being a troublemaker. Still, her spirit does
not break –and outside, her principles live on. Millions of
women carry on with Wangari’s task until green returns to
Kenya. “The whole world hears about Wangari’s trees and
of her army of women who planted them” (p. 26).
The first thing to note in this powerful picture book
is the change of the colours in the margins that help divide
the story in stages. Gentle gold frames Wangari’s childhood,
teseopress.com
which is the colour of the birds, the thatched rooftops of

African houses and the sun. Desolate dusty rose colours
her return, mirroring the barren land, the sky without trees
she finds back home. Hopeful light green accompanies the
beginning of the planting, which makes the women and
their trees look “like a green belt stretching over the land”
(p. 12). The sorrowful blue-grey that matches the axes and
buildings comes as the cutting continues and Wangari is put
in jail. Finally, reassuring aqua takes over the background as
Kenya gradually returns to green, soils are no longer barren
and the skies clear, the women walk tall, and, after their
own and their trees’ growth, normalcy is restored.
Another important consideration is that the illustra-
tions in this picture book adopt the generic style of char-
acter drawing (DEPICTION STYLE). Because of that, there is a
wide emotional repertoire to analyse that includes ‘behav-
ioural’ emotions associated with watching, doing and con-
centrating. This style also facilitates empathy, as it allows
readers to place themselves in the characters’ shoes.
This picture book is extremely rich in terms of the
expression of emotion, judgement and appreciation. We
will explore some instances of these expressions in particu-
lar moments of the story.
On the first page, we observe the presentation of the
main character, Wangari, within a clear setting in place.
Wangari stands in the middle of the image (FOCUS) looking
at us (FOCALISATION), the generic style of character draw-
ing is perfect to transmit a wide array of emotions in a
simple, easy-to-align-to way (DEPICTION STYLE). When we
see Wangari in this setting, smiling placidly among the
pastel colours (AMBIENCE), we feel as comfortable and as
deeply connected with nature as she does, which is, in turn,
reflected in the choice of words: “Wangari lives under an
umbrella of green trees in the shadow of Mount Kenya
in Africa” (p. 1).
The second page presents a good example of CHAR-
ACTER MANIFESTATION, whereby we recognise Wangari by
teseopress.com
the dress she wears. Unlike the previous image, the one on
this page is dynamic and shows characters in action, more
specifically, working. This brings to mind adjectives we can
attribute to their particular behaviour: hardworking, vigor-
ous, productive, competent, tireless, resolute –all of which
signal that, based on their actions, we can judge the charac-
ters in terms of social esteem and thus praise their capacity
and tenacity. If we analyse Wangari’s facial features (DEPIC-
TION STYLE), we can recognise pride and admiration for her
mother, a role model whose steps she is literally following.
This suggests that we will encounter other situations that
will be judged similarly later on, as Wangari seems likely to
emulate her mother. At the same time, the composition of
the image suggests interconnectivity of nature, which, as in
the previous image, reflects Wangari’s happiness.
The fourth page presents a conceptual image that
acts as a hinge with the next section. We can judge Wan-
gari’s behaviour (travelling and studying) as adventurous,
in terms of her tenacity and capacity. Furthermore, there
is a clear colour contrast (AMBIENCE) between the brown
and green of the country she leaves behind, full of trees
and lively animals, and the grey of the one where she goes,
crammed with buildings. In a way, this juxtaposition fore-
shadows the plights Wangari will face later in the story.
With the fifth page comes the first colour change in
the margins (AMBIENCE). There is also a marked contrast
between the green of Wangari’s clothes, which somehow
takes us back to the old green Kenya, and the dismal dusty
rose setting (AMBIENCE). Wangari’s arms serve as vectors
to highlight her emotions when confronted with this over-
whelming reality: astonishment, sadness and confusion.
While the image on page seven focuses on Wangari’s
thoughts and the one on page eight on her own actions,
the one on page nine broadens the scope. Compositionally,
more space is taken up by the trees than by Wangari herself
(GRADUATION), which symbolises that her endeavour, as it
spreads, becomes bigger than herself. On the tenth page
teseopress.com
this is elaborated on. We see Wangari passing on her ideals

and commitment to other women. Eye contact between the
characters points at their shared commitment and shared
emotions. Judgement can also be analysed here because
action is central to the image. Wangari’s behaviour is such
that we can judge it from the point of view of propriety,
thereby moving from social esteem to social sanction.
The images on the eleventh and twelfth pages intro-
duce another change in margin colour (AMBIENCE), which
coincides with a movement in the plot. At the same time,
the great number of women becomes highly significant
(GRADUATION): they are so many that emotion seems more
intense, and it is easier to identify the behaviour to be
judged.
In the images on pages fifteen and sixteen, GRADUA-
TION accompanies the plot. We see other cities and oth-
er villages following Wangari’s example. While the type of
buildings marks these places as distinct, the shared action
of planting creates unity. As readers, we are invited to
judge the planting positively and to appreciate the theme of
reconnecting with nature and rebuilding the environment.
The seventeenth page brings about another change in
margin colour (AMBIENCE) as the plot approaches the main
conflict and the story is reaching its climax. GRADUATION
plays an important role here to increase the impact of the
cut-down trees. Apart from the action itself, which is in the
centre (FOCUS) and invites negative judgement, the axe as a
circumstance of means contributes to the readers’ condem-
nation of the behaviour of the government men as insensi-
tive, cruel and greedy.
On the twentieth page, the image shows a tiny window
through which nature can be seen in the distance as the
walls of the jail take over the illustration. The prison walls
are the same shade as the margins (AMBIENCE), placing
Wangari right in the middle of the odds that are against
her. Even so, there are cracks on the wall that stand for
the metaphoric crack in the society, where there is no place
teseopress.com
for Wangari’s green dream. We cannot see Wangari’s face,

but we can notice she is bleeding and seems to be hiding
her emotions while keeping her focus on the outside. Con-
vinced of the righteousness of her actions, Wangari thinks
that “right is right, even if you’re alone” (p. 20). This quot-
ed thought works in tandem with the image, so that our
instincts to judge Wangari’s behaviour as laudable increase.
Page twenty-six presents an image leaning towards the
moral of the story. We do not see action here, but rather
the representation of a value for us to appreciate. Wangari
teaches us that sacrifice yields, pays, rewards. The number
of trees show her wide-reaching impact while Wangari’s
size highlights the importance of her commitment (GRAD-
UATION). At the same time, the focus on her overlaying
the whole world, gives her valuable behaviour a tinge of
universality.
The images on pages twenty-seven and twenty-eight
constitute a spread and magnify the importance of nature
itself rather than the people involved. The emphasis on
nature is evident in the extensive use of green (GRADUA-
TION & AMBIENCE) and in the use of the sapling as a sym-
bol of hope for the future of Africa. In the text, this is
mirrored by the allusions to the green of trees bringing a
new lease of life.
The illustrations are so rich that we could certainly
go even deeper into the analysis of the images in Wan-
gari’s Trees of Peace. The exploration here has been kept
to the resources pertaining to this chapter in particular,
plus a few exceptions where a choice belonging to a sys-
tem discussed elsewhere (FOCALISATION, chapter 3) became
especially meaningful. Thus, even though many meaning-
ful choices related to other macro meanings have not been
delved into, we can confidently say that Winter’s picture
story book is a fantastic publication to exemplify active
responsive understanding.
teseopress.com
Chapter 5: Stages and Resources
Thus far, in chapters 2, 3 and 4, we have explored groups of

visual resources that in combination fulfil certain functions
in the narrative. We have looked at resources that can be
used to shape the story world, to invite readers into the
story, and to create emotion, call for judgment and foster
appreciation.
In this chapter, we go over the generic structure of
narratives and connect the resources seen so far to each of
the stages that make up the narrative. In other words, we
look at the resources more typically used at each stage of the
genre. For every stage of the narrative (Placement, Initiating
Event, Sequent events, Final event, Finale and Moral) we
offer an overview of how the verbal and visual modalities
combine to transmit the meanings made in each stage, and
then, we delve into the visual resources in more detail.
5.1. Placement
The first stage in narrative texts is Placement. In it the

author introduces the setting and the characters in the sto-
ry. Sometimes this stage is discretely realised, i.e., it occurs
as a separate stage before the action starts. Otherwise, the
information that would be included in this stage is pre-
sented together with the first event of the story. When this
happens, readers find out about the setting and characters
gradually as they start reading. Both possibilities are quite
frequent in picture story books.
Language and images combine to construe the Place-
ment: the time and place in which the story happens, char-
acters with their traits and habits, and a stable situation are
teseopress.com 91
all depicted through images as well as language. So how

exactly does each of these modalities contribute to the con-
struction of the Placement?
5.1.1. Meanings expressed through language

and images in Placement
5.1.1.1. Setting
In general, the location in time and place is mentioned or
identified in the text in nonspecific terms. Circumstances of
temporal and spatial location –underlined in the following
examples– are used.
• “The rabbits came many grandparents ago.” (Tan, 1998)
• “This all happened a few summers ago, one rather
ordinary day by the beach. Not much was going on.”
(Tan, 2000)
• “Oliver had just moved to the big city.” (Freedman &
Hindley, 2015)
• “Once upon a time, but not very long ago, deep in the
Australian bush lived two possums. Their names were
Hush and Grandma Poss.” (Fox & Vivas, 1991)
The location is rarely described in the text, and when it

is, it is done in very general terms. For instance:
• “Sunny lives in the Kalahari Desert. It is VERY dry and
VERY hot.” (Gravett, 2007)
• “Mr. Piggott lived (…) in a nice house with a nice gar-
den, and a nice car in the nice garage.” (Browne, 1986)
In the images, however, the background typically pro-

vides more detailed information as to where the story is set
in place and occasionally in time. The reader can see what
exactly the context looks like, its elements and precise fea-
tures. The characters are not just ‘in a forest,’ for instance,
but we can see exactly what the forest is like, what types
teseopress.com
of trees or animals live there, how dense it is, how dark

it is. The time of the day is also depicted because of the
lighting, unless the action is indoors without windows in
sight, in which case clocks can represent the time. Clues as
to which season the story takes place in can also be seen
in nature or clothing.
In image 26 above, for example, we know the story will
take place in a dense jungle, where temperatures are high
enough for a loincloth to be suitable garment and plants are
so luscious that they might hide actions from the readers’
–and even the characters’– view.
5.1.1.2. Characters
Character attributes and habits are introduced in this stage
as well. These include their physical appearance, personal-
ity traits, likes and dislikes, possessions and routines; what
they normally are like and what they normally do. Their
relationships can also be reflected if they are central to the
story. These features can be referred to in the language and
depicted in the images.
Similar to what happens with the depiction of setting,
when it comes to representing characters’ physical appear-
ance, there is much more information offered visually than
verbally. In fact, in most picture books, through the text the
reader finds out whether the protagonist is an animal or
a person and which kind (possum, elephant, girl, boy). For
example: “Once there was a boy and one day he found a
penguin at his door” (Jeffers, 2005). However, in the image,
the reader can see exactly what the characters look like.
Only in stories in which the characters’ conflict is relat-
ed to a physical trait do readers get a written description
of the characters’ appearance. For instance, in Giraffes Can’t
Dance (Andreae & Parker-Rees, 2001), the narrator says:
“Gerald was a tall giraffe whose neck was long and slim.
But his knees were awfully crooked and his legs were rather
thin.” In this case, Gerald’s physical traits, which are central
teseopress.com
to the development of the plot, are not only shown in the

image but reinforced by the words that accompany it, and
in this way, they are brought to the reader’s attention.
As regards characters’ personality traits, these can be
more easily –and perhaps more transparently– expressed
through language. It is quite difficult to explicitly represent
personality traits in images. So, for example, in The Tin-Pot
Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman by Raymond Briggs
(1984), the General is depicted in a clearly negative way, but
it is not until we read the words that we get to know he
is not precisely, or not just, cruel or violent –he is described
as wicked in the text.
Nevertheless, readers are very rarely told explicitly
what characters are like. More often than not, they have
to work out characters’ personality traits by considering
what their habits and possessions are, which are generally
represented through both modes: text and images. While
in the text the General is said to be wicked, in the image
the reader can see him holding a blood-soaked sword and
smoking a missile.
Another good example can be found in Piggybook
(Browne, 1986), a picture book about a family that does
not value all the housework the mother does. Through the
actions depicted in the images and text, readers can get
to know what these characters are like. There are in fact
several images in which the two boys and the father are
resting and telling the mother what to do while the mother
does all the work. For instance, in the fourth spread, there is
an image to the left of the boys taking their coats off as they
arrive home and an image to the right of the father sitting
on an armchair with the newspaper in his hands. They are
all calling out to the mother. The text that accompanies
these images reads:
“Hurry up with the meal, mom,” the boys called every

