Research

By Coral Welburn

Zachary Quack MiniMonster• Author: Lynley Dodd• Illustrator: Lynley Dodd• Paperback: 32 pages• Publisher: Puffin; Re-issue edition (3 Aug 2006)• Language: English• Age Range: 7 and up• Grade Level: 4 and up• Size: 7.1 x 9.2 x 0.3 inches

Zachary Quack is about a duck that is annoying all the animals around him, chasing them out of their homes or waking them up. He comes across as dragonfly which fly’s away, trying to get away from the duck. However Zachary quack continues to chase the dragonfly, leading Zachary on a wild chase that causes him to be falling over and crashing into things along the way.

This book consists of 32 pages, however the layout of the book is the detailed picture on one side, with the text being on the other. So there are 15 pages worth of text and 15 worth of pictures, leaving the other two to be title page and legal information about the book. The text pages of the book only include around 4 or 5 sentences on each, all of the ending words using the traditional 2nd sentence ending word and 4th sentence ending word to rhyme. There are only around 3-5 words on each sentence line, so there isnt a detailed amount to read. This is a good technique to use with children's books as it makes it more fun for them and they are more guaranteed to understand the books storyline when there is a fun way of reading it out loud. Having only a few sentences on each page doesn’t intimidate the children and keeps them focused on reading it, as big paragraphs would only confuse and bore them. I think that using a font and sizing of text that has been used gives the eye a hand of linking the letters together and helping it flow more easily, as there is flicks on the endings of letters that automatically brings the eye to follow them. The Serif font that has been used helps children stay focused on the word they are trying to read. Using a fairly big size when there is only around 2-5 sentences on each page makes it stand out on a page as if a sizing of 12 was used, the words would be much harder to read. So using the sizing of around 18, which I think is what has been used, gives the children an easier time to read each letter properly. Also each letter has been evenly spaced out so that the words aren’t cramped together. This is a good technique to use for the early readers as when learning to read, having cramped words doesn’t help your brain to put each letter together and help you understand the word correctly. The illustrations for the story are always on the left page throughout this book, giving you a chance to look at the picture before reading what its about. This has been done to help the child understand what the text is on about, giving them a helping hand. Lynley Dodd has illustrated this book, using the skill of watercolours for each specific picture on the 15 picture pages. The colour palette for each book include different shades of green’s, browns and oranges. There is a bright yellow used for the duck which makes him really stand out against the background colours, which are mainly greens and browns. The pictures go into a lot of detail with using for example a dark green as a block backing colour for a bush, then going onto adding more detail with a lighter green which highlights each stroke really well, using small strokes but a lot of them really adds onto making everything much more detailed and precise. Lynley has gone round certain objects using the colour black with a really thin paintbrush. What this does is makes the objects stand out from the background colours used. Highlighting what Lynley wants you to see as specific objects as just nature and the backing scene. For example with the toys Zachary stumbles into they are all highlighted with black as these are important to the story, as these are objects he stumbles into and brings with him along the way. Using watercolours gives things a smooth texture and doesn’t all look bright and in your face, as some things look better thinner and subtle than thick and standing off the page for each colour used.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar• Paperback: 28 pages• Publisher: Puffin; New Ed edition (28 Nov 2002) first published by the World Publishing Company

in 1969• Language: English• Author: Eric Carle• Illustrator: Eric Carle • Size: 7.1 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches• Tissue Paper Technique

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is about a caterpillar that makes his way through eating a variety of food before completing his life cycle and becoming a beautiful butterfly. It’s a hidden meaning book. Its all about the journey through life and the things you come across through it. However Eric Carle did this with using food that is enjoyed by a lot of children. He used things that kids would find interesting and using food that is enjoyed by a variety of different people such as ice cream and fruit etc.

