Analysis of Boundary-Pushing Picture Books: A Literary Exploration

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PUSHING BOUNDARIES

“BREAKING BOUNDARIES-PICTUREBOOKS AND HIDDEN MEANINGS”
Do pictures in the books really depict common meaning to all or does every reader can have
different thoughts and imaginations while looking at pictures from the books?
Back from the beginning of the visual arts and pictures in the books, every image can have
different meaning for different readers. Barbara Keifer, a children’s literature researcher said
that origin of pictures can be traced back to 40,000 years ago through the mediums of cave,
rock and leaf when technology and other source of writing were not available. From the very
childhood, we learn the meaning from pictorial representations. But picturebooks are different
from the visual illustrations in the books.
Barbara Keifer (1995) said, “I would argue, then, that the picturebook is a unique art object, a
combination of image and Idea that allows the reader to come away with more than the sum of
the two parts”
Figure : FRONTCOVER OF MARTIN SALISBURY’S BOOK
Source: (Salisbury, 2012)

Children are very inquisitive in nature. Their thirst for knowledge, their curiosity for everything
can be seen by all. Picturebooks provide a medium for children to enhance their imagination. As
we grow up, our imagination is gradually replaced by logics. The art of aesthetics, creativeness
and imagination is lost and we tend to look for more facts and logics. Picturebooks provide
children as well as adults with the power of aestheticism and creativity and to imagine different
possibilities. Children particularly learn more from pictures than words as pictures stimulate
their senses and invigorate their imagination. Picturebooks generally contain the blend of
words and illustrations that togther form the text of the books. These picturebooks have
minimum lines and words and mostly the imagination of children is invigorated through
illustrations.
According to David Wiesner, in ‘Free Fall’, “Before they read words, children are reading
pictures.” So here, we’ll see how through picturebooks and visual images, different boundaries
like practicality, rationality, pre-conceived notions, imagination of children are pushed by their
inquisitiveness.
Wolves by Emily Gravett
Wolves by Emily Gravett is an interesting and engaging story where a rabbit reads a book about
Wolves and emerges so much in the story that it is unaware of the impending threat of wolf
that is following it.

Figure : RABBIT READING A BOOK CALLED WOLVES
Source: (Gravett, 2005)
This book follows the common notion of wolves being bad, evil and dangerous creatures that
eat innocent and sweet rabbits but this also induces that rabbits should not believe in fairy tales
that say wolves eat little girls in red hoods but think practically and learn that main food of
wolves are the rabbits. In the above picture, the rabbit is emerged in the reading of a book. The
image can really fascinate children with the cute little rabbit and dangerously looking wolves.
From this image itself, the contrast between cute rabbit and dangerous wolves can be drawn
and this creates mysterious situation that can keep readers hooked with what will happen next.
The situation of thrill and mystery push boundaries of children's literature where stories were
generally about happy endings and playfulness. what is more interesting to note that although
the book infuses fantasy that wolves appear from the pages of the books but it has some
factual information about wolves that pushes boundaries of the generalized children's
literature that mostly have fictional stories rather than non-fictional facts.

FIGURE: ILLUSTRATION OF WOLF
Source: (Gravett, 2005)
What is even more interesting is illustrations in the book have some deep-rooted irony, dark
humour and some thrilling aspects that are difficult for the kids to follow. The illustrations in
the book combined with words present a whole new and different experience to children. In
the picture above, wolf is camouflaged as a tree to illustrate the fact that wolves live in forests
and near trees. These type of illustrations pushes the boundaries by providing the readers the
catalyst to imagine the dreariness of the wolves.
Something that interests me the most in the book is the creativeness of writer to provide
alternate ending for the sensitive readers and how beautifully it is illustrated as the wolf and
the rabbit eat sandwich together. Through this alternate ending, the author who blended
fantasy and fact in the book depicted an interesting turn in the book that pushed boundaries of
the common notion that wolves and rabbits are stark enemies and cannot live together.
Although, it is a work of fiction, this type of ending provides didactic lessons to the children that
enmity can be forgotten, if two people work together to eradicate it.