evening when they came from home from their very impor-
tant school.
teseopress.com
“Hurry up with the meal, old girl,” Mr. Piggott called every
evening when he came home from his very important job.”
Here, the characters’ actions and words reveal their

personality traits: they are self-centred, disrespectful and
oblivious to the mother’s efforts to make their house a
home.
Although perhaps more economically expressed
through language, characters’ likes and dislikes, habits and
possessions are quite frequently represented through both
modes. For example, in the first page of Gorilla by Anthony
Browne (1983), the protagonist, Hannah, is characterised
as follows: “Hannah loved gorillas. She read books about
gorillas, she watched gorillas on television and she drew
pictures of gorillas.” Two of these actions are depicted in the
image accompanying these words, where Hannah is sitting,
reading a book with pictures of gorillas in its covers and has
a drawing of a gorilla that presumably was made by the girl
pinned to the wall behind her. We can tell she enjoys the
book because of her facial expression.
Similarly, in the second spread of Giraffes Can’t Dance
(Andreae & Parker-Rees, 2001), Gerald is shown eating
leaves off a tree in the image to the left and running and
falling hard on the ground in the image to the right. The
text that goes together with the images reads: “He was very
good at standing still and munching shoots off trees. But
when he tried to run around, he bucked at the knees.” We
can find a third example in the second spread from Switch
on the Night (Bradbury et al., 2004). While the text says:
“He liked lanterns and lamps and torches and tapers and
beacons and bonfires and flashlights and flares,” the read-
er can see the boy with all these favourite possessions of
his in the image.
Finally, character relationships are generally depicted
through images because when more than one character is
included in a same image, the way they are positioned in
respect to one another necessarily reflects the relationship
teseopress.com
they have. If the relationship is central to the develop-

ment of the plot, it might be mentioned or described in
the text. Otherwise, though relationships are unavoidably
shown visually, they usually go unmentioned in the text.
One example in which the relationship between the
main characters is central to the story, and thus, it is pre-
sented through both modalities, is The Tunnel (Browne,
2008). This is a story about two siblings that do not get
along at the beginning, but after going through a series of
dangerous events along the story, they become closer. In
the Placement, they are said to be very different: they have
different interests and activities. This first stage closes with
the words: “Whenever they were together they fought and
argued noisily. All the time.” Through the pictures we see
they live in totally separate worlds and do entirely different
things. Towards the ending, they are said to do everything
together. In fact, when the mother asks them if everything
is alright, the readers get to know through both modalities
that they smile to each other.
So far, we have seen how images and text combine to
build the Placement in picture story books. While images
are used to give more details as to where (and when) the
action takes place and what the characters look like, their
personality traits are represented through both modes,
although they would be much more economically rep-
resented through language. Characters’ likes and dislikes,
possessions and habits are frequently expressed visually
and verbally.
Next, we present the main features of the images in the
Placement according to whether they are mostly building
the setting, representing characters’ attributes, reflecting
their habitual actions or portraying character relationships.
teseopress.com
5.1.2. Visual resources in Placement
5.1.2.1. Setting
Sometimes illustrators wish for readers to focus on the set-
ting before they get to know the protagonists. As the story
opens, readers may find a long shot image that shows the
setting at large. This is more commonly done through con-
ceptual, static images, which focus on the representation of
what things are like rather than ongoing action.
If illustrators choose to include characters in the image,
they are typically shown from far away so that readers can
observe them in their usual context. In these cases, char-
acters are depicted as one more element of their environ-
ment from a rather impersonal or objectifying perspec-
tive. At this point in the story, readers are not meant to
build a relationship or interact with characters yet. Thus,
these images show detachment, as characters are typical-
ly involved with some other element in the context, and
are unmediated, observe: characters are not making eye
contact with readers.
As regards AMBIENCE, a specific colour scheme to rep-
resent the setting is chosen according to whether the reality
presented is characterised as rather calm, cold, gloomy, or
more energetic and cheerful. In this way, a specific tone is
set from the start as illustrators create a specific atmosphere
that will envelop the characters henceforth.
In terms of composition, these images are typically
centred. If there are opposing focus groups of informa-
tion –groups of information in different sides or corners of
the image–, represented in polarised images, the different
focus groups are usually balanced so as to create a rather
harmonious environment.
Using an image at the beginning to show the set-
ting, then, is a very useful option to highlight where the
action will take place or represent characters in their natur-
al habitat to foreground where they live. This will serve to
teseopress.com
contextualise the introduction of the characters and set the

action that ensues in a given place and time.
5.1.2.2. Characters and their attributes

Images that present the main characters and their attributes
are generally conceptual as well. Conceptual images por-
tray characters “in terms of their more generalised and
more or less stable and timeless essence” (Kress & van
Leeuwen, 2006, p. 59). They do not show action but a
rather static representation of what the characters are like.
In some cases, these images even show characters as if they
were posing for a picture. In this way, static, conceptual
images give readers the chance to look at the characters’
attributes in detail.
Additionally, the characters are generally seen from
a social distance, so that their full form is shown if it is
relevant for the plot of the story, or from a more inti-
mate distance to create the impression of intimacy between
character and reader. For example, in Giraffes Can’t Dance
(Andreae & Parker-Rees, 2001), Gerald, the main character,
is shown in full form in a mid-shot so that readers can
notice he has crooked legs, an attribute which triggers the
problem Gerald has to face in the story. In other cases, such
as The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (Scieszka & Smith, 1996)
and Zoo (Browne, 1992), characters’ faces and shoulders are
shown in close-ups, allowing the reader to appreciate their
feelings or expressions as part of their attributes and build
from the start a more intimate connection with them.
In these images, characters can also be facing the
readers and on several occasions they are making eye
contact, establishing “pseudo-interpersonal relations” with
the reader (Unsworth, 2015, p. 93). This relationship built
between readers and characters is generally one of equal-
ity, which is represented by showing the character at eye
level. This invites the reader to relate to the characters as
equals, perceive them as friendly and empathise with them.
teseopress.com
However, there are cases in which characters are depict-

ed from a low angle, as if seen from below, to give the
impression they have power over the reader and perhaps
characterise them as imposing, dangerous or even scary.
For instance, in The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron
Woman (Briggs, 1984), the General is seen from below as
he is presented to the reader. Although we did not find
any examples in Placement, characters could be seen from
above with a high angle to show their weakness or help-
lessness. The size of the character in relation to the whole
image, that is, whether the character is occupying most of
the image or very little space in it, could also hint at how
powerful or powerless they are. In the case of the Gen-
eral, he is occupying almost all the space available and he
comes across as huge compared to the mountains that are
depicted alongside him.
All of these features help give readers the impression
that the characters are being introduced to them at the
beginning of the story. A particular relationship is estab-
lished between readers and characters before the action
starts. Because of this, it only makes sense that readers at
this point in the story should see and relate to the characters
from their own perspective as outsiders. Thus, images that
introduce characters are unmediated.
Finally, as regards composition, images presenting
characters’ attributes in the Placement of the story many
times show one focus group which is centred, depicting the
characters as a single unit in the middle of the image to help
readers focus on them and their attributes.
As we said before, illustrators can also represent char-
acters’ attributes in the background of the image by includ-
ing objects around the character that give the readers clues
as to who these characters are, their possessions, interests,
likes and dislikes, social position.
teseopress.com
5.1.2.3. Characters’ habits

In contrast to images that reflect characters’ attributes,
which are usually static and conceptual, characters’ habits
are more commonly depicted through dynamic, narrative
images. These images “serve to present unfolding actions
and events, processes of change, transitory spatial arrange-
ments” (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 59). In other words,
this type of image is more fitting to show characters car-
rying out actions.
Typically, in narrative images characters are seen in
full form from a social or impersonal distance, which
allows readers to ‘zoom out’ and see action taking place
–something they would not be able to do in a close-up
that just shows the characters’ faces. Because characters are
carrying out actions, they are not usually facing readers but
viewed from the side or back and are making no eye contact
with readers but looking at someone or something else.
Again, readers here maintain their own viewpoint as they
are still getting to know the characters and so relate to them
as outside observers. In this case, then, the use of detached,
unmediated, observe images positions readers to observe
rather than interact with characters as characters are busy
involved in action or involved with other characters. Going
back to the example from Giraffes Can’t Dance (Andreae &
Parker-Rees, 2001), when Gerald, the giraffe, is depicted
running and falling, an accident that is apparently habitual
for him, he is seen from the side, at a social distance in an
unmediated, observe image.
In terms of the composition of the image, these habit-
ual actions can be represented as a sequence of smaller
images through the use of iterating focus groups. In other
words, characters can be depicted repeatedly to represent
the progression of the action in small, separate images or
within the same background as part of one image. Habitual
actions can also be shown in decontextualised images, that
is, in images in which the background is not depicted. This
teseopress.com
choice emphasises the habitual and generalised nature of

these actions, regardless of the specific context in which
they might have occurred, in contrast to one-time events
that take place at a particular time and place. For instance,
in the same example from Giraffes Can’t Dance, Gerald is
depicted three times in nearly decontextualised images that
only show a little bit of grass under his hooves.
5.1.2.4. Character relationships

In addition to the characters’ attributes and habits, their
relationships may be represented along the Placement to
further characterise them. In images where more than one
character is depicted, their relationship is represented by
the position in which the characters are placed with respect
to one another: whether they are facing each other or
angled away, whether they are making eye contact or not,
and whether they are standing close to or far away from
each other. Their power relation can also be shown through
the vertical angle: the characters can be at eye level or one of
them can be positioned to look down on or up to the other.
As regards the composition of the image, when char-
acters have a close relationship with one another, they are
generally represented in one focus group together, as con-
stituting one unit. In contrast, when the characters do not
share a close relationship, they can be placed in a polarised
image, where each character constitutes a focus group on
its own, positioned as a separate entity, on opposing sides
or corners of the image.
There is a very good example of characters’ relation-
ships depicted in images in The Frog Prince Continued by
Jon Scieszka & Steve Johnson (1994), a very funny picture
book about the story of the Frog Prince and his wife after
they lived happily ever after. The first image in the book
shows the prince and the princess surrounded by a heart of
flowers in the centre of the image. The characters are very
close to each other. In this case, they visually constitute only
teseopress.com
one group of information. They are turned towards and

looking at each other. In the following image, the couple is
shown again but some time has passed, and the relationship
has changed: they are not as happy living together as they
thought they would be. This is represented by placing the
characters in opposing corners of the image. In this case,
they constitute two separate visual units. To highlight the
troubled relationship, the characters are also facing away
from each other, without making eye contact.
5.1.2.5. In short: Choices in Placement

Illustrators may choose to highlight different aspects of
the Placement before the action starts. They might wish to
direct readers’ attention to the setting of the story, or fore-
ground particular features of the main characters, i.e., their
attributes, habits or relationships. The emphasised aspect
of Placement will most probably be closely connected to
what brings about problems for the protagonist later on
in the story. The conflict may arise from the characters’
context or environment, their attributes –whether they be a
physical condition, reflected in their possessions or in their
personality traits–, their habits, or their relationships.
As we have said so far, the features of images in this
first section of picture story books vary according to the
illustrators’ intention; what they wish readers to focus on.
The different options discussed above are summarised in
the table below.
teseopress.com
Visual features Setting Characters’ Characters’ Relationships

attributes habits
Type of image conceptual, conceptual, narrative, conceptual,
static static dynamic static/
narrative,
dynamic
Point of view unmediated: unmediated: unmediated: unmediated:
readers’ own readers readers’ own readers’ own
viewpoint establish viewpoint viewpoint
relationship
with characters
from their own
viewpoint
Eye contact observe image: if characters are observe image: observe image:
no eye contact being characters are characters are
between introduced to not making eye not making eye
character and readers, there contact with contact with
reader may be eye readers but readers but
contact involved in there may be
action eye contact
among
characters
Distance impersonal/ social (to show social (to show among
objectifying full form) or character in characters:
(long shot) intimate (to action) intimate if it is a
create a sense close
of intimacy) relationship,
social or
impersonal if it
is not
Involvement detachment: if characters are detachment: detachment
character is being characters are with reader;
often involved introduced to not interacting among
with other readers, there with readers characters,
elements may be but involved in there may be
involvement action involvement
(facing each
other) or
detachment
(facing away)
Power relations – characters can – if relevant, a
be depicted as particular
powerful (low power relation
angle) or may be
powerless (high established
angle). If among
relevant, a characters
particular
power relation
may be
established
between
characters and
readers
teseopress.com
Ambience the setting can (represented in (represented in (represented in

be depicted as the background; the background the background)
warm and it may coincide if present)
energetic with the
(warm, bright characters’
colours) or calm, attitude or not)
cold or gloomy
(cold, muted
colours)
Organisation of typically centred image: – centred – centred
visual focus revolving characters in image: image:
groups around a centre the centre so characters in characters in
or polarised the focus is on the centre so the centre and
(two sides or them the focus is on belonging to
corners) but them; the same visual
balanced – polarised focus group
image: if the (close/
habit includes friendly
interaction with relationship) or
other a character in
characters or the centre of a
elements; circle (belonging
– iterating to that group)
image: repeated – polarised
images to show image:
the progression characters
of an action belong to
separate focus
groups (distant
relationship)
Table 5 – Visual resources in Placement.
5.2. Events: Complication & Resolution
As mentioned in Chapter 2, after the story is set in time

and place, there is an event that interrupts the even tenor
of existence and kicks the story off. This Initiating event
is followed by Sequent events that increasingly complicate
things for the character and, thus, contribute to building
mounting tension in the story. Finally, the action culmi-
nates with a Final event that provides a resolution for the
conflict of the story. These events move the plot forward,
initially building up tension to then dissolve it as the con-
flict is sorted out.
teseopress.com
Each of these events in the narrative is made up of

three elements:
• the frame, which is the local setting in which the event
takes place –certain characters in a particular time
and place;
• the main act, that is, the particular happening that takes
place in this event and moves the plot forward; and
• the sequel, which is the consequence of the happening
–an emotional reaction or a decision taken by the char-
acters.
Next, we will take a look at how text and image com-

bine to make meanings in these three steps within each
event and then we will go over the main visual resources
used by illustrators to fulfil these steps.

