One of the challenges when appraising picturebooks and illustrated texts is exploring the ways that artwork and text interrelate to form the narrative. There are numerous ways this can happen, sometimes they can relate to one another in a way that is very literal and linear, at other points this can be far more playful and imaginative. This can provide a real energy and dynamism for storytelling. This walk through has been written to show one way to approach illustrated books and to better understand some of the mechanics as to how these work. Whilst this might be useful in selecting books for storytimes or for sharing, it is intended more as a guide for how to appraise the form as a whole. What better book to use as a walk through than Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins?

Let’s begin by looking at the cover. On it we see Rosie walking purposefully from the hen-house. Rosie is being followed by a fox whose ears are pricked up and are attentive. The style is influenced by folk-art and draws upon conventions of the rustic and the pastoral with images of fields and fruit-filled trees. The colour palette is limited, its original reproduction used only three inks, but nonetheless creates an earthy and organic atmosphere totally in keeping with the subject of the narrative. The artwork makes strong use of triangles, a technique which helps to draw the eye to particular subjects, here the roof of the hen house and its implied suggestion of domesticity and safety, something Rosie is walking away from as she progresses towards the right-hand edge of the page – progression which is in harmony with the Western tradition of reading from left-to-right.

The title uses alternating orange and green text and features both Rosie the hen and the fox. Already the fox is behind Rosie establishing the pantomime-like dynamic for much of the action that will ensue as the narrative progresses.

The title page itself shows a panorama of the farmyard and surrounding fields with Rosie sitting in the henhouse. It acts as a pictorial or prototype map outlining the areas through which Rosie’s walk will occur.

One of the curious developments which happens as we become more accustomed to reading text is that the conviction and confidence to read images often declines. With that in mind, it’s often helpful to read a picturebook more than once and on the ‘first pass’, to concentrate more on text and the opportunities this provides for artwork to enrich or even contradict this. Rosie’s Walk is comprised of only 32 words and a single sentence relaying factually the nature of the journey Rosie has taken.

The narrative itself, however, is far more complex as a reading that explores both the artwork and the text displays. The opening double-page spread shows Rosie walking away from her hen-house. As readers we are given a point of view that allows us to see the fox crouching beneath the hen-house, its tongue anticipating his desires… Rosie is separated from the fox by the gutter of the page.

Page turns are often crucial in picturebooks, they can signpost humour, anticipation and suspense. Here they are used to great effect here as we see the fox leaping towards Rosie. The triangular construction of the farmhouse, of the fox’s ears and on the prongs of the rake lying on the farmyard floor help to establish the set-up for this mini episode as the text tells us Rosie is walking ‘across the yard’. As we turn the page to the next double-page spread, sure enough logic dictates that the fox collides with the rake which bounces and impacts against the fox’s head. Movement lines show the direction the rake has travelled towards the fox. Movement lines around the fox help to show the reverberation and force of its impact. Rosie meanwhile walks on, tempting the reader to turn the page.

The reader’s point of view on the next double-page spread is similar to that of the frogs who have their front legs raised in warning as they see what Rosie cannot, the fox primed with paws forward, ready to pounce upon Rosie as the text tells us Rosie walks ‘around the pond’. Inevitably the fox’s pounce ends up in the pond where the water splashes and ripples on the pond are substitute motion lines. The peace of the pond has been broken as the frogs are thrown into the air and the bird takes flight in fright from the tree.

What we also notice at this point is that a visual rhythm or pattern is being formed where a set-up is established in one double-page spread and the resolution happens in the next. This is a little like the visual equivalent of a rhyme-scheme in poetry and it repeats itself as the fox makes attempts to capture Rosie and is thwarted while Rosie walks ‘over the haycock’ and ‘past the mill’.

The scheme is broken when Rosie walks ‘through the fence’ we see the fox leaping over the fence. There is an intermediate spread which shows the fox landing in the cart before this collides with the beehives that Rosie is walking under. The final double-page spread shows bees exiting their hives in the foreground and, through use of perspective, chasing fox into the background of the picture.

The final page tells us that Rosie ‘got back in time for dinner’ and we see Rosie re-entering the hen-house, returning to safety and domesticity after the adventurous walk. It is not clear whether Rosie has been oblivious throughout to the advances of the fox, or whether using cunning and guile Rosie has been leading the fox on a merry dance. There is a visual clue on the page with the windmill which suggests it might be the latter. The interpretative space between the text and the artwork of the narrative challenge an active and engaged reading making the form a particularly lively and dynamic one to encounter.


With thanks to Jake Hope, Chair of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal working party and author of newly published Facet book, 'Seeing Sense: visual literacy as a tool for libaries, learning and reader development.'