Picture This: How Pictures Work By: Molly Bang

Bibliography
Bang, M. 2000. Picture This: How Pictures Work. New York, NY: SeaStar Books.
ISBN 1587170299

Plot Summary
The author, Molly Bang, shows us how illustrations can be emphasized and call attention to certain expressions. She demonstrates how stories can be enriched by pictures. Certain shapes, sizes and colors come together to create a particular environment. We can see how a picture forms and what elements must be present in order to convey a message.

Critical Analysis
Molly Bang shows how pictures are important to a story, and that they are not there to merely fill up blank space. She explains how pictures can change the meaning of a story, express fear or sadness, and serve as a tool for better understanding of a plot. Bang shows that color is vital in portraying a feeling, such as anger. When we see a red face on an illustration, we can determine that this character must be angry. Bang educates us on the use of size. By altering the size of a character, she illustrates how the character becomes slighter and more vulnerable. Bang shows us her techniques with the Little Red Riding Hood example. By drawing her as a red triangle, Bang places the symbol behind black bar which represents a tree. By this placement, Molly Bang creates a sense of the character being in the woods. When Bang wants to fear more for the safety of Little Red Riding Hood, she makes the red triangle smaller and smaller amidst the trees. It is interesting to see how minor adjustments to pictures create and entirely new sense.

Review Excerpt(s)
Library Journal- Most of us can describe how a painting makes us feel, but few can say why. Bang brilliantly illustrates how simple forms--diagonals, triangles, curves, horizontals--can be active, soothing, or downright scary.

The Horn Book- Picture This extends the imagination, encourages creativity, and helps readers re-examine their world and themselves from different perspectives.

Connections
Classrooms can practice cutting out colored paper into different shapes and sizes. They can experiment with the placement of certain character symbols. By doing this, children can see how pictures can make us feel different emotions while reading a story.
Other books on illustration:
*Illustrating Children's Books: Creating Pictures for Publication by Martin Salisbruy
ISBN 0764127179
*Writing with Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children's Books by Uri Shulevits
ISBN 0823059359
*Bologna Annual 2007 (Bologna Annual. Illustrators of Children's Books
by Bologna International Selection Jury ISBN 0698400615