and images in Events
5.2.1.1. Frame
The frame or local setting of every event is generally marked
in the language by a temporal adjunct –linker– or with
a circumstance of temporal or spatial location, typically
included at the beginning of the clause. For example:
• “One summer afternoon, Spike Trotter met Bubba
D’Angelo by the service station and together they went
up to the tower for a swim.”
“When Bubba reached the top, he lifted himself out
and squatted a moment, catching his breath, calming
his heart.”
“When Spike returned, calling and waving the shorts,
Bubba stuck his head straight out of the tank.”
(Crew & Woolman, 2011)
• “In the afternoon, every subject is a problem.”
“We are about to go home when Rebecca remembers
teseopress.com
the special birthday cupcakes her mother made.”

(Scieszka & Smith, 1995)
• “Then he found a little clearing and he looked up at
the sky.”
“Then Gerald felt his body do the most amazing thing.”
“Then one by one, each animal who’d been there at the
dance arrived while Gerald boogied on and watched
him quite entranced.”
(Andreae & Parker-Rees, 2001)
Visually, the frame is not usually represented in a sep-

arate image but depicted in the background of the images
that show the action. The information offered by the text,
which sometimes might not be as detailed as in the picture,
generally complements what is shown in the images and
together they help readers understand that a new event is
starting, and to know which characters are involved in this
event and where and when it is taking place.
The frame of an event may be omitted when the setting
and the characters involved in it are the same as in the
previous event.
5.2.1.2. Main act

In the main act, which is the core section of an event, the text
describes what happens in detail while the images can only
represent part of what happens. The longer the text is, the
more unbalanced the amount of information about the hap-
pening provided by the two modalities is. In picture books
where there is very little text, the images and the text can
both represent what is happening to a similar extent. In fact,
some picture story books show through images more about
the event than what is written in the text about it. However,
in picture books in which a lot of text accompanies the
images, the images only focus on the representation of the
main happening of the event or on depicting what happens
in general terms, while language takes care of representing
teseopress.com
the main act in its entirety. Through language, then, authors

can depict what happens more economically and in more
detail in the main act.
Characters’ words, intentions, thoughts and percep-
tions –especially imagery related to senses other than
sight– are expressed only through language. We can find
a very clear example of this in an event from The Water-
tower (Crew & Woolman, 2011). In the image, one of the
main characters, Bubba, is sitting on a ladder rung halfway
down the ladder inside of the huge and bleak water tower.
Although it is a long shot that shows the character from
far away, his face seems to show concern. The green water
below him is moving, as it is full of ripples. In the text,
however, we get a lot more information about what is going
inside Bubba’s head:
“Bubba climbed in the tank. ‘I’ll be all right,’ he muttered. ‘I’ll

be all right.’ But when he looked down, the bottom rung was
a long way from the light. And the water seemed darker. So
he stopped halfway, and waited.
All about him the tower creaked and groaned. That’s the heat,
he reasoned. The heat expanding the metal.
There was a smell. That’s the algae. All rotten and festering.
The water eddied and swirled. That’s the wind shifting the
tower. It’s old and rickety.”
We can see that in this case the information included

in the text helps the reader know what Bubba is saying,
thinking, sensing and feeling. This information would be
virtually impossible or much less economical to represent
visually.
Although in most cases the main act is constructed
through language more clearly and in detail, sometimes cer-
tain details or important happenings are only depicted in
the image and left unsaid in the text. This typically happens
when characters themselves are unaware of the detail that
goes unmentioned. For instance, in Knuffle Bunny Too: A
Case of Mistaken Identity by Mo Willems (2006), a young
teseopress.com
girl, Trixie, who is very excited about showing her class-

mates at school “her one-of-a-kind Knuffle Bunny,” finds
out that another girl has a very similar stuffed rabbit of
her own called Nuffle Bunny. After the girls have quar-
relled all morning, their teacher takes both bunnies away
and when she gives them back, the bunnies are switched.
If readers have been paying close attention, they are able
to tell them apart because their ears are different colours.
However, this fact is not mentioned in the text and Trixie
goes about her afternoon activities oblivious to the fact that
she has got the wrong bunny. This detail, even though it is
just shown visually, is very important to create tension and
build expectations for the readers.
Another example is illustrated in Lost and Found by
Oliver Jeffers (2005), a sweet story about a boy who finds
a lost penguin and tries to help it find its home. As the
Sequent events take place and tension is built, the boy takes
the penguin to the South Pole and leaves it there, thinking
this is the right thing to do. But as he is rowing away, he
realises that the penguin had not been lost but lonely all
along, so he decides to row back to the South Pole and look
for his friend. While the text reads: “Quickly he turned the
boat around and headed back to the South Pole as fast as
he could,” in the image the reader can see that as the boy
is going back, he has to row around a big iceberg that is in
his way. At the same time, the penguin is going the other
direction and going around the iceberg on the other side,
missing the boy. The text continues describing the boy’s
desperate search of the penguin as he arrives at the place
where he had left it, without any mention of the fact that
the characters have missed each other in the way. Here, the
image carries information that is only provided visually in
the book and that is central to the understanding of the
development of the plot.
To round off, in the step main act the text usually carries
the complete information of what happens in the event,
especially when it comes to expressing what characters say,
teseopress.com
think, sense and want to do, while images visually repre-

sent part of the event and provide extra visual imagery.
Nonetheless, some information is sometimes shown only in
images for readers to discover and interpret themselves.
5.2.1.3. Sequel
In the sequel, the consequence of the main act is made explic-
it. The consequence may be an emotional reaction charac-
ters have or a decision they take based on what has just
happened. This section of the event is sometimes marked
in the language with the causal conjunction so. These con-
sequences are often referred to exclusively by means of the
language, because it is faster and simpler than including a
new image to show them.
However, when the event is important and authors
wish readers to reflect upon its consequences, illustrators
can add an image for the sole purpose of representing the
impact of the event on the characters. This extra image
constitutes a pause after the action to help readers con-
sider its consequences more carefully before moving on
to the next event.
The representation of the characters’ emotional reac-
tion through image together with language seems to be a
more frequent choice than the visual depiction of charac-
ters’ decisions alone. This dual representation of the char-
acters’ emotional reaction is particularly effective since just
reading about what the characters feel may not be enough
or as powerful as seeing the characters’ facial expressions.
It is interesting to notice that each modality plays a slightly
different role in these cases. While the text can be more
precise as to what emotion the character is exactly expe-
riencing, its visual representation appeals more strongly to
the readers’ emotions, as it has a powerful and more imme-
diate effect on the readers. This can help readers feel for the
character more readily or easily.
teseopress.com
With respect to decisions taken by characters as a result

of what happens in the main act, these are more typical-
ly and economically expressed through the text. There are
some cases, however, in which an image has been includ-
ed after an important happening to represent the decision
taken by the character.
In some rather rare cases, both types of consequences
can be depicted through both modalities. For instance, in
Giraffes Can’t Dance (Andreae & Parker-Rees, 2001), after
several animals from the jungle have danced, it is Gerald’s
turn to take the dance floor, but as he steps into the middle
of the circle, he freezes up and all the animals point and
laugh at him. After this main act, there is a spread with
two images that represent the sequel: in the image to the
left, Gerald’s emotional reaction is shown, while in that to
the right, Gerald’s decision to walk away from the party is
depicted. The text that is included in this spread together
with the images helps readers ponder on the effects this
event has on Gerald, feel as sad and ashamed as the charac-
ter does, and understand his decision to leave the place.
5.2.2. Visual resources in Events
5.2.2.1. Frame
As said above, the frame is depicted in the background of
the images that show the main act. Since images showing
the action are typically contextualised and drawn from mid
or long distance so that the action is visible, it is quite easy
for the readers to recognise where and when the action
is taking place, as well as which characters are involved
in the event.
5.2.2.2. Main Act

The action in the events is visually represented in narra-
tive, dynamic images in which characters are doing, saying,
teseopress.com
perceiving. Because characters are involved in action, it

makes sense that they be depicted from a social or imper-
sonal distance, i.e., from far enough so as to show them
carrying out actions. Besides, they are typically seen from
the side or the back, facing and looking at someone or
something that is implicated in the action as well. There-
fore, images in the main act are observe, unmediated and
detached.
Most of the time, readers are outside observers of what
is going on in the main act and view the action from their
own perspective. The relationship between characters and
readers is not the focus in this section, giving way to the
representation of relationships among characters, as well as
their behaviour and actions.
However, as the mounting action moves towards the
highest peak of tension, that is, the climax, some of these
features may change, bringing the reader closer to the
characters and their reality. The distance may gradually
shift from impersonal, to social, to intimate as details are
shown or characters come closer to the reader. The read-
er may also be positioned to experience the action from
a character’s viewpoint in mediated images. In these cas-
es, characters may make eye contact and face the reader,
moving from observe and detachment images to contact
and involvement images. Characters may also be seen from
above or below, establishing a relation of unequal power
between reader and character at particularly significant or
tense moments in the narrative.
If relevant to the story, the colour scheme may also
change to establish a different ambience as the story moves
towards its climax. As regards the use of margins and
frames, which serve to demarcate the story world and sep-
arate it from the reader’s world, they are often unchanging
throughout the story. However, when they vary along the
narrative, it is highly probable that towards the climax, they
become thinner, are breached by characters or elements of
their context, or disappear completely.
teseopress.com
5.2.2.3. Sequel
In the sequel, after readers have observed from outside the
story world the action taking place, they are invited back
to come closer to the characters and reflect upon what
the consequences of what has just happened are for the
characters.
Images that represent an emotional reaction in the
sequel are typically conceptual, static as they reflect the
characters’ state rather than show ongoing action. As said
before, these static images serve to slow down the pace of
the plot or pause the action momentarily to give readers
the opportunity and the time to focus on the emotional
impact of the event.
To clearly depict the characters’ emotional reaction,
these images show them from an intimate distance with a
close-up so that the facial gestures are visible and can be
more easily interpreted by the readers. At the same time,
from such a close distance, readers are prone to feel they
have a close and intimate connection to the characters,
which serves to foster a more empathetic view.
This connection can be enhanced by positioning the
characters facing readers and, on some occasions, hav-
ing them make eye contact with them. The characters’
gaze, which gives readers the impression they are being
addressed, compels them to feel more connected to the
characters and involved with what the characters are feeling
and going through.
As regards composition, the characters are generally
centred in these images, constituting a unique focus group
for readers to look at and analyse. These images can also be
decontextualised, helping the readers to focus solely on the
characters and their emotions.
When there is no separate image to deal with char-
acters’ emotional reaction –which is sometimes not even
mentioned in the text–, their facial gestures in the image
teseopress.com
showing the main act can give clues for readers to know
how the event is affecting the characters emotionally.
Regarding the visual representation of sequels that
involve decisions, these are more similar to images that
show action in the main act. They are narrative, dynam-
ic, from a rather social or impersonal distance, in which
characters are seen doing something; besides, they are often
unmediated, observe images and there is typically detach-
ment.
5.3. Bringing the story to an end: Final event & Finale
After the complicating events come to a climactic point, the

