Creating Meaning in a Picturebook - Part III
F. Continuous Narrative
Sometimes an illustrator can show movement by drawing several actions by the same character on the same page, even in the same scene. This is called a continuous narrative. Ezra Keats' Whistle for Willie demonstrates this concept. The reader sees on a double page spread Peter acting dizzy. Actually, s/he sees Peter twice, leaning left and then right. S/he also sees a continuous narrative on the double-page spread where Peter is walking along a crack in the sidewalk. Keats has drawn the sidewalk and the wall as continuous across both sides of the page. Yet Peter is first on the left-hand side and then on the right-hand side, walking along the same crack in the sidewalk, presumably later in the story.
This book was not a required text, so take a moment to visualize the concept being described.
G. Running Story
Sometimes an illustrator hides another story inside the main story. Eric Carle often does this. In 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo, he hides a mouse on the pages (well, perhaps the mouse is not exactly hidden, as it is still in plain view, but it takes up very little space in the pictures and is incidental to the main task of counting the animals on the train). Running stories are always told in the illustrations and are not mentioned in the accompanying words.
Be sure to look
at your copy of 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo to see this demonstrated.
H. Split Narrative
In some rare cases the illustrator splits the page and shows two or more stories going on. In Black and White, David Macaulay divided each opening into four sections, telling a different story in each box. Only later does the reader realize the four stories intersect each other at various places throughout the book. Split narratives differ from running stories by the narrative weight of the story. A running story is secondary to the main narrative. A running story is very rarely, if ever, mentioned by the words of the story. A split narrative is two or more stories happening on the same page, each story with equal weight and each story with words accompanying the pictures.
Go to the Web Resources link for Black and White to see images and get more information.
Mitsumasa Anno's Aesop is a story of a father fox reading Aesop's fables to his children. On the upper half of the page we see the pages of the book of fables Mr. Fox is reading. Below we read what Mr. Fox is actually saying to his kits. It quickly becomes apparent that Mr. Fox can't read the words; he's telling the story from the pictures alone, and the story he's telling is very different from the one on the pages of the book.
