Interpreting A Picture Book 'The Little Engine That Could'

Tiffany MacDougall

Picture Book Essay

Although picture books are typically marketed towards younger children, the concept behind picture books can be considered extremely complicated. The best picture books tell a story through design features such as color, framing and word location. Throughout the ages pictures books have remained similar in their design with improvements with the illustrations over time. In this essay I will be discussing a picture book the was written and published before the 1950s, a picture book that was written and published between 1950 and 2000; and a picture book that was written and published after 2000.

The first picture book that I will be discussing is ‘The Little Engine that Could” by Watty Piper which was written

Through art Piper can turn very simple things such as apples and oranges into fun objects that also look alive. By using reflections, the author manages to create the faces on the fruits which bring them to life. Additionally, the description Piper uses of the fruits further contributes to making them seem life like. The ‘red-cheeked apples’ described by Piper personifies the apples and emphasizes the artwork. After reading the text, the personification of the fruits will be greater due to the description of them. Piper also uses shades of color that have positive connotations throughout the book. The red and green are not of the bright variety, but rather a slightly darker red and green. The other colors are all bright to create a picture that will make children feel happy while looking at the

Firstly, the onomatopoeia of the train sound adds to what the reader can feel when looking at the image of the train moving up the mountain. Then, by using repetition throughout the rest of the lines, a rhythm is created in the text, which Piper uses to give a notion of a train barely managing to run up the tracks. In addition to creating drawings that are visually appealing to children, Piper fully uses the text to support these drawings by adding various sensory details throughout.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle that was written and published in 1969. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a book that follows the progress of a hungry little caterpillar as he eats his way through a variety and very large quantity of food until the forms a cocoon around himself to eventually emerge as a beautiful butterfly. One unique thing about this book is that its pages vary in size which is demonstrated by the photo above. Almost all the pages have holes which shows the journey of the caterpillar. This an important because it encourages children to continue reading to see where the caterpillar has gone and what he has