More Words About Pictures: Current Research on Picture Books and Visual/Verbal Texts for Young People ed. by Naomi Hamer, Perry Nodelman, and Mavis Reimer (review)

This edited volume addresses topics discussed at a picturebook conference that took place at the University of Winnipeg in 2013. It aims to revisit and further Perry Nodelman's Words about Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children's Picture Books, which was originally published in 1988. Since then, picturebooks have undergone a rapid transformation, so this volume presents cutting-edge picturebook studies that cover a rich array of issues while making connections to the landmark work of Nodelman. The volume combines three thematic strands: first, the origination of meaning in picturebooks; second, the use of diverse media to transmit the narrative; and third, the material conditions of picturebooks that can at times lead to performative readings. In the preface, editors Naomi Hamer and Mavis Reimer underline the importance of cross-disciplinary theoretical inquiries, which have their foundations in Nodelman's previous work.

In his introduction, Nodelman recounts how he came to write Words about Pictures and how in time his views evolved and spread to help create a new awareness. He acknowledges his debts to newer picturebook scholarship, giving snapshots of promising lines of enquiry not addressed in his first book. Lian Beveridge's original essay extends the scope of literary appreciation by exploring babies' chewing and biting of books as a form of reading, a literary and bodily engagement with their favorite books. The chapter by William Moebius compares visiting a museum to reading a picturebook by juxtaposing the relational aspects of the two. Much like museums, picturebooks allow their readers to closely examine their content—facilitating not only physical closeness but also an intimate exploration of the narrative in a number of ways, calling to mind Buzz Spector's Book Maker's Desire: Writing on the Arts of the Book (1995). The spatial interaction with the picturebook may trigger a performative presence of the reader, blurring the line between the medium of the painting and the picturebook. Erica Hateley's essay discusses interpictoriality in Shaun Tan's picturebook The Lost Thing. She notes that the paintings alluded to reflect changing ways of being, from individualism in the earlier paintings to social interaction in the later ones, pointing the protagonist towards a happier way of being.

Naomi Hamer studies the production of picturebooks for mobile and interactive platforms by comparing discourses between print picturebooks and digital picturebook apps. Hamer draws our attention to the shared properties of both formats as they foster participatory and collaborative reading, but she notes that adapting printed picturebooks into picturebook apps may not be as simple as imagined, considering that the new media cultures solicit their own design approach and theory for an optimal outcome. Helene Høyrup points to new frontiers in textuality as she studies children's encounters with new media and how traditional books and reading practices are being dismantled, stressing the need to revisit theories involving materiality and semiotics. Høyrup sketches emerging literary systems and their novel approach to delivering text to children, at times inviting them to become co-creators.

"Performing Picture Books as Co-Authorship" explores the role picturebooks play in the enactment of a text, either physically or in the imagination, and its impact on a child. This essay studies the significance of the often overlooked role of performativity or mediation that is necessary to be able to fully absorb the picturebook narrative. "Environmental Picture Books: Cultivating Conservationists" studies how environmental consciousness is represented in picturebooks for today's children. It uses the tools of ecocriticism to question whether these books sufficiently encourage respect and responsibility for nature by taking a critical stand especially on environmental issues. The following essays also cover a wide spectrum of topics, ranging from the results of a case study on the presentation of faith in...