An illustration which can also be referred to as a drawing has to do with graphical sketches that add interesting attractions and meaning to a story or text. Children are people who are young and have their minds still in the process of growth or maturity.
Children learn most especially through the use of pictures and this helps them to remember the things they study and even makes them enjoy the act since reading in itself can be hectic at times. For every literary work like a story which is categorized under the genre of literature known as prose, reading a story creates a sort of imagery in the minds of the reader. The reader being described here is a group of people who are young and because their mental capacity for comprehension is not all that mature, they need guidance to be able to read, comprehend and relate to whatever has been read.
If you've read a lot of picture books when you were very young in school, you can give a personal testimony or view of this which many will definitely do because these kinds of books played a vital role in making sure the mind of every performing intellectual or scholar is adequately equipped.
Personal experience with storybooks with illustrations
As we were very young in primary school, we were all mandated to buy some listed books of which an English Reader was a core component of the list. There is this game we used to play with children's picture books like our readers. Two people sit by a book and one person predicts if there will be a human figure drawn on the page to be opened and the other person opens the page and if it happens to be so, the person who has predicted hits the palm of the other. In another case, if it turns out differently, it is the otherwise which means the person who hasn't predicted hits the palm of he who has predicted. This is just a play we have deduced from storybooks with illustrations as a form of recreation anyway. Furthermore, we were always admonished by our class teacher to visit the library so that we can get books for free to read. Anytime we went to the library, our target is to get hold of the books with illustrations or pictures but if it isn't so then we regarded such books to be meant for adults. Do you now understand why this is so vital for children's books?
Delving into understanding illustrations is a way of putting an idea into a visible representation for easy comprehension as researchers have established that a greater percentage of the things learned is by sight.
As a Communication Designer, I did some illustrations for a storybook that is for children and particularly was dedicated to children who are underprivileged to visit sites of attraction. The role of the drawings in the book was so vital.
The title of the short fictional story is "WISH FULFILLED".
Summary of story
The story narrates a nuclear family of four members which are a father, a mother, a daughter and a son. The daughter was in class one day as the teacher taught them a subject called, 'Our World Our People' and the topic was centered on tourism. Most of her colleagues raised their hands saying they have visited at least one of the sites mentioned by the teacher but she was not privileged to have visited any. The teacher encouraged them to make use of any chance to visit tourist sites as they will learn a lot from there and this girl who became sad as she went home. Her mother noticed her sadness and questioned the cause of the sorrow and as she told her the issue, it was decided that a day will be set aside to visit some of the sites. The day came when the entire family went to some of the sites like Mount Afadja and Wli Waterfalls and this young girl in the story was very happy to have gone for such a wonderful trip.
The illustrations and their respective impact on the story
Below shows the front cover of the storybook which has one of the illustrations of the book. The book looks very interesting looking at the cover and all these are means to make sure that the book looks attractive for children to find useful and interesting.
Cover for the story
fig 1
The first illustration of the book is the one shown in (fig 1) which shows a teacher teaching the subject, OUR WORLD OUR PEOPLE with students in the class. Designers create a feeling with drawings to make it all awesome as without them putting themselves in the shoes of the young children, effectiveness cannot actually be achieved.
fig 2
The young girl and her mother sit in a sofa as the mother consoles her and this was when she was promised that arrangements will be made for the family to go on an excursion to visit tourist sites.
fig 3
The entire family which includes the father, the mother and the two children watch television together. A moment of relaxation as they also discussed preparations for the journey of visiting tourist sites.
fig 4
Interior of the car in which the family of four was as they embarked on the journey to Mount Afadja. The father is seriously driving as the mother and the children looked on as the car moves. As can be seen, there were a lot of grown bushes or forests along the road and it was so interesting an exposure for the kids.
fig 5
Here is the family with another family whose head happens to be a friend of the first family mentioned in the story. They both joined and this is the Waterfall that they went to. They stood by the fall to watch how wonderfully the water was falling with so much force with the nice natural environment created there by the presence of plenty of trees.
fig 6
The final illustration shows the tourists on top of Mount Afadja. This moment was the one that the kids enjoyed the most but it was not easy taking them to the top of the mountains since it is a very tall one and on the way, they were carried so that they do not become weary.
Every storybook for children carries some important information that will benefit the young children but the book can only be embraced with joy if it is well-endowed with appropriate illustrations. Much information in a book available to children is not bad but doing this with negligence to what they like or is useful will be a great failure as a picture can represent many words. As stated earlier, they make understanding writings easier since the mind is not all that mature to formulate imagery of a text-only story. A child can watch an interesting movie and narrate it correctly and so making use of illustrations in books for children, it is a great way to make them remember the things they read and also a significant way to grow their minds.
Stories available for reading
Comments
Post a Comment
Share your views on this insightful content