INTERESTING FACT
Wolves was the debut novel of Emily Gravett and she received Kate Greenaway Medal for it.
For more information on Emily Gravett and her picturebooks, visit https://www. HYPERLINK
"https://www.emilygravett.com/"emilygravett
HYPERLINK"https://www.emilygravett.com/".com
Aldo by John Burningham
Another story that catches my attention in this genre is Aldo by John Burningham. Aldo is the
sweet poetic tale of a little girl and her friend (imaginary, although the word didn't appear in
the text) and how that rabbit friend became her companion in the times of loneliness and
misery. According to me, Aldo is the story that should be read by both children and adults as it
provides the values of friendship to children but most importantly, it also has a message that
parents need to look after their child at the young age as they can be really lonely at times.
John Burningham presented an interesting tale that has many hidden meanings and
representations and if read by adult readers, there are also many peculiarities that stand out in
the text. The notion presented in the book that the girl keeps her friend a secret from her
parents. This type of writing is not good for the children as it is important to share everything
from the parents as a child. This type of secret friend can be dangerous, what if the friend turns
out to be a pedophile. But overall this book pushes boundaries of mainstream picture book
writing by delving into deeper issues like child psychology and effect of bullying and lack of
affection on little children. Although this book provide a kind of sweet vibe of friendship and
love but on the sidelines it hurts knowing that this could only be a sweet dream of a little girl
and in reality she might still be lonely and sad.

Figure: BOOK COVER OF ALDO
Source: (Burningham, 2000 )
This picture above shows narrator and her imaginary rabbit friend. The background of almost
all the illustrations in the book is similar, painted with red and black that symbolizes that it
could all be a happy dream in the mind of the girl. This book encourages young children to cope
up with adversity but didn't provide solution to the problems instead it provides concept of
empathy and sympathizes with the young readers to cope up with these problems. This book is
a sweet tale but these contrasted pictures and this deep underlined meanings can be difficult
for the targeted young readers to understand. According to some critical reviews, the book
dives in the new area of visual imagination but these contrasted pictures might affect the young
readers.
Another story by John Burningham that strikes me is Come Away From The Water, Shirley.
In this book, the images on the recto and verso are different and do not flow in one line. The
text is written only on the recto and that is in monotonous one line instructions showing
authoritative tone of parents, while in the verso, only the illustrations are given to show the
imaginary adventures of Shirley. The text and illustration of parents symbolizes reality while the

illustrations of Shirley symbolizes the carefree imagination of Shirley. This book pushes
boundaries of stereotypical and conventional book writing and presents two modes of
storytelling, one by showing realism through parents and imagination through Shirley's actions.
The adventures and imagination of Shirley is only shown through illustrations. This seems to be
done deliberately by the writer to provide an opportunity for the readers to grasp the details of
Shirley's adventure through images. Burningham used color effect in the book to show the
contrast between the boring and realistic lives of parents by painting the pictures in dull,
washed-out effect and imaginary and interesting life of Shirley by depicting the illustrations in
bright and colorful way as can be seen in the picture below.
Figure: ILLUSTRATION IN ALDO
Source: (Burningham,)
What I think is that child readers realize that Shirley's adventures are imaginary but they can
relate with the story and can imagine themselves in the similar situation, where children doing
their own things and parents continuously giving instructions even without getting any
response.

The story is very unconventional and pushes boundaries of regular narratives where Shirley is
not provided any narrative, parents talk in spite of not getting any response and the story
comes to an abrupt ending, this leads the readers with the opportunity to imagine their own
endings and leave them with curiosity about what would have happened next.
Read more about Burningham and his books:
https://literature.britishcouncil.org/writer/john-burningham.
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
Raymond Briggs in The Snowman presented a wordless picturebook in which the Snowman
created by the boy magically comes to life. This book presents soft beautiful images that
soothes the heart of the readers as well as provide the possibility to the young readers to put
their own words in the story and create magic with illustration through their imagination. This
book pushes boundaries by presenting a book full of illustration in the stereotypical world
where words are placed in higher hierarchy than images. Briggs through this book eve broke his
boundaries by presenting something different than his previous writings like nuclear war,
cartoons who love boogers, this story present soothing festive vibes.
Figure: ILLUSTRATION FROM THE SNOWMAN

