ENG - Multimodal texts: Picture books

Interaction

What makes this a multimodal book?

Typesetting

As well as the words of the story and accompanying photographs, this book uses typesetting (the composition of text) to convey meaning
The way the words are written provide the reader with more information about the meaning of the words. Here the reader may choose to interpret the shape of the words above to mean the roads are bumpy because the letters have been jostled about like passengers in a car on a bumpy road. Or are the letters shaky because the bus is scared of the dinosaur?
Meaning can also be communicated to the reader through the size, colour, font, or placement of the words (e.g. a sudden switch to large letters may indicate shouting, whilst red letters may convey anger)

Perspectives

This book conveys meaning to the reader through multiple perspectives.
In Meerkat Mail, there is information contained in the standard text of the story, but also in letters and postcards, blackboards, newspaper reports, travel documents, photo albums, luggage labels, and the cover and endpapers. Other books may use elements such as comic strips, lists, or sets of instructions in a similar way.
The reader can choose to make meaning from these elements in various combinations; reading is then performed in a non-linear sequence as the reader chooses in which order to read. Some readers may choose to go back and forth to the photo albums throughout the story for example.

What makes this a multimodal book?

Images

The pictures in this book carry more information pertinent to the story than the printed text
In This is Not My Hat, the images convey a different/conflicting story to the reader than the text
The reader, if they choose to ‘read’ the pictures as well as the text, may interpret the position of the hat-owner’s eye to indicate that he does actually notice that the hat is gone thank you very much! The reader is then made part of the ‘secret’ story.

Interaction

It directly addresses the reader (“Help us find our doggy!”) and encourages them to be part of the story
It invites the reader to physically interact with the story by lifting the flaps to reveal hidden information
The reader chooses the extent and order of their interaction. Do they open all of the flaps or just some, and do they go left to right or biggest to smallest for example? Or do they go straight for a low cupboard because their own dog likes to hide in a similar one at home? They may even talk back to the book; “Yes, I’ll help you! Maybe the dog is in this cupboard?