I think of "concept books" as ones where the format of the book adds something to the reader's experience, beyond the text and the illustrations. Here are our family's favourite illustrated concept books. I'd love to hear of yours.
- In The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, holes in the pages are used to depict the holes the caterpillar makes when he eats through things.
- Holes in the pages also feature in Peepo! by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. Each new page obscures and then reveals the next scene - just like being in a baby's game of Peek-a-Boo. I especially love the detailed domestic scenes in an untidy 1940s household.
- In Hubert Horatio Bartle Bobton Trent, author and illustrator Lauren Child uses text formats to help tell the story. Words ripple through the swimming pool, change direction as they explain the route to his parents' room, or bounce around the page during a game of table tennis. When you read that "his parents called him H for short," the curlicues on the H (which differ from the surrounding font) add an affectionate flourish to the way they say it, softening your response to the rest of the sentence "because they could never quite remember the whole thing." They are loving parents, the font seems to tell us, contradicting the content, they're just vague.
- In Emily Gravett's Wolves, the title and text belong to a non-fiction book about - you guessed it - wolves. But the satisfying pictures tell an entirely different story, in which a rabbit absorbed in a book about wolves fails to notice how close a wolf really is, until it's too late. With a functioning book pocket and other nifty library touches, the format of the book teases the reader into thinking they too, might be too complacent. I'm not sure my description really does this multi-layered book justice, but it is truly clever. Convincing enough, actually, that I felt I had to skip certain pages with my faint-hearted littlies.
- The Red Book by Barbara Lehman looks deliciously interactive. But I haven't been able to buy or borrow a copy anywhere (I know I really shouldn't include that).
What are your favourite books where the medium contributes to the message? Can chapter books or novels do this in a different way?