tension starts descending and the story begins to close. At
this point, a new situation for the characters is built that
is different from the one presented at the beginning yet
echoes its stability. This is done particularly in the Finale,
an optional stage that has the function of establishing a new
state of affairs. However, since this stage is not always pre-
sent, the Final event, which resolves the conflict, sometimes
serves to hint at a new situation for the characters. In other
words, towards the ending of the story, whether it is done
separately in an extra stage or not, a new scenario is pre-
sented of what things for the protagonists are now like.
While in the Final event the action narrated is still a
one-time occurrence, in the Finale, the state of what things
are like is established in more habitual and general terms.
Because of this the Finale is quite similar to the initial stage
of Placement in nature, as it reflects what things are like
rather than narrating action.
By the end of the story, then, characters have changed
in some way as a result of the events in the plot, of the expe-
rience gained, of lessons learnt. This change may be reflect-
ed in their reality or life circumstances, views or knowledge
of the world, attributes, feelings, habits or relationships. In
teseopress.com
these last stages of the story, these changes are highlighted,

in many cases, by drawing clear parallelisms between the
situation in the Placement or during events in the story
and the situation in the Final event and Finale. These com-
parable aspects make it easier for readers to identify the
differences and changes occurred.
For instance, in Gorilla (Browne, 1983), readers can
find several contrasts. The story is about a young girl, Han-
nah, who loves gorillas and wishes more than anything that
her father take her to the zoo to see a real gorilla. However,
her father is so busy that he seems to have no time to spend
with her. The night before her birthday, she gets a small
toy gorilla. Disappointed, she goes to sleep. But during the
night the stuffed gorilla grows and turns into a real gorilla
that spends all night with her and takes her to her favourite
places, including the zoo.
In this picture book, several correlations can be estab-
lished between moments from the Placement that show
father and daughter and some other moments along the
events that show the gorilla and the girl. All of them serve
to compare the cold and rather lonely life Hannah has with
her father against the vibrant and fun night she experiences
with the gorilla. The same moments from the Placement
can also be compared to some of the details from the Final
event, in which father and daughter appear together again.
Through these parallelisms, readers can easily see how their
reality and relationship has changed for the better. Finally,
some moments in the complicating events can be compared
to the ones in the Final event, as the characters spend time
together at the end of the story doing some of the things
Hannah did with the gorilla during the night.
In the section below, we take a look at how these
contrasts are marked through language and images in pic-
ture story books.
teseopress.com

and images in Final event & Finale
In general terms, in the images readers can find clear and
quite obvious parallelisms between the characters’ final sit-
uation and the state of affairs marked in the Placement or
some events in the story. However, many aspects of these
changes go unmentioned in the text.
For example, in the case of Gorilla (Browne, 1983),
while the images clearly mark changes for the girl’s reality
or life circumstances through colours, the relationship with
her father through the positioning of the characters in the
image, and her feelings though her facial expressions, the
text lets the readers know that Hannah looks at her father
when he asks her if she wants to go to the zoo and that she
is very happy. Eye contact may be important, but it is not
marked as a change in the relationship because we do not
know whether the father is making eye contact with her as
well. Besides, the written references to what characters are
doing at this point are not in clear contrast with previous
utterances in the story. Although we are told the father does
not have time to go to the zoo, we do not necessarily get
the feeling, through the words, that there is a change in his
attitude. In addition, we are never explicitly told in the story
that the girl is sad. There is no mention of her feelings at
the beginning of the story and the only clue readers get as
regards negative feelings is indirect; we get to know that she
is disappointed with her present because the narrator says
the Gorilla “was just a toy,” and she dumps it in a corner of
the room with other toys.
The changes that are commonly marked through the
text have to do with different actions, attributes or feelings
characters are connected with towards the ending of the
story. However, the readers have to make a greater effort
when interpreting these changes because they seldom con-
trast in a direct, explicit way with actions, attributes and
feelings described as the story opens.
teseopress.com
So, for example, in the Placement of Piggybook by

Anthony Browne (1986), the father and children are shown
yelling, idly sitting and watching TV in images with bright
and warm colours while the mother is shown working in
the house alone in images with sepia tones. The text mainly
reflects what the male characters say to the mother and
every utterance starts with hurry up. It also refers to all
the household chores the mother carries out. In the Finale,
however, the male characters are related to actions in the
text that the mother used to carry out –wash dishes, make
beds, iron, help with the cooking. The text also mentions that
the boys and father sometimes liked helping out. All these
actions are represented in the images as well, which show
the characters smiling while doing the chores. In the page
previous to last the mother is said to be happy. The last page
says the mother is now fixing the car, something the reader
can assume she likes doing because of her smile. In this case,
many of the changes are shown through both modalities,
but the feelings of the characters and their relationships are
not mentioned at the beginning through the text explicitly,
while they are unavoidably reflected in the images. So the
comparison is most of the times more easily and compre-
hensibly made through the visual modality.
5.3.2. Visual resources in Final event & Finale

Visually, the contrast between the characters’ reality or
state of affairs at the beginning and ending of the story is
quite frequently drawn to the readers’ attention through the
composition of images. That is, parallelisms are established
between elements included in images and their respective
positions. As we said above, these similarities between the
images that make up the Placement –and sometimes dif-
ferent events along the story– and the ones included in
the Final event and Finale help readers clearly identify the
elements that have changed.
teseopress.com
In the following section we go over some of the fea-

tures images can have towards the ending of the story
depending on which aspects of the characters’ and their
situations have changed.
5.3.2.1. Characters’ attributes

One change that can be marked is related to the characters’
attributes. These can be physical attributes, personality
traits or possessions. To highlight the changes, illustra-
tors represent characters with new features or possessions
towards the ending of the narrative, in images that are gen-
erally similar to those presented in the Placement.
These images are usually part of the Finale or the last
images in the picture book. They tend to be conceptual,
static to give readers the time to look for the differences
more carefully. Because there is no action taking place, all
readers can focus on are the characters’ qualities. Besides,
readers perceive characters from their own perspective as
outsiders in unmediated images. However, there may be
contact and involvement as characters connect and inter-
act once more with readers to show them how they have
changed.
As regards distance, images in this case may show the
characters from a social distance so that readers are able to
see them in full form and appreciate changes in their attrib-
utes, particularly if these are related to characters’ physi-
cal appearance or possessions. Some other times, charac-
ters are depicted from a more intimate distance, especially
when the change has been emotional and can be reflected
in the characters’ facial expressions.
Concerning their composition, these images are typi-
cally centred, focusing the readers’ attention on the char-
acters and their new attributes. The elements that have
changed can be made salient by contrast in colour or size,
or by foregrounding them (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006,
p. 177). These images may also be decontextualised, i.e.,
teseopress.com
without background, for the reader to focus solely on the

characters and their features, regardless of where they are.
For example, the picture book Madlenka by Peter Sis
(2010), which is about a girl who goes on a learning jour-
ney around her block, starts by saying that the girl has a
loose tooth. The image shows a girl through a window wig-
gling her tooth as she faces and makes eye contact with the
reader. The last image shows the girl in full form from a
social distance; she is facing and making eye contact with
the reader again, but this time she is missing a tooth. She
is presented in a conceptual, centred, decontextualised
image that invites the reader to analyse her attributes and
see how she has changed. Her missing tooth is salient, as
it is painted black and in sharp contrast with the rest of
the light pastel colours used in the image. The clear paral-
lelism drawn by these images helps readers see the change
in her. This closes the story nicely by symbolising in the
loss of the tooth the journey of discovery and growth the
girl has gone through.
In the Placement of Piggybook (Browne, 1986), the first
image shows the father with his two children dressed in a
suit and school uniforms as they are standing on the lawn in
front or their “nice” house and car. This conceptual, static
image focuses on the characters’ physical traits and pos-
sessions. The characters are facing the reader and making
eye contact. In the Finale, a very similar picture is included,
but this time the children and father are wearing aprons
and chef hats and holding pots with food they have cooked.
This difference, drawn to the readers’ attention by the very
similar composition of the image –the father in between
the two boys forming a triptych–, marks a change in the
characters’ attributes and attitudes that is central to the
message of the story.
teseopress.com
5.3.2.2. Characters’ actions and habits

If characters’ habits have been depicted in the Placement, it
is quite common to have images showing how these habits
have changed in the Finale. For example, in The Great Paper
Caper by Oliver Jeffers (2008), a story about a bear who is
secretly felling trees in the forest while everyone is looking
for the culprit, the bear is represented at the beginning car-
rying an axe. A very similar image is included at the end, but
this time the bear is watering a young tree he has planted.
These images, just as the ones showing habits in the
Placement, tend to be narrative, dynamic and characters
are shown from a social distance so as to portray them in
action. There is no need for involvement or eye contact,
unless characters are more explicitly addressing the reader
to show them how they behave now. The character may be
in the centre of the image so that it is salient.
Going back to Piggybook (Browne, 1986), in images
which show habits in the Placement, the boys and father
are always depicted from a social distance in narrative,
dynamic images, either yelling or sprawling on the sofa
while watching TV. But in the Finale, these characters
are shown doing varied household chores. Some of these
images are quite similar in composition to the ones shown
at the beginning to draw a sharper contrast, and in some
of them, the characters are facing readers and making eye
contact with them.
5.3.2.3. Characters’ relationships or status within a group

Another change that can be marked in images from the
Final event and Finale has to do with characters’ relation-
ships. These images are generally comparable to previous
images in the Placement or in central events in the story, to
see how relationships have evolved.
As we said before, whenever more than one charac-
ter is depicted in an image, their relationship is inevitably
teseopress.com
reflected. Characters can be facing each other or not, mak-

ing eye contact or looking away, standing close to each
other, and constituting one unit –they can even be making
physical contact– or placed far away from each other. When
characters are placed side by side facing the same direc-
tion, solidarity between them is construed as they share a
common direction, purpose, interest. Contrasts in images
in which the same characters appear can show how their
relationship has changed. These may also highlight the dif-
ferences between relationships main characters have with
diverse secondary characters in the picture book.
For example, in The Frog Prince Continued (Scieszka &
Johnson, 1994), the prince and the princess do not have a
good relationship at the beginning. In the Placement, when-
ever they are both represented in the same image, they
are facing different directions, without making eye contact
and far away from each other, constituting different focus
groups in the image. In one of the images, the characters’
power relationship is depicted as unequal: the princess has
power over the prince. However, as the story comes to an
end, the characters are shown close together as one single
unit, making physical and eye contact, facing each other as
equals. The very last image portrays the couple facing the
same direction, which symbolises their solidarity.
Similarly, in Gorilla (Browne, 1983), Hannah is first
seen in the Placement having breakfast with her father in a
rather dull and cold setting. Although they are facing each
other, they are not making eye contact and are sitting at
opposite ends of the table, far away from each other. This
image is in sharp contrast with an image in one of the events
that also shows Hannah having a meal, but with the gorilla.
In this second case, the warm and bright colours reflect a
much cosier, vibrant and joyful atmosphere. In addition, the
characters are sitting closer, facing each other and making
eye contact. Finally, the morning of her birthday, Hannah
is sitting at the table in front of a cake and her father is
holding her shoulders and standing behind her. They are
teseopress.com
close to each other, constituting one focus group together.

Although they are not making eye contact or facing each
other, they are close to each other as the father puts his
hands on the girl’s shoulders and they are facing the same
direction. The ambience in this third image is warm and
vibrant, which symbolises joy and cosiness.
When a characters’ status in a group changes, this can
also be reflected through the composition of the image. As
we mentioned before, one possibility is to represent the
character together with other characters in the same focus
group, or apart from others to show them as outsiders.
Another choice is to represent characters in a circular com-
position. Characters that have been depicted as outsiders,
occupying one of the sides or corners of the image, may
be moved to the centre of a circular organisation as the
story closes to show the character now belongs to the group
or vice versa.
For instance, in Giraffes Can’t Dance (Andreae & Parker-
Rees, 2001), as Gerald steps on the dance floor, he is in
the middle of a circular image, surrounded by animals that
make fun of him. In the following spread, we find an image
of the jungle party in which animals are happily dancing
in the foreground and Gerald is depicted very small in the
background in a corner of the image as he leaves the party
alone. Here the character has gone from a central position
to become an outsider because of the events in the party.
Towards the end of the story, after Gerald has found his
own rhythm and learnt how to dance, another image puts
him in the middle of a circle made by animals that watch as
he dances. This time the animals are cheering and throwing
flowers at the giraffe. The composition of the image helps
readers know Gerald is now part of the group of animals
and he occupies a central position. He is no longer alone or
rejected, but accepted.
teseopress.com
5.3.2.4. Characters’ new reality or final situation

When characters’ reality or general situation changes, a
new background or context can be depicted surrounding
the characters. Sometimes a change in AMBIENCE can help
depict a new, changed reality. The colour palette varies as
the mood and atmosphere in the story change, for instance,
from calm, cold and gloomy –cold, muted colours– to
warm, energetic and joyful –warm and vibrant colours.
One example of this change is the situation of the
wolf in The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs (Scieszka & Smith,
1996). In the Placement, Alexander T. Wolf is depicted in
the background cooking at home, but at the end he is
behind bars in jail.
In Piggybook (Browne, 1986), we can see the change
depicted through AMBIENCE. In the Placement, the mother
is depicted doing all the household chores in dull images
with sepia tones, which are in sharp contrast with the bright
and colourful images that show the activities of the rest of
the family. This difference in colour configurations marks
the rather tedious and unfulfilling life the mother lives
while she aids the rest of the family to live their exciting
and ‘important’ lives. It is as if the sepia tones rendered
her existence as less real or important than her family’s. By
the end of the story this situation has changed and while
the rest of the family is doing the household chores, the
mother is happily fixing the car. Her reality is now depicted
in vibrant, warm colours, just as the rest of her family’s.
5.3.2.5. Bringing closure to the story

