by Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán, University of Texas, Austin, TX

The IBBY Congress offered multiple opportunities for learning about the reading experiences offered to children in different parts of the world. One of those experiences that was the focus of lively discussions involved children reading wordless texts in the project, “Visual journeys: Understanding immigrant children’s responses to the visual image in contemporary picture books.” Dr. Evelyn Arizpe, from the University of Glasgow, coordinator of the project, Dr Cecilia Silva-Díaz and Brenda Bellorín, from the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and myself from The University of Texas at Austin, shared the power of the visual image in the graphic novel The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2006) with linguistically different audiences in two workshops. We engaged the participants in reading and responding to the images of The Arrival and shared what we have learned about children’s responses to the text.

One highlight was participation in an Annotated Task, a strategy we used with children in the project. Each person received a large copy of an image of The Arrival, and was invited to write annotations around the margins or inside the image. We allowed time for participants to think, see, wonder, and write, using questions such as: “What does it remind you of? How do you read this visual? What emotions does it evoke?” Individually each wrote the ideas the image conveyed to them and then exchanged their annotations with a partner and discussed their responses. We had a wonderful discussion with the whole group. Finally, we shared annotations by a small group of students from Barcelona in response to the same image.

It was clear that the participants, the same as the children, drew from their experiences with immigration, popular culture and media, and texts in their interpretive work. The social nature of the reading process was evident as participants negotiated meanings and interpretations among themselves. These workshops, as well as our experiences with immigrant children in the international project, left us with ideas to wonder and consider as we keep working to engage all readers with good literature, especially wordless complex texts:

• •Picture books have great potential for engaging readers and developing visual and critical literacy skills.

• •Wordless texts require careful looking in order to decode visual signs, construct sequences, speculate and generate hypothesis.

• •Strategies that encourage careful looking and thinking about these texts are important to bring in shared experiences and knowledge for deeper understanding.

• •Responding to the visual image in picture books and graphic novels helps create a sense of community among readers with diverse cultural backgrounds.

• Although individual responses to texts are important, we need to consider the social nature of reading and provide opportunities for reader to share and negotiate meanings and interpretations.

Note: A copy of the IBBY paper by Dr. Evelyn Arizpe is available in both pdf or MSWord format.

Journey through Worlds of Words during our open reading hours: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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• Themes: Arrival, Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán, shaun tan
• Descriptors: Books & Resources, Debates & Trends, Student Connections, WOW Currents