Puzzle
A wordless picture book for a children's reading community
by Huiling Chen
Although physical access to libraries has been restricted during Covid-19, people's desire for knowledge and access to community-exchange reveals the true need for libraries. Can this concept be applied to the establishment of children's book groups as well?
Illustration 1 from the book: Puzzle
An illustration about a child needing community
Illustration 2 from the book : Puzzle
An illustration about the child finding his community
Book cover
Size: H 74.25mm* W 52.5mm
Puzzle:
The story is about a time when everyone is isolated at home during the pandemic situation. Even though there are many different forms of reading, children are still surrounded by loneliness. This isolation is not only because of the matter of the atmosphere for reading, but also related with needing a reading community. Therefore, in the story, a child accidentally unlocks a strange passage in the process of reading, obtains the key to a mysterious community, enters a reading space and finds that there are many children just like him in the world, so he joins this community and then the lights in the city come on to represent the growth of this group. The content re-explores concepts of human consciousness and community through the real world.
Introduction
Children’s picture books were donated from various places around the world, to the small island of Lampedusa to the silent book exhibition (2012) of wordless picture books. This gesture proved the necessity of setting up a group of children’s libraries with wordless picture books. By reading these books locally, children can positively expand their knowledge-scope and improve cognitive ability, which helps them to better integrate into their local society. The library also provides shelter and an exchange place for the local residents (McGullicuddy, 2018).
I very much agree with the establishment of more reading groups for children with children’s books. Both experiments and theories have shown that the reading process can have a key impact on nurturing children’s thoughts, feelings and imagination while comprehending stories, which seems to provide them with practical opportunities to develop their social abilities (Fernyhough, 2008, Johnston, 1993; Rosenblatt, 1938/95). In the way children read, Serafini (2014) believes that wordless picture books may be the best way to introduce how narratives are created.
Renderings of Puzzle
A finger size folded wordless picture book, original size: H: 297mm* W: 210mm, after folded size: H 74.25mm* W 52.5mm.
Bio
Huiling is a picture book illustrator whose work focuses upon discussing children's emotional exchanges and recording interesting moments in life. Huling’s main interest is in the production of these books experimenting with different materials. Her research focuses on picture book language and book design. With this project: Puzzle, she explores the role of wordless picture books in children’s communities.
References
McGillicuddy, A. (2018) ‘Breaking Down Barriers with Wordless Picturebooks: “The Silent Books Exhibition, from the World to Lampedusa and Back”’ Studies in Arts and Humanities, volume 4, issue 2.
Fernyhough, C. (2008) ‘Getting Vygotskian about Theory of Mind: Mediation, Dialogue and the Development of Social Imagination’. Developmental Review 28(2): 225–262.
Johnston, P.H. (1993) ‘Assessment and Literate ‘‘Development’’ (Assessment)’. The Reading Teacher 46(5): 428–429.
Rosenblatt, L. (1938/95) Literature as Exploration. New York: The Modern Language Association of America.
Serafini, F. (2014）Exploring wordless picture books. Read. Teach. 68, pp. 24–26,
Athenaeum, 2021