One last option taken in quite a few picture books is to pro-
vide closure to the relationship that has been built between
characters and readers throughout the story. This can be
done in two main ways: by zooming out or by showing the
characters from behind.
teseopress.com
First, readers may get the feeling that they are zooming
out from the story, distancing themselves from the charac-
ters and their reality. Long shot images with impersonal
distance can be used to give the impression to the reader
that their relationship with characters and the story world
is coming to an end.
The last image of Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
(2005), for example, shows the boy and penguin rowing
back home together in a boat from far away and above.
In The Lost Thing by Shaun Tan (2000), the illustrator has
decided to include four last small images in which the pro-
tagonist zooms out of view. In both these cases, readers get
the clear feeling that the story has come to an end, as has
their relationship with the characters.
Another way of distancing the readers from the char-
acters is positioning the characters with their back towards
the readers, as if they were walking away, continuing their
lives without the presence of the readers. This signals the
culmination of the story, as readers will no longer be wit-
nesses to what happens in the lives of these characters.
The last images of Cows Can’t Fly by David Milgrim (2000),
Gorilla by Anthony Browne (1983), The Frog Prince Contin-
ued by Jon Scieszka & Steve Johnson (1994), for instance,
show characters walking away, carrying on with their lives
now that the conflict has been resolved, and severing their
relationship with the readers, who will no longer be part
of their lives.
5.4. Moral
One last optional stage in picture story books is the Moral.

In it, authors explicitly tell readers what the message of the
story is, what they want readers to learn. In most narratives,
the Moral is not explicitly mentioned, as it is expected that
readers find out for themselves what the message of the
teseopress.com
story is. However, in some narratives for young children,

the moral teaching is made explicit at the end of the story.
There are some linguistic changes that signpost the
Moral. Language that so far has been about one-time
events, specific characters and a particular time and place
now becomes more general to refer to truths that are rather
universal. Readers are often referred to explicitly through
pronouns such as you, we or one. Readers might be given
commands to follow or there might be conditional sen-
tences that sometimes act as warnings of the possible con-
sequences of determined actions or decisions.
We have found only three examples in our extended
corpus of picture books in which the stage Moral is present.
In all these cases, the last pages in the story mark the moral
teaching. These last images are conceptual, static to allow
time for reflection and unmediated, as it makes sense that
readers see the image from their own perspective because
they are the ones who need to learn the moral teaching
of the story.
In the last images of Class Two at the Zoo by Julia
Jarman & Lynne Chapman (2007), while through the text
the reader is warned about the dangers of going to the zoo,
in particular of seeing the anaconda, in the images readers
see the characters run away from the zoo and they are left
alone with the anaconda. In this last image, the snake is
making eye contact with readers and is seen from a social
distance, perhaps to appreciate the size and the dangerous
side of the anaconda.
A second example can be found in Giraffes Can’t Dance
(Andreae & Parker-Rees, 2001). In this case, characters are
seen from behind looking at the big moon in a concep-
tual, static image. The fact that the image shows a state
rather than ongoing action gives readers time to wonder
and reflect upon the message of the story. Besides, the fact
that characters are all facing the moon together with read-
ers shows solidarity among them. It is as if characters were
teseopress.com
inviting viewers to reflect together with them, sharing this

moment of contemplation and thought.
A very similar image to this last one is found at the end
of Zen Ghosts, by Jon J. Muth (2010). Although the text does
not explicitly refer to the Moral, there is one last image in
which the characters sit still side by side showing their back
to the readers and look at the moon in silence. This image
seems to be inviting readers to join in this peaceful and
silent moment of reflection. After having shared the events
in the narrative, characters and readers find themselves in a
similar position, ready to take a moment to reflect on what
the moral teaching of the story might be.
5.5. Coda
In this chapter, we discussed the visual and verbal resources

that are mapped onto each stage of the narrative to fulfil
its key functions and contribute to its overall purpose.
As we have seen, while language and images complement
each other to convey key meanings, sometimes one modal-
ity is more outstanding than the other in the establish-
ment of a particular meaning in the story. Thus, words
and images can rely on complementarity to communicate
meanings or, alternatively, highlight different areas of expe-
rience. Besides, different resources gain relevance at dif-
ferent stages to fulfil a wealth of functions, so that some
resources are more typically used at some stages of the
genre.
teseopress.com
teseopress.com
Chapter 6: Suggested Activities
We have explored the resources that can be deployed to

convey different meanings in multimodal narratives. We
have looked at how to build the story world and the char-
acters, how to establish the relationship between characters
and readers, and how to express emotion, judgement and
appreciation. We have also analysed the structure of nar-
ratives, with its particular stages and their specific realisa-
tions, both visual and verbal. At this point, as teachers, we
have at our disposal the adequate theoretical and practical
tools to thoroughly understand what is at stake in picture
story books, which means we are now ready to take that
knowledge a step further into the classroom. The better
prepared we are to understand the dynamics of picture
story books ourselves, the better equipped we are to teach
our students to do the same and steadily move towards
production as well. In this chapter, we go over some specific
activities that can be exploited in the EFL classroom for the
comprehension and production of bimodal narratives.
To organise the suggested activities, we have followed
the teaching-learning cycle proposed by Martin (1999, p.
127). This cycle consists of a set of steps to prepare our
students to produce effective texts, be them oral, written,
verbal, bimodal or multimodal. Naturally, understanding
needs to come before production, so the cycle goes from
activating and providing the content knowledge students
need to comprehend the particular text and the genre it cor-
responds to, to them finally producing a text independently
with all that knowledge in mind.
The cycle is made up of four stages, briefly explained
below. Whenever appropriate, we have commented on ways
to attune the description of this process to a foreign lan-
guage learning context.
teseopress.com 127
i. Building up subject matter: in this stage we work

with the content, that is, the knowledge of the world
which is necessary for our students to produce the text.
Students either activate knowledge they already have
or acquire it together with new words and expressions
to be able to refer to the subject matter of their texts.
In the EFL context, when we are building up subject
matter to produce texts, we typically focus on build-
ing up vocabulary and organising or classifying it into
taxonomies.
ii. Modelling the text: here we explore one or more sam-
ple texts, similar to the target text, and help our stu-
dents become aware of:
• the overall social purpose of the text (What is this text

used for in our society?);
• the features of the situation in which the text typically
occurs which have a direct impact on the language used
(What is the relationship between the writer, speaker and/or
illustrator and the audience? Is the text formal or not? Why?
Is the text technical or common sense? Is it oral or written? Is
it multimodal or not?);
• the structure of the text, that is, the steps we need to
follow to produce the text, their functions and their
order;
• the language, and in this case the visual resources, that
are used to fulfil the function of each stage.
iii. Joint construction: in this stage, the whole class pro-

duces a text together as a rehearsal for the indepen-
dent writing process to come later. We guide students
by adjusting and building upon their suggestions to
produce the text. We constantly remind students of
the communicative purpose of the text and the fea-
tures of the situation so that they make sure their con-
tributions are appropriate. The text jointly produced
should be the same genre modelled before, but with
teseopress.com
some changes: we can change the topic of the text, the

relationship between the people that participate in it,
the channel of communication (oral instead of writ-
ten) –always accompanied, of course, by images–, or all
three textual features at once.
iv. Independent construction: in this final stage, students
produce a text on their own. Again, it should be a text
similar in function, structure and necessary resources
to the ones they have already worked on. Feedback
at this point needs to include not only grammar and
structure matters, but also the purpose of the text and
the verbal and visual resources chosen to fulfil it. (Is the
text effective? Does it fulfil its function?)
Because of the proven effectiveness of this cycle with

exclusively verbal genres, we have adapted it to be used to
better comprehend and produce picture story books. Next,
we propose specific activities we can carry out in each of
the steps in this cycle to help our students write and design
adequate, compelling bimodal narratives.
6.1. Building up subject matter
In this section we help our students develop the knowledge of

the world that is relevant to the story we are working with and
provide them with resources to represent this reality in the ver-
bal and visual form. If we are writing a story about animals set in
the African savannah, after reading, for instance, Giraffes Can’t
Dance by Giles Andreae & Guy Parker-Rees (2001), we need to
highlight the features that define this type of habitat: extensive
plains, scarce trees, tall yellow grass as well as the typical animals
that live there, their features, abilities and eating and behaviour-
al habits. Of course, depending on the level, these would not be
the terms we use with students: we need to carefully choose the
language that they can learn.
teseopress.com
For students to become familiar with the expression of

this subject matter in the second language, we activate stu-
dents’ previous knowledge of it and teach them new vocab-
ulary to describe the habitat and the animals. For them to
incorporate the new vocabulary in an organised manner,
it is a good idea to keep a record of the new words in
taxonomies, that is, to categorise them. We can create word
banks and picture dictionaries for the students to access
whenever necessary, as well as posters for the classroom.
One activity we can use to practice the new vocabulary is
writing riddles of animals they can share with their class-
mates. For example: It is very big and strong. It has got big
ears, a short tail and a trunk. It eats grass and lives in Africa
and India. What is it?
To deal with the content visually, we can show the
students pictures and videos of this habitat and the ani-
mals living there, directing their attention to their physi-
cal appearance (size, shape, colour, etc.). We can also help
them differentiate between typical features that are univer-
sal within a species and those distinctive of a particular
member of that species, which will become extremely use-
ful when the time comes to work on the characterisation of
an individual. Here we put into practice all the vocabulary
we have been working with so far to describe animals. Just
as we created word banks for the verbal mode, we should
make sure that there are enough pictures of the habitat and
its animals available in the classroom for the students to
look at throughout the process of production.
We can assign students different animals or elements
of the setting to draw and share with the class, of course
making sure that all the features are well depicted. If we
work in a school, this activity can be done in collaboration
with the Art teacher, who can guide them better as regards
different artistic techniques, drawing styles and materials
they can use according to their age and knowledge of art.
We can also work with picture recognition through games:
we can play bingo, solve puzzles and guess the animal from
teseopress.com
only one of its parts, among others. These games can have
follow-up production activities, such as describing the ani-
mals or creating a new animal by combining body parts
in the bingo cards.
6.2. Modelling the text
In this section, we draw students’ attention to the general

structure and specific resources of narratives. The structure
potential dealt with in the previous chapter is key at this
point. Students need to become familiar enough with the
stages and the resources at play to be able to easily recognise
the genre and use it confidently and effectively.
Some activities (for similar activities, please see Boccia
et al., 2013) to work with the structure of the text are:
• analysing a specific example and labelling its stages,
making sure that our students understand the function
of each stage and its position within the sequence;
• cutting up a story according to its stages and having
students put it back in order and then explain the deci-
sions made;
• recognising the missing stage in a narrative where one
single section has been taken out;
• making a graphic representation or a model to visualise
the stages of the story: for example, narratives can be
represented as hills in which we place on one side the
rising action from the moment the ordinary, stable sit-
uation is interrupted until it reaches the highest peak
of tension in its climax, and then on the other side we
place the resolution and the new stable situation.
teseopress.com
Highlighting the interplay between words and images

