The Book as a Physical Object - Part III
I. Placement of Text
The rhythm of a picturebook is often determined by where the text is placed on the page. Sometimes, the print is placed directly on the illustration, causing the reader to have to hunt around the page to find the words. More often, the words are blocked off with a white background that separates the words from the illustrations. These boxes can be placed on the illustration like windows. Sometimes they are put on the left, right, top, or bottom margin. And sometimes they take up an entire page. Because printed English goes from left to right, the placement of the text can influence whether you read the words first, and then look at the picture or look at the picture first and then look at the words.
Look at your copy of Chato and the Party Animals for a good example.
As you see, Susan Guevara moves the text around throughout the book. Sometimes
the text is on the left, sometimes the right, sometimes the top, and sometimes
the bottom. How does that shape the rhythm of the book work for you? Does it
read smoothly or is it more syncopated or choppy?
J. Gutter
The center of an open book where the pages are bound together is called the gutter. The gutter poses special problems for the illustrator in designing illustrations. If a picture runs across the gutter, the illustrator must take into account the edges of the papers where the pages will be bound together. If the illustrator does not leave space for the binding, part of the illustration will hidden in the binding and the double page will look like someone cut out a piece in the middle of the picture.
K. Verso / Recto
Verso and recto come from Latin. Verso literally means "that which must be turned" and recto means "on the right side." We use the terms simply to mean left and right. Looking at an open book, the verso is the left-hand page and the recto is the right-hand page.
L. Double-Page Spread / Opening
When referring to an open picturebook, the two pages (verso and recto) combine to make an opening. When the illustration stretches over the verso and the recto, we call that illustration a double-page spread.M. Front Matter
Generally these are the pages in the front of book before the story actually begins. Typically, this would be the title page and the copyright page. Two recent trends in front matter are worth our particular attention. First, more books are putting the copyright page at the end of the book, rather than at the front. Second, more publishers are putting information on the copyright page concerning how the illustrations were made. Sometimes illustrators will use this page to make a joke.
Take a look at the copyright pages in your copies of The Stinky Cheese Man and What Pete Ate.
Smith, Scieszka, and Kalman are all known for their irreverent senses of
humor.
N. Signature
When books are printed, large sheets of paper are spun through the presses, printing several pages (usually in multiples of eight) of the book on the large piece of paper. The sheets are then turned over and printed on the other side. The paper is then folded and cut on three sides, leaving a collection of 16 or 32 pages. This collection is called a signature. These signatures are stitched or glued together to make a book. Depending on the overall length of the book, a book may have one, two, three, or more signatures gathered and bound together. If you look down the spine of When Sheep Cannot Sleep, you will see two signatures; Looking at Pictures in Picture Books has three signatures. It' s important for illustrators to know this, because as they plan the illustrations, they need make sure the finished book is some multiple of 8: usually 32 or 48 pages. Scieszka and Smith make fun of this information on the front inside flap of the dust jacket of The Stinky Cheese Man when they hawk their book as having "56 action-packed pages. 75% more than those old 32-page 'Brand-X' books." Because the majority of picturebooks are 32 pages, Scieszka and Smith can refer to the 32-page book as a generic picturebook, claiming their book offers 24 more pages or 75% more. We usually don't think of marketing picturebooks as if they were laundry detergent, but Scieszka and Smith show us, humorously, that we could if we wished.
Be sure to look
at your copies of When Sheep Cannot Sleep, Looking at Pictures
in Picture Books, and The Stinky Cheese Man to see these concepts
demonstrated.