This book consists of 28 pages, which have pictures and text on each sides of the pages. The layout is calm and doesn’t include lots of text. There is only between 2-4 sentences on each page which are surrounded by bright colourful pictures. The font that has been used is following the traditional root of serif, which sets it to be simple and include straight line that helps direct the eye from one letter to another. Eric has used a plain background, which brings the text forward and it stands out more, where as if a coloured background was to be used then there is more of a chance the text blending in and not been noticeable for the reader’s. The pictures that have been used on each page all use the same technique, which is a collage of coloured tissue paper put together to make a picture, with a minimal amount of paint used to add accurate details. This technique creates big block colours which are better for early reader books.

Using tissue paper is a different way of presenting your images, its fun and it also gives the pictures an edge to them. All the pictures that have been included in this book are bright and stand off the page. I think its best to use really bright colours with childrens books as it catches their eye and lures them into continuing reading, if they are enjoying the picture content there is a 50/50 chance that it will capture their attention and drive them to keep reading so that they can see more of the pictures on the next pages. Its a really good technique to have different idea’s that interest children, with this book it has holes in showing where the caterpillar has eaten through to get to his next selection of food, where as for the readers its a hole to get through to the other side to keep reading the story and to follow the caterpillar. The illustrator Eric Carle has presented the book to look really busy and chaotic, however all he has done has used big block shapes, creating a busy look to the book. The language that is used is simple and can easily be understood by the early readers who are reading the book. The age range is set to be around 5-7 years old as its using language them ages would be able to understand, along with the visual elements that would entertain them as well.

Stick Man• Paperback: 32 pages• Publisher: Alison Green Books (7 Sep 2009• Language: English• Author: Julia Donaldson• Illustrator: Axel Scheffler• Size: 21.7 x 0.3 x 26.4 cm

Stick Man• The stick man is a highly popular book for children between the age of 5-8 as the illustrations and storyline is interesting for both

genders. Its not particularly swaying to one or the other which is nice as it creates a much wider audience. This book is very modern and is very interesting with the way it words and presents things. The book is written in the theme of rhyme. The storyline is fun and exciting for children as it takes the ‘stick man’ on an adventure.

• What i like about the illustrations is that the stick has been given human qualities, with eyes, legs, hands etc and it has been given feelings which is been portrayed through the text and the expressions given on the stick. The illustrations have been painted and drawn, along with been digitally edited to give off the smooth edge and texture to the drawings, also to add certain things that could perhaps be drawn, such as the stroke effect given. The colours used are bright and colourful, which shows a contrast between the stick as the colours used for him are dark browns and greens for the leaves coming off of him. However the backgrounds are bright greens and yellows, along with blues. However in this book the seasons change, but that doesn’t stop the bright whites reflecting off the dark blue sky. Bright colours always bring in children as it brings excitement to their eyes as their young eyes love bright colours.

• The layout of this book is interesting as it changes over the pages. Some pages include both text and images, where some others have just one page for an image and another for text, so its giving the readers a change throughout, giving them something else exciting to look at. Also it gives the illustrator chance to then include bigger images with much greater detail for the pages with just a picture on. I would like to use something like this if i were to use a lot of pages. However i think that there would be too much information if i was to do so many different pages with so many different techniques and it could get confusing.

• The fonts and sizing used is nice for the readers eyes and the font is simple and not too showy, with the sizing been big and bold standing off the page, but not too big to overshadow the pictures and make the page too crowded. Also the font style ranges from regular to italic, the italic adding depth and meaning to the rhyming of the sentences. The italic is used when a statement is been made that is serious and should be followed by the stick man or the readers which breaks the text up so the reader knows whats going on.

• There have been plenty of good techniques used in this book that could become helpful to me in my book creation. But a few of the techniques used were the simple drawing skills that have been developed and enhanced just simply by using such bold colours and making it stand off the page, then making sure the text was big enough to stand off the page so that the picture wouldn’t swallow it up and make it seep into the shadows and not be noticed. As sometimes when black text is on a lot of colour it can sometimes be left and not be looked at, but this book the colours direct you to the text, luring you in and wanting to read on and find out where the stick man goes next.