Once the structure is clear to our students, we can move
on to explore the resources used to realise each stage. With
picture story books, of course, verbal resources are not
the only ones at stake. To help our students understand
the important role images play in making meanings in this
genre, we can read with them some picture story books
in which the text and images complement each other in
such a way that without one of them, the story cannot be
understood.
For example, in Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins (1968),
while in the text we get to know what the hen does every
day, apparently without trouble, though a simple enumer-
ation of ordinary actions, it is through the images that the
conflict and entertaining side of the narrative are presented.
Visually, readers find out that the hen is being followed
all along the story by a fox, whose attempts to eat the
hen are all frustrated as he keeps having accidents. But
teseopress.com
are they really accidents? The hen seems to be oblivious

to being followed, but some of her actions directly cause
trouble for the fox.
In This Is Not My Hat by Jon Klassen (2014), the text
presents a first-person narration by a mischievous small
fish who has stolen a hat from a big fish. The text already
presents a funny tone as the narrator keeps reassuring itself
that it has done the right thing and that no one will know
who stole the hat, even if the big fish realises the hat is gone.
However, through the visual modality, readers discover that
the big fish knows the hat is missing and is actually tracking
the small fish’s footsteps. In this picture story book, then,
the text presents the main character’s thoughts and possible
regrets and insecurities, while images show the side of the
action the little fish is unaware of.
An activity we can do is to read the text of picture
story books such as these ones without showing the images
to our students and discuss if the words on their own are
enough to fulfil the purpose of narratives, that is, to make
the story interesting and entertaining: Is there a clear conflict?
Is the story funny/entertaining/moving? Then, we reread the
text together with the images and see how the story changes
and reflect on what the students’ reactions are once they see
how both modalities combine to make meanings.
As foreign language learners, it will be easier for our
students to interpret or build a story world that does not
only rely on the English language but also uses visuals to
make meanings. That is why it is important to draw their
attention to the amount of meanings and ideas that can
be expressed in images that do not need to be conveyed
through language.
As noted in the previous chapter, certain meanings
tend to be shown in images while others are more typical-
ly expressed through words, simply because it is easier or
clearer to express them though one of these semiotic sys-
tems. Even so, most meanings could be represented though
teseopress.com
both modalities, and sometimes they are depicted in both to

enhance the meanings made.
In very general terms, we have noticed that characters’
thoughts and words are expressed through language, while
their physical appearance and their relationships with other
characters are typically presented visually. Of course, some
physical traits or features of relationships can be brought
into focus, when necessary, by mentioning them in the text
as well. But whenever a character is shown visually, its
appearance and its connection to other characters in the
same image are unavoidably portrayed. The same happens
with the physical context in which the action takes place.
Unless the image is decontextualised, the setting will always
be depicted visually.
Characters’ habits, likes and dislikes, abilities and feel-
ings can be represented in any of the two modalities or
in both. As regards feelings, which are central to narra-
tives, they tend to have a slightly different impact. Although
through language the expression of feelings may be subtler
and more specific, seeing a character’s gestures or facial
expression may have a more direct and stronger impact on
the readers’ emotional reaction.
This combination of resources to represent the mean-
ings made in picture story books is beneficial for our stu-
dents’ comprehension and production of narratives. When
interpreting a story, students can rely on their knowledge
of the world, and by just looking at the images, get to know
about several features of the story world, its characters
and some of the action, even when they might not under-
stand all the vocabulary. Having both modalities available
will surely help them learn new vocabulary and expres-
sions. When producing a narrative of their own, the task
of creating the story world could be a daunting one if our
students only had the foreign language at their disposal to
express themselves.
teseopress.com
Comparing and contrasting similar pictures

As we read picture books with our students, a good way of
helping them notice visual resources used by illustrators is
to compare two or more different options using concrete
examples to help them see the difference more clearly. Ide-
ally, these pictures should differ only with respect to one
element, so that the comparison arises naturally and easily,
but the scope can be narrowed down with questions to
focus on a single resource if differences abound. Typical-
ly, these contrasts are most immediately noticeable when
analysing images in different stages of the same story side
to side. Many times, the images introduced at the begin-
ning of the story are comparable to the ones found at some
point in the development of the story or at the end. When
our students grow more confident in their image-reading
skills, we can introduce more complex pictures that display
differences in a variety of meaning-making resources and
therefore entail a more intense decoding.
For example, in Gorilla by Anthony Browne (1983), an
early picture shows Hannah and her father at the break-
fast table; later on, we see Hannah sharing a meal again,
but this time with the gorilla. These two images are ideal
for comparison since they portray the nuances of Hannah’s
relationships with the other characters through discrete
choices in visual resources. One of these differences is in
the colour palettes: while the first image makes use of cool,
muted colours, the second one exploits warm, lively hues.
Highlighting these differences allows for easier recognition
and growing familiarity with resources, so that students
exposed to this kind of analysis feel more comfortable when
designing their own creations.
Questions to guide class discussion

Another good strategy to help them see subtler distinctions
or meanings is to ask them questions and analyse their own
teseopress.com
reactions to the images. This will also make them more

aware of the number of meanings that can be expressed
through images and the long and complex process of deci-
sion making that their construction entails.
Next, we suggest some questions that can be used while
reading images. The questions are designed to:
• guide students to notice the different and varied mean-
ings created in the images;
• help students think about the resources used to make
these meanings; and
• help students discover why illustrators choose to make
those meanings and at what strategic points in the
narrative.
It may be the case that some questions are too broad or

somewhat difficult for our students to answer even when
trying to answer them while considering a particular image.
When they cannot come up with an answer on their own,
remember we can always ask them yes/no questions offer-
ing them options for them to choose.
To exemplify, we have made a list of questions that
would correspond to the resources used to invite the read-
ers into the story world, as discussed in Chapter 3.
BRINGING THE READER INTO THE STORY WORLD
Framing
• Are there any frames/margins in this picture? How

wide?
• Why do you think the illustrator decided to use (or not)
frames/margins in this image?
• Are the margins and frames separating the story world
from our world? / Is there anything dividing the story
world from our world?
• Do you feel we are part of their world?
teseopress.com
• What happens with (element of the background or

character that is breaking the frame) in this picture? Is
it inside the frames or does it come out? Does this make
the character/the story world closer to us in any way?
• Are the margins and frames the same in all the story
or do they change? At what point in the story do they
(dis)appear? Why?
Point of view
• Are you looking through one of the character’s eyes in

this picture? Whose?
• How do you know? What can you see?
• Are you looking from over the shoulder of one of the
characters? Whose?
• How can you tell?
• What is the effect of this decision on you, the readers?
• Why did the illustrator put you in that position? / Why
are you (name of the character) in this picture?
• Why did the illustrator put you in this character’s shoes
at this particular point in the story? Why not before
or later on?
• How does it make you feel? (If the image helps the read-
ers empathise with the character’s feelings at a particu-
larly tense, scary or poignant part of the narrative.)
• What does it allow you to see?
• In this image, if we were to see through (name of char-
acter)’s eyes, what would change? How would you feel?
Would it be easier to understand the character or not?
POSITIONING READERS IN INTERACTION WITH CHARACTERS
Contact
• Is the character looking at you?
teseopress.com
• In this picture, who do you feel more connected to?

Why? (for an image in which only one of the characters
is making eye contact with the viewer)
• Why is s/he looking at you at this moment in the story?
• Do you feel connected with the character? Do you
think the eye contact helps you empathise with the
character?
• What do you feel when you look at him/her?
• Would you react differently if s/he weren’t looking
at you?
Social distance
• What part of the character’s body can you see in this

image?
• How far/close is the character from us, the readers?
• Why do you think the illustrator drew her/him this
way?
• What does it mean that s/he can be so close to us?
What kind of relationship do you think we can have
with this character?
• Can we see the character’s gestures/expression? Is that
important? How does it make you feel?
• Why is the character so close to us at this particular
moment in the story? What does it help us notice/feel?
Involvement
• Do you feel part of this situation/scene/event? Why?

How come?
• Is the character facing you or not? Is the character
positioned as if he were interacting with you or are
you looking at him interacting with someone else from
outside?
• Why is the character facing you in this moment? How
do you feel?
teseopress.com
Power
• In this image, are we looking at the character from a

particular angle? From above or below?
• What relationship is established between you and the
character? Who is more powerful? What does this
reflect about the character?
• How do we know? How can you tell?
• Why has the illustrator used this angle at this point in
the story? What do you think is about to happen?
6.3. Joint and Independent construction
The production of a new text is the most challenging part

of the process for both students and teachers. However,
creating a full multimodal narrative individually may not
be a reasonable goal in certain educational contexts. In fact,
it is most probably the case that we do not have enough
time in class for such a task. So, depending on our goals and
bearing in mind our students’ age and level of proficiency,
we may consider alternative productions.
The teaching-learning cycle proposes two different
stages of production that basically include the same steps,
with a crucial distinction in the role of the teacher. While
in the Joint construction phase the teacher has a central role
in guiding the writing and designing process, and help-
ing students adjust their suggestions as they collaborate to
build a text, the Independent construction phase provides the
opportunity for students to explore the multimodal creative
process on their own. Here, of course, the teacher monitors
and aids but from a more peripheral position.
Next, we present a list of different activities for pro-
duction, from easier and less time-consuming to more dif-
ficult and lengthier. We have decided to discuss both con-
struction phases together as the activities suggested below
can be adapted for either one of these stages in the creative
teseopress.com
process. They can function as final products in themselves

or, if we wish our students to produce a multimodal nar-
rative, these activities may also serve as gradual stages of
preparation for independent production.
Reading and drawing

At first, some or most students have difficulties thinking
of illustrations as a result of a process of decision making.
As teachers we need to draw their attention to the number
of meanings and ideas that can be expressed in images that
do not need to be expressed through words. This will be an
advantage when it is their turn to create their own stories
since they might not have enough verbal resources in the
second language to express their ideas.
One very simple exercise we can do is show them only
the images from a picture book, without the text, and ask
them what the story is about, what happens in certain parts
of it, what the main characters are like, and other questions
related to narrative elements in the story. As we ask them
these questions, we try to elicit from them the resources
they notice at use. In other words, we ask them how they
can tell what they are saying is so: where in the image these
meanings are being made.
After this, we can ask students to write down what they
consider the text that accompanies each image could be.
Depending on the age and level of our students, this activity
can be done with the whole class on the board with the
help of the teacher, who adjusts the students’ contributions
and prompts them to improve on their suggestions. In other
classes, this activity can be done in groups or pairs and then
shared with the rest of the class.
Once students are more familiar with the number of
meanings expressed visually and the resources to do so, we
can do the reverse. We can read the text to the students
and ask them to imagine and draw the images that would
complement the text. While we do so, we ask questions to
teseopress.com
prompt decisions students need to make. For instance, we

can ask: What do the characters look like? Are they tall/short/
slim/overweight? How do they feel? Are they happy/tired/sad?
Can we see their faces or are they too far away? Are they facing
us? Are they making eye contact with us? From whose point of
view are we seeing the event? Are there margins/frames in the
image? If so, how thick are they?
At the end, we can look at the choices made by the
author and illustrator of the picture book we are working
with and discuss whether the original verbal and visual
choices are effective or not. We discuss and try to figure out
why the creators did what they did.
Nonetheless, the point of this activity is not to guess
what was done in the original picture book. It does not mat-
ter who writes or draws the closest version. What is impor-
tant is that students see first-hand how much they can rely
on images to transmit meanings. This is very important at
lower levels of instruction, where students feel they cannot
produce a story because they lack the language to do so and
get quite frustrated or apprehensive when given the task. In
addition, this activity will help our students see that images
are the result of decisions they need to be ready to make
when it is their turn to produce their own picture book. We
need to help them realise that drawing their picture book
will take some thinking. Finally, this activity gives students
solid practice in recognising the visual resources for mak-
ing meanings and putting them into practice.
Inserting an event or a spread into a picture book

Another activity we can do is to insert an event or a spread
in a picture book that has been read in class. This exercise
helps students by restricting the number of decisions they
need to make. They are producing a spread that is part of a
story which was already created.
Not all picture books are useful for this activity, but
some of them lend themselves nicely for the task. We can
teseopress.com
use picture books that present complicating events that are

very similar in nature. For example, all the things that can
go wrong in a day, which go from bad to worse, as in The
Red Tree by Shaun Tan (2001), or events that show all the
things a character does, as in the No, David! series by David
Shannon (1999, 2002, 2003) and I Aint Gonna Paint No More
by Karen Beaumont & David Catrow (2005), or events that
depict what the character experiences or sees and that trig-
ger the same response (feelings of fear/happiness/shock,
memories, predictions) as in Math Curse (Scieszka & Smith,
1995). In picture books like these, it is easier for students
to come up with one more complicating event that could
occur at some point before the climax.
The first thing that we need to do is help students
see that there are many decisions that have been made (by
authors and illustrators) that we need to respect and follow.
The characters and their individual features are already set
as well as the type of conflicts and reactions they have. We
analyse the characters’ traits and habits, the type of conflicts
present in the story and how they all contribute to and lead
up to the climatic event. We also direct their attention to
the drawing style and colour schemes used in the book. We
need to help them notice these features so that they make
sure the event they insert fits the story, abiding by decisions
already made by authors.
Once we are confident that students are well aware
of these choices, we can divide students into groups and
ask them to brainstorm types of events they can insert into
the story. If we think students might have many difficulties
coming up with an appropriate idea, then we can do the
brainstorming all together and come up with several ideas
that we list on the board. Then each group can choose or be
assigned one of the ideas.
As students work on their production, we monitor and
ask questions to direct their attention to possible problems.
For example, we can ask: What do the characters look like? Do
you think the characters would do this? How do you think the
teseopress.com
characters would react? Would it be better if we could see their

faces here to show their reactions? Would it be a good idea for
the characters to be facing the readers? Would they be making
eye contact? From whose point of view will you present the event?
What impact will this have on your readers? Would you include
margins or frames for this image? Why? Questions such as
these could be written on the board or on a poster on the
wall for students to be able to consult constantly.
When students finish the activity, we can have other
groups give them feedback before we give them feedback
ourselves. Their peers’ reactions as to how credible the
event is as part of the story we have all read are very impor-
tant and can help students improve their production. Once
the students’ productions are ready, we can display them on
the walls of the classroom.
For example, having read The Frog Prince Continued
(Scieszka & Johnson, 1994), pre-intermediate, eleven-year-
old students created this event to add to the series of dan-
gerous encounters with witches and evil characters the
Frog Prince has as he is looking for someone who can turn
him into a frog again. These students took into account
the elements of an event and decided to use the first image
to contextualise the event, the second to depict some of
the action taking place in the event, while the text mostly
showed the dialogue between the characters, and the third,
the consequence of the action as the Frog Prince decided
to run away as fast as he could. They also depicted his
emotional reaction to what happened in the event through
words (‘scared’, ‘as fast as he could’) and in the visual rep-
resentation (the vectors signalling the speed at which he
runs away, his wide-open eyes and the downturned cor-
ners of his mouth).
teseopress.com
Providing an ending for a picture book

