Question and Answer - Essay Example

According to Azripe and Style’s research children response to postmodern picture is highly interactive. Postmodern picture books are distinct in their pictorial narration of stories. The metafictive elements of postmodern picture book become major tools of engaging children and provoking individual response to the inter-textual narration. They use dynamic texts to represent sound and emotions of the characters. At the same time, the background of the pictures is also designed to give special meaning to the text and helps to integrate words and meaning to the picture.

For example, large fonts get associated with adult characters or the volume of voices that are ‘heard’ by the children. Children are able to articulate the non textual content of the books through their observation and interpretation which they express by enacting the roles of the characters. Thus, postmodern picture books help to create three dimensional interactive narration from two dimension picture books where the gap between the fantasy and reality considerably reduces.It suggests that postmodern picture books greatly influence children’s power of critical thinking, imagination, theatrical ability to enact the role of characters of the story and significantly impact the development of cohesive process of constructing meaning to pictures.

The conventional picture books were confined to traditional fonts and pictures where children’s ability to interact was considerably restrained, both in terms of interaction and construction of new meaning to the narration. The postmodern picture books are highly creative in their content and pictorial narration which often provokes the reader to respond in constructive imagery. Its pictorial narration is often interspersed with characters from different stories which forces children to construct new meaning to the text.

Most importantly, it also hugely facilitates in the integration of children coming from diverse socio-cultural background. Thus, it is not only highly interactive but also defies conventional narration of pictorial text by its innovative modeling of characters that draws out responses from children in myriad ways.(words: 320)ReferenceAzripe, E. & Styles, M. with Cowan K., Mallouri, L. & Wolpert, M. (2008) ‘The voices behind the pictures: Children responding to postmodern picturebooks’, in S Pentaleo & L.

Sipes (eds.), Postmodern Picturebooks: Play, Parody and Self Referentiality, Routledge, London, pp. 208-222.