Richard Burn

 There are many different types of children’s books.
 These books are targeted specifically to a certain age group, their capability
of reading & how/what they are learning.
 Common themes in children’s books include things such as
legends, myths, fairytales & folklore. These themes are most commonly used
because they are easy for children to understand, illustrated easily & are also
well known for teachings.
 They will also have a specific look to them depending on the points
mentioned above
 The main different types of children's books are:

 These group is usually broken down into
two, but do overlap
 For babies & toddlers, the most common
type of book will be a picture book. This
will usually have basic concepts such as the
alphabet, numbers & shapes. Visually
stimulating to focus the eye of a young
child by using contrasting colors.
 As the child ages a little, the books they
read will start containing more words to
combine with the illustrations.
 The illustrations used will usually been
made using different media such as
oil, pen, water colour amongst others.
 Both parts of the book (the visual & the
written) are important, they have to
harmonize with one another to make sense
to the child.
 These books with words will usually be
read to the child first, then once the child
feels confident, they will read it for
themselves.

 The books these children read are
usually classed as ‘Early Reader Books’
 These books allow children to learn
whilst they read. It builds on their
reading skills
 In terms of content, compared to the
0-5 books, they still include
illustrations that help with the story.
Again comparing, you will find more
text which helps with the point
mentioned above.
 A popular kind of ‘Early Reader Books’
is the ‘The Magic Key' series that
follows Chip, Biff & Kipper by Roderick
Hunt & illustrated by Alex Brychta.
These are part of the Oxford Reading
Tree. They go up in levels, according to
age.

 Once children are at this age, they
have the reading skills to start
reading chapters.
 7-9 short chapters. Short chapters
are appropriate for children these
ages. This is a starter to move on
from just paragraphs. Illustrations
may still be apparent, but are not
used as much.
 9 – 11 long chapters. Long chapters
are appropriate for children these
ages. This move the child's reading
skills even further. Illustrations have
almost left the picture.
 Different stories, not necessarily for
education, are here now as children
start to know what they like.

 These books do not
include any
illustrations in them
(for the vast majority).
They are mostly written
text.
 These books are
usually in novel format.
 They will include a
storyline that the
audience will like:
learning is not
involved.

 The fonts used in children's books is
important.
 Serif fonts such as Times Roman, Goudy,
Garamond, and Baskerville.
 These fonts are easy to follow, compared to
non-serif fonts such Arial &Calibri.

 A graphic novel is narrative that
is vastly telling the story through
illustrations.
 There are different ways to
produce such a piece of
narrative, you can use a
traditional formula or a more
experimental path.
 A graphic novel is different to a
comic book as it is usually bigger
& more durable in the way it is
produced.

 Graphic novels inspire & aspire
from a book or TV show
 An example of such would be
Scott Pilgrim, as they started
out as a graphic novel series
 Other examples of this include
V for Vendetta which started
off as a graphic novel.

 The illustrations in graphic
novels are what makes them
unique to other types of novels:
it is hugely important
 Illustration helps tell the
story, set the scene & helps to
set the tone.
 These illustrations can be done
in many different ways e.g.
 Black and white
 Collages
 Contrast colour
 Mixture of different media

 The text also plays an
important role in graphic
novels.
 It is used for speech &
parts of the storyline
that are difficult to
portray through graphics
 The amount of text used
varies on the piece of
work.
Balloon tale
= speech
Joining bubbles
with connecters
= conversation
Burst Bubble =
loud – broken
speech
Thought bubble =
thoughts of
character (less used
now) (internal
monologue used
instead)
Captions =
Location & Time
Internal Monologue
Spoken Captions
Narrative captions

 Layouts are also important for a
graphic novel.
 The original layout for
comics/graphic novels was 6/9
boxes on one page that you would
read from left to right
 As they grew in popularity, the
layouts have become more creative
& challenging. Different shaped
boxes & overlay are commonly
used.
 You have to be careful though with
the layout as it can cause problems
e.g. hard to follow