As we mentioned in the previous exercise, creating an inter-
esting plot and believable characters is one of the most
challenging tasks when producing a narrative because it
teseopress.com
requires many careful decisions. As we suggested in the

previous activity, we can make the task easier by asking
students to provide a resolution to a story instead of creat-
ing one from scratch. Simultaneously they can practise the
skills needed to produce a complete multimodal narrative.
This task, in contrast with the previous one, entails a more
careful understanding of what happens in the story to come
up with an ending that fits the rest of the book, and it may
require the creation of more than one event.
To carry out this activity, we stop reading right after
the climax (point of highest tension in the story) and ask
students to imagine how the story ends. We can do some
brainstorming with the whole class to come up with possi-
ble resolutions to the conflict. This will allow us to analyse
students’ suggestions with them, helping them realise they
need to consider everything that has happened up to that
point, and the characters’ habits and individual features. In
some cases, we will need to show our students why not all
their ideas fit the story.
Next, we can go over the styles the author and the
illustrator have used to write and draw to help our students
turn their attention to the way in which the characters and
events are depicted in the narrative. Since students are not
required to make all of these decisions, we can take the
time instead to analyse the resources chosen and discuss
their effectiveness and reflect upon alternative choices that
could have been made and what their effect would have
been on the reader.
Afterwards, we can move on to discuss some of the
resources students themselves could use when creating
their ending. Depending on the type of story we are read-
ing and the nature of the conflict, we can concentrate on
different aspects of the language and the images that are
important when providing the resolution.
This activity can be done with the whole class or in
small groups, depending on how confident our students
are at this point. It can also be used for stories with an
teseopress.com
open ending, as these narratives finish after the climax and

no resolution is included. Some classes do not seem to be
comfortable with open-ended stories and they would often
like to know what happens to the characters, so creating an
ending all together can be a very motivating experience.
Creating a multimodal narrative in Joint construction

Once students seem to be more comfortable with visual
and verbal resources used in picture books, we can produce
one all together as a Joint construction exercise. Here, the
teacher again has the task of guiding students by adjusting
their suggestions.
To make the task easier, we would try to use a similar
conflict or structure to the ones encountered when reading
in class. Another option is to use the same characters and
change the problem, as if it were another book in a saga or
series. These possibilities restrict the number of decisions
we need to make and help our students feel more comfort-
able and confident when creating the narrative.
What we need to do first is come up with what happens
in the story. We need to decide:
• what the message of the story is;
• what problem the characters can face that help them
learn something or change in some way;
• who the main characters and secondary characters are,
their traits and habits that trigger the problem or help
them solve it;
• where and when the story takes place, how the setting
affects what happens in the story;
• what the complicating events that lead to the climactic
moment in the story are, how they complicate the situ-
ation and cause a change in the characters;
• what the resolution to the problem and the new state of
affairs for the characters are after they have faced (and
overcome) the problem;
teseopress.com
• from which point of view the story is told, i.e., who

the narrator is.
Figur
Figuree 3 – Graphic organizer: outline with basic ideas for their story.
Once we have all these ideas ready, we need to decide

what will be expressed in the text and what through the
images. Illustrators do this by creating what they call a sto-
ryboard. In it they include the spreads that will make up
the picture book, sketching the drawings and text in them.
The list of events can help us here. It is important to bear
in mind that while some events will occupy part of a page,
some others may occupy one or more spreads. This depends
on the importance of the event with respect to the whole
story and how significant the characters’ reactions to it are
for the development of the story. We may have a page or
spread with the happening and another in which we can
see the characters’ reactions in detail. This means we will
devote more than one image and page for this event.
teseopress.com
As regards the text, the teacher plays a very important

role, since students may find it difficult to express their
ideas in a second language. This step will take time and, as
language teachers, we will exploit this instance to teach and
practice language use. The vocabulary and grammar can
easily be adapted to the level of proficiency of our students
since most of what is transmitted can be represented in the
images. For example, the text can consist of short dialogues
and descriptions that help move the story forward and that
are easy enough for our students to produce.
We can create the storyboard on the board or a large
piece of paper that we stick to a wall for everyone to see. We
can ask students to start drawing the story and writing the
text we have constructed jointly in different pieces of paper
that we will then put together to make up the book. The
fact that we will have many different illustrators requires
that we agree on basic aspects of the characters’ physical
qualities and the context before they start drawing. It is a
good idea to make a couple of drawings all together and
place them in a corner where everybody can see them and
use them as a guide.
For the visual representation of the story, we can
always try to make the production of the picture book a
joint project with the teacher in charge of Art.
The idea is that students are able to create a narrative
even if they do not have a high level of proficiency in Eng-
lish because they can use the images to express what hap-
pens in the story and depict the characters and the context
in which the story unfolds. Even if the drawings for the
story are not perfect or equal to each other, most students
enjoy the activity and feel proud of their production, as it
is an instance of authentic communication with a real audi-
ence. We can invite parents or students from other classes
to see the book or send it to our students’ homes in turns.
teseopress.com
Producing a picture book with a new idea

As said before, this activity is not a must. In fact, it is a
very difficult task which requires not only confidence in the
language, but also abstract thinking and problem-solving
skills. However, it might still be worth a try to give our
students the opportunity to come up with a creation of their
own. We may be surprised by how creative and resolute
our students can be!
That said, once we have taken some of the steps above
to prepare our students for production, we can create a
picture book with a new idea different from the ones we
have read in class. Depending on the students’ proficien-
cy level, age and the level of comfort and confidence with
which they have completed previous tasks, the teacher can
ask them to do this task as a whole class, in small groups,
in pairs or individually.
Following the teaching-learning cycle, here we go
through the Building up subject matter stage again, gathering
useful vocabulary and visual resources for this particular
narrative. If our students will produce different stories, this
stage will be more difficult to carry out all together. How-
ever, we can give our students a topic to write about or
a conflict the characters will have to overcome, restricting
the field to one topic we can introduce to the whole class to
work together initially.
As regards language, for example, we can tell our
younger students we will be writing about adventures on
the farm and review or present vocabulary related to the
animals and people who live on the farm, the actions each of
the animals can do, the different places and objects present
on the farm, among other related vocabulary items. For the
visual, we can look at and analyse pictures of farm animals
to see what they look like, what colour they are, what size
they are, what their universal features are.
In a class with older children, we can ask students
to create a mystery/horror story where something scary
teseopress.com
happens and go over vocabulary related to the supernatural,

people’s feelings, dark or strange places (such as the woods,
a haunted house, a cemetery), adjectives and nouns to create
dark and frightening imagery. For the visuals, we can dis-
cuss which colours are more effective for creating a gloomy,
scary, or sinister atmosphere, in which moments they will
show or foreground the characters’ feelings or bring the
reader into the story world and which resources they can
use to accomplish this.
Then, to help them organise and choose the characters
and events they need to build the plot of their story, we can
ask students to complete the graphic organizer presented
in the previous activity for this new story. It can help them
start the process of decision-making and they can use it as
a guide while making the picture book.
As we explained before, we have placed the message
they would like to transmit with their story at the top of
the graphic organizer. What they want to say with their
story is the first thing they need to think about. Once they
know what message they wish to express, they can decide
on a problem or a conflict that foregrounds or transmits
this message, one that places the characters in a position
to face a difficulty that teaches them a lesson or changes
their reality or themselves in some way. Coming up with a
suitable conflict for a story is one of the most difficult parts
of the process. We need to provide plenty of examples of
problems that could constitute the complicating event in a
story and discuss other problems around which it would
not be interesting to create a narrative. Once they have a
clear purpose and conflict in mind, they can decide who the
characters facing the problem will be, their traits and habits,
who will accompany them (secondary characters), which
setting in place and time will better lend itself to contribute
to the building of tension or suspense, and which events
they think are necessary for the characters to go through,
identifying which of them will be the climax of the story.
teseopress.com
During the process of decision-making, the teacher

and peers can offer ideas, react to choices students have
made and give feedback to improve their stories, making
them more believable, touching, interesting. Once they have
established what the story will be like, they can move on to
deciding what will be said through language and what will
be expressed through images.
They need to look at the events and decide which
ones will be represented in only one spread and which
will require more pages and make a schematic draft of the
spreads with their corresponding text (storyboard). This
will take time and a lot of thinking. Here again they will
need to consult the teacher and peers and get as much feed-
back as they can. As we said before, if we work at a school, it
would be advisable to consult the Art teacher for ideas and
techniques students can use to build the images and then
help with feedback for the students’ visual production.
Here they also need to revisit the concepts they have
seen while analysing the images in picture books as readers
(see 6.2. Modelling the text above). The teacher can ask stu-
dents some of the questions that we have suggested above
to help them make decisions. The process of production can
take as many drafts as our students need or as time allows
for. As we suggested before, for each version it is always a
good idea for the teacher and peers to provide feedback on
the content of their story as well as the resources (verbal
and visual) they have chosen to convey the meanings.
Finally, for every production we have our students do,
it is very motivating for them to know their work will
be published. Having a real audience for their production
makes the experience of expressing themselves through
language (and images in the case of picture books) more
purposeful and fulfilling. So, we can arrange for their sto-
ries to circulate in the classroom and school or be taken
home in turns for students to read with their parents; we
can organise reading sessions in which our students read
their picture books to younger classes; or we can add their
teseopress.com
picture books to the classroom bookshelf or box. Whatev-

er we do to give them the sense their work will be seen
(and appreciated) by others will make the whole experience
more meaningful and ultimately more enjoyable.
6.4. Coda
In this final chapter, we have suggested activities to effec-

tively create part of or entire multimodal narratives in the
EFL classroom following the teaching-learning cycle pro-
posed by Martin & Rothery (1991). This pedagogy ensures
the assimilation of the vocabulary needed and the step-by-
step analysis and production of different stages in stories,
be them in isolation or within narratives. We hope the dif-
ferent activities we have included prove useful: we have
tried to cater for a variety of levels of instruction and con-
sider a range of time availability.
teseopress.com
Bibliography
Boccia, C., Brain, V., Farías, A., Gauna, B., Perera de Saravia,
G., Hassan, S., & Dorado, L. (2013). Working with Texts
in the EFL Classroom. EDIUNC.
Boccia, C., Farías, A., Moreschi, M. E., Hassan, S., Salmaso,
G., & Romero Day, M. M. (2019). Teaching and learning
EFL through genres. TeseoPress.
Carter, J. (2001). Creating Writers. RoutledgeFalmer.
Christie, F. (2005). Language Education in the Primary Years.
UNSW Press.
Derewianka, B. (1990). Exploring how texts work. Primary
English Teaching Association.
Eggins, S. (2004). An introduction to systemic functional lin-
guistics: 2nd Edition (2nd Edition). Continuum Interna-
tional Publishing Group.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Language as Social Semiotic: The
Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. Arnold.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1994). Introducing Functional Grammar.
Arnold. Halliday, M. A. K., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion
in English. Routledge.
Halliday, M. A. K., & Matthiessen, C. M. I. M. (2013).
An Introduction to Functional Grammar (4th Edition).
Arnold.
Hasan, R. (1996a). On Teaching Literature Across Cultural
Distances. In J. E. James (Ed.), The Language—Culture
Connection. SEAMEO.
Hasan, R. (1996b). The Nursery Tale as a Genre. In Ways of
Saying: Ways of Meaning (pp. 51–73). Cassell.
Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to
Contemporary Communication. Routledge.
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2002). Colour as a semiotic
mode: Notes for a grammar of colour (pp. 343–368). SAGE
Publications.
teseopress.com 153
Kress, G., & van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The

