Rosie's Walk Case Study

There are many phrases to describe the word image relationship in children’s picture books. Susanne Langer’s is one of the more poignant, suggesting that word and image do not sit side by side, each a copy of the other, but instead use each other in a much more aggressive way, such as the word subversion implies. Perry Nodelman describes it as ‘irony’, Laurence Sipe defines it as ‘synergy’ and Maria Nikolajeva and Carole Scott talk of it as compensating for each others insufficiencies.
The subversive relationship between text and image is a strategy used within Rosie’s walk that is argued to be a significant reason for it’s success. Not only does it connect with both the adult and child through what Nodelman describes as ‘irony’ and Langer describes as ‘rape’, but also by engaging the child with Barthes’s ‘Hermeneutic code’, and by creating a ‘richer experience’ for the child through interaction and the causation of question and thought. In this essay I will be discussing what makes a successful picture book using Pat Hutchins Rosie’s Walk (1996) as a case study. Primarily focusing on the relationship between text and image,

Barthes describes that the enigma is created by chain events that compose a question, or cause its answer to be delayed (Barthes, 1990, p.17). Rosie’s Walk (1996) engages with both of these factors. The kinetic positioning of the fox in the images creates the question, and the following comedic page of the unsuccessful fox, for now, delays its answer. Each page of the book creates suspense as the reader is continually kept guessing as to whether or not Rosie will survive, will the fox catch her? What will be her fate? The audience has to keep reading to find out. The enigma is not disclosed until the very final page, in which the hen returns safely home, in time for dinner, blissfully unaware of the dangers of her