As it can be seen in the illustration that the Snowman and the boy enjoy flying together. This
type of illustration let the readers experience all the adventures and emotions that are
experienced by the character in the story. But what is interesting to note is that after the
release of the film adaptation of the book, Briggs commented that The Snowman was about the
death and has nothing to do with festivities. He commented that death is inevitable and it is a
fact and there is nothing gloomy about it. Snowman melts in the end and that signifies death. If
the book is read with this hidden meaning, it really pushes boundaries of the conventional
themes of happiness, friendship and family to something dark and factual. He even said that his
books are for all and were not written only for children and therefore, these dark and factual
truths can be understood by more mature readers while sweet and soft vibes of Christmas can
be presented to small readers.
Interesting fact: Raymond Briggs is all set to write a sequel for his classic The Snowman.
The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales- John Scieszka and Lane Smith
Well this is an interesting book because it presents alternate stories for the classic tales that
provides happily ever after and preconceived cultural notions in the texts. From the first image,
it catches readers attention as the dedication section is presented upside-down with very funny
wordings as can be seen in the picture below. What is more interesting in the book is that all
the readers are personally acknowledged as the space in the acknowledgement section is left
blank for the readers to fill their names on it. This book from the very beginning breaks
boundaries of conventional writing and present something new for its readers to enjoy.
The Princess and the Bowling Ball:
This story is presented as an alternative for The Princess and the pea, and criticized
preconceived notion of beauty as presented in the later story. This story presents more
rationalised thoughts on love and marriage and pushed the boundaries of conventional ideals
of classic tales that focused on Royalty, marriage of women, materialistic aspects and outer
beauty of women. In this story, the prince deceives his family to marry the person he loves,
instead on following the traditional ideals. This very notion is radical and pushes the

conventional boundaries of classic tales. Even the illustrations in the book pushes the
boundaries of today's concept of beauty that is materialized and cannot see the inner beauty of
the person.
The Ugly Duckling:
In the original Ugly Duckling, the Ugly Duckling is portrayed as a beautiful swan at the end of
the story to follow the tradition of classic tale and after transforming into beautiful swan, the
problems in the life of ugly duckling disappeared. These type of stories presented false hopes
to the children and other readers and misled their concept of beauty. The concept of beauty
should be relative and people should focus on inner beauty and story books should present
thee readers with the lessons to love themselves instead of physical and material
attractiveness. In this story, the ugly duckling remains ugly forever and fights the hurdles of life.
This story truly pushes the boundaries of classic tales as well as perception of concept of beauty
by people.
Little Red Running Shorts:
This story breaks the convention of classic tales from the very title where shorts are mentioned
instead of skirts and this itself pushes the notion of gender boundaries. In the classic tales, girls
are generally depicted in skirts and dresses and men are depicted in wars and fields fighting and
doing action while women just focus on their outer beauty. In this story, what is interesting to
note is that wolf is afraid of the little girl who is shown brave. Another noticeable aspect is that
the story satirizes the classic tales that always start with 'Once upon a time' and end with
'Happily ever after'. In this story, the author refuses to accept these conventionalities of classic
tales and breaks boundaries by presenting alternative endings and rewriting these classics into
more acceptable and realistic manner that can provide some good lessons to children.

This post was about all the interesting picturebooks that pushed the classic boundaries and
delved deeper into more realistic as well as imaginary world and provided young readers with
exciting as well as meaningful experience and pushed the boundaries of conventionalities. All
the stories in this book are unconventional and provide alternate endings.
The Other Frog Prince:
The Other Frog Prince is the story that provides alternate ending to the Frog Prince. It can be
said as the modified story of the latter one. The story offers a different form of writing where
the illustration and text do not provide response to each-other and are presented as completely
different. This pushes boundaries of the conventional style of writing. This story present an
interrogative tone for the classic notions of beauty as the frog prince adds a remark in the story
that it is a beautiful prince. What the author in the story asks is that necessary for the prince to
be beautiful or why it is important that the curse of the prince can only be broke by the kiss of a
beautiful princess? Is beauty everything? Isn't inner beauty and strength more important aspect
of person than the outer beauty? By questioning these classical norms in this tale, the author