Grammar of Visual Design (2nd Edition). Routledge.
Macken-Horarik, M. (2003). Appraisal and the Special
Instructiveness of Narrative. Text & Talk: An Interdisci-
plinary Journal of Language, Discourse & Communication
Studies. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter., 23(2), 285–312.
Martin, J. R. (1992). English Text: System and Structure. John
Benjamins.
Martin, J. R. (1999). Mentoring semogenesis: ‘genre-based’
literacy pedagogy. In F. Christie (Ed.), Pedagogy and the
Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and social processes
(pp. 123–155). Cassell.
Martin, J. R. (2000). Beyond Exchange: Appraisal Systems
in English. In Thompson & Hunston (Eds.), Evaluation
in Text. Oxford University Press.
Martin, J. R. (2001). A Context for Genre: Modelling Social
Processes in Functional Linguistics. In Gregory, Stain-
ton, & De Villiers (Eds.), Communication in Linguistics
(Vol. 1). Editions du GREF.
Martin, J. R. (2010). Language, Register and Genre. In C.
Coffin, T. Lillis, & K. O’Halloran (Eds.), Applied Lin-
guistics Methods: A Reader. Systemic Functional Linguistics,
Critical Discourse Analysis and Ethnography. Routledge.
Martin, J. R. (2012). The Ecology of the Page. In W. Zhenhua
(Ed.), Collected Works of J. R. Martin (Vol. 3). Shanghai
Jiao Tong University Press.
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2007). Working with Discourse.
Meaning Beyond the Clause (2nd ed.). Continuum.
Martin, J. R., & Rose, D. (2008). Genre relations: Mapping
culture. Equinox.
Martin, J. R., & Rothery, J. (1991). Literacy for a Life-
time—Teachers’ Notes. Film Australia.
Martin, J. R., & White, P. (2005). The language of Evaluation:
Appraisal in English. Palgrave.
Nodelman, P. (1988). Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art
of Children’s Picture Books. University of Georgia Press.
teseopress.com
O’Halloran, K. L. (2008). Systemic Functional-Multimodal

Discourse Analysis (SF- MDA): Constructing ideation-
al meaning using language and visual imagery.
Visual Communication, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/
1470357208096210
Painter, C. (2008). The Role of Colour in Children’s Picture
Books: Choices in AMBIENCE. In L. Unsworth (Ed.),
New Literacies and the English Curriculum. Continuum.
Painter, C., Martin, J. R., & Unsworth, L. (2011).
Organizing Visual Meaning: FRAMING and BAL-
ANCE in Picture-Book Images. In Semiotic Margins:
Meaning in Multimodalities (pp. 125–143). Continuum.
Painter, C., Martin, J. R., & Unsworth, L. (2013). Reading
Visual Narratives. Image Analysis of Children’s Picture
Books. Equinox Publishing Ltd.
Poynton, C. (1990). Address and the Semiotics of Social Rela-
tions: A Systemic- functional Account of Address Forms and
Practices in Australian English [PhD]. Department of Lin-
guistics, University of Sydney.
Rose, D. (2005). Narrative and the origins of discourse:
Patterns of discourse semantics in stories around the
world. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics.
Rothery, J., & Stenglin, M. (1997). Entertaining and
Instructing: Exploring Experience through Story. In
Frances Christie & J. R. Martin (Eds.), Genre and Insti-
tutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School. Con-
tinuum.
Thompson, G. (2004). Introducing Functional Grammar.
Arnold.
Unsworth, L. (2001). Teaching Multiliteracies across the Cur-
riculum: Changing contexts of the text and image in class-
room practice. Open University.
Unsworth, L. (2005). E-Literature for Children. Enhancing dig-
ital literacy learning. Routledge.
Unsworth, L. (2013). Point of view in picture books and
animated movie adaptations. Scan, 32(1), 28–37.
teseopress.com
Unsworth, L. (2014). Point of view in picture books and

animated film adaptations: Informing critical multi-
modal comprehension and composition pedagogy. In
E. Djonov & S. Zhao (Eds.), Critical multimodal studies of
popular culture (pp. 201–216). Routledge.
Unsworth, L. (2015). Persuasive narratives: Evaluative
images in picture books and animated movies. Visual
Communication, 14(1), 73–96.
Zipes, J., Paul, L., Vallone, L., Hunt, P., & Avery, G. (2005).
The Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature: The Tradi-
tions in English. Norton.
teseopress.com
Picture books
Andreae, G., & Parker-Rees, G. (2001). Giraffes Can’t Dance.

Orchard Books.
Arnold, T. (1997). Parts. Puffin Books.
Arnold, T. (2001). More Parts. Puffin Books.
Arnold, T. (2004). Even More Parts. Puffin Books.
Arnold, T. (2006a). Hi! Fly Guy. Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2006b). Super Fly Guy. Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2007). There Was an Old Lady who Swallowed Fly
Guy. Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2008). Fly High, Fly Guy! Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2010a). Buzz Boy and Fly Guy. Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2010b). Fly Guy Meets Fly Girl. Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2012). Ride, Fly Guy, Ride! Cartwheel Books.
Arnold, T. (2013). Shoo, Fly Guy! Cartwheel Books.
Beaumont, K., & Catrow, D. (2005). I Ain’t Gonna Paint No
More. Harcourt.
Bradbury, R., Dillon, L., & Dillon, D. (2004). Switch On the
Night. Dragonfly Books Ltd.
Briggs, R. (1984). The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron
Woman. Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
Briggs, R. (1989). The Snowman Storybook. Random House.
Browne, A. (1983). Gorilla. Walker Books.
Browne, A. (1986). Piggybook. Dragonfly Books Ltd.
Browne, A. (1992). Zoo. Random House.
Browne, A. (1998). Voices in the Park. DK. Browne, A. (2005).
Into the Forest. Walker Books.
Browne, A. (2008). The Tunnel. Walker Books.
Bunting, E., & Wiesner, D. (1999). Night of the Gargoyles.
Houghton Mifflin.
Burningham, J. (2003). Granpa. Red Fox.
Cannon, J. (1993). Stellaluna. Harcourt.
teseopress.com 157
Child, L. (2002). Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book? Orchard

Books.
Child, L. (2003). Beware of the Storybook Wolves. Scholastic
Paperbacks.
Cooke, T., & Oxenbury, H. (2008). So Much! Candlewick
Press.
Crew, G. (1996). First Light. Hachette Australia.
Crew, G., & Tan, S. (1997). The Viewer. Hachette Australia.
Crew, G., & Woolman, S. (2011). The Watertower. Crocodile
Books.
Cronin, D., & Lewin, B. (2016). Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that
Type. Simon and Schuster.
Daywalt, D., & Jeffers, O. (2016). The Day the Crayons Quit.
HarperCollins.
Duffy, C. A., & Ceccoli, N. (2007). The Tear Thief. Barefoot
Books Ltd.
Fox, M., & Vivas, J. (1991). Possum Magic. Scholastic Aus-
tralia.
Freedman, C., & Hindley, K. (2015). Oliver & Patch. Simon
and Schuster.
Gleeson, L., & Greder, A. (1992). Uncle David. Tamborine.
Gravett, E. (2007a). Little Mouse’s Big Book of Fears. Macmil-
lan Children’s Books.
Gravett, E. (2007b). Meerkat Mail. Simon and Schuster.
Hathorn, L., & Rogers, G. (1994). Way Home. Random House
Australia.
Hutchins, P. (1968). Rosie’s Walk. Bodley Head.
James, S. (1996). Dear Mr. Blueberry. Aladdin Paperbacks.
Jarman, J., & Chapman, L. (2007). Class Two at the Zoo.
Scholastic.
Jeffers, O. (2005). Lost and Found. HarperCollins Children’s
Books.
Jeffers, O. (2007). The Incredible Book Eating Boy. Harper-
Collins.
Jeffers, O. (2008). The Great Paper Caper. HarperCollins
Children’s Books.
Jeffers, O. (2014). How to Catch a Star. Scholastic.
teseopress.com
Jeffers, O. (2015). The Way Back Home. HarperCollins Chil-

dren’s Books.
Klassen, J. (2014). This Is Not my Hat. Walker Books.
Lionni, L. (1959). Little Blue and Little Yellow. Dragonfly
Books Ltd.
Macaulay, D. (2005). Black and White. HMH Books.
McKee, D. (2004). Not Now, Bernard. Andersen Press.
Milgrim, D. (2000). Cows Can’t Fly. Puffin Books.
Mims Hopkins, J., & Austin, M. (2000). The Horned Toad
Prince. Peachtree Publishing Company.
Min, W. (1998). Peter’s Patchwork Dream. Barefoot Books
Ltd.
Muth, J. J. (2005). Zen Shorts. Scholastic Press.
Muth, J. J. (2007). Zen Ties. Scholastic Press.
Muth, J. J. (2010). Zen Ghosts. Scholastic Press.
Scieszka, J. (2005). Baloney. Puffin Books.
Scieszka, J., & Johnson, S. (1994). The Frog Prince Continued.
Puffin Books.
Scieszka, J., & Smith, L. (1995). Math Curse. Viking Press.
Scieszka, J., & Smith, L. (1996). The True Story of the 3 Little
Pigs. Puffin Books.
Scieszka, J., & Smith, L. (2001). Baloney (Henry P.). Puffin
Books.
Scieszka, J., & Smith, L. (2004). Science Verse. Puffin Books.
Scieszka, J., & Smith, L. (2005). Seen Art? Viking Press Inc.
Sendak, M. (1963). Where the Wild Things Are. Harper &
Row.
Shannon, D. (1999). David Goes to School. Scholastic Inc.
Shannon, D. (2002). David Gets in Trouble. Blue Sky Press.
Shannon, D. (2003). No, David. Scholastic.
Sis, P. (2010). Madlenka. Square Fish.
Tan, S. (1998). The Rabbits. Hachette Australia.
Tan, S. (2000). The Lost Thing. Hachette Australia.
Tan, S. (2001). The Red Tree. Hachette Australia Pty Limited.
Tan, S. (2006). The Arrival. Arthur A. Levine Books.
van Allsburg, C. (1990). Just a Dream. HMH Books.
Wiesner, D. (2006). Flotsam. Clarion Books.
teseopress.com
Willems, M. (2006). Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale. West-

on Woods.
Winter, J. (2008). Wangari’s Trees of Peace: A True Story from
Africa. HMH Books.
teseopress.com
teseopress.com
teseopress.com

Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives in The EFL Classroom 1645475787 138953

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Understanding and Creating Bimodal Narratives in The EFL Classroom 1645475787 138953

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

teseopress.

The Role of Images

Chapter 6: Suggested Activities.............................................. 127

Storytelling is inherent to all societies. People have been

peace, freedom, justice from the stories we share. They help

On the other hand, because stories are vehicles for

still exist. To add to this area of research, we worked with

In this chapter, we will briefly comment on the theoretical

1.1. Theoretical framework

SFL describes language as inherently functional and its

relationship between the interactants. This contrasts with

Experientially, the brief conversation is clearly about

Madden are deciding on the deadline of the report. Inter-

to make meanings (Painter et al., 2013, p.2). In other words,

involves developing theoretical and practical approaches

Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) propose a vast visual

1.2. Macro meanings in picture story books

In this book we present sets of visual resources drawn

1.3. Structure of narratives

Different authors within SFL have studied the structure of

Placement ^ Initiating Event ^ Sequent event(s) ^ Final event

The Placement includes the setting in time and place,

things for the characters. This stage is called Sequent

Bringing together this understanding of how stories are

In order for readers to engage emotionally in the story

Because the various elements of fiction –such as plot, dia-

In this chapter we will briefly look at how characters

2.1. Creating characters

When we think about creating characters, we consider

example, or to reflect upon a particular moment in the

Examples of characters depicted in more narrative

with a flower in her hands, just looking at the audience.

• the technique of shading (i.e., cross-hatching, smooth

The minimalist style is more iconic, focusing mainly

Moreover, characters may be depicted with posses-

2.2. Building action

As we all know, the action of a narrative moves the story

these characters are thinking, sensing, or saying specifi-

In this case, then, the action is interpreted as produced by

2.3. Representing circumstances

So far, we have looked at ways in which we create charac-

Thus, the words create a detailed world for the boy

Circumstances of means and accompaniment are

out an action, for example, the reader can assume they

Circumstances of reason can be depicted by sub-

Circumstances of extent that show how far a character or

As we can see, circumstances of purpose, reason and

Type of circumstance Realisation in images

Table 1 – Circumstances and realisations.

In this chapter, we have looked at how different elements

In the previous chapter we explored visual resources used

distance (Painter et al., 2013, p. 19). In contrast, illustrators

3.1. Positioning readers in interaction with characters

As we said before, readers are sometimes invited to relate

participate in the story world more actively. This partici-

3.1.1. Focalisation: eye contact

The system of FOCALISATION deals with how the reader

ipants, or contact images, in which the character makes eye

However, in many picture books, contact images are

In these images, readers are positioned to engage with

show characters facing readers, with their frontal plane

3.1.3. Social distance

between them, and readers can better appreciate the