Winnie the Witch; The Fish Who Could Wish

It seems almost churlish to criticise a publisher's fast response to the desperate need for big books which has been created by the combination of windfall literacy funding and the strong and valid case that has been made for their usefulness in the classroom. However, the fact remains that font size is crucial if one is to use big books to teach children together. In both these titles the font size is nowhere near big enough to meet the constraints of group, let alone class, teaching.

Despite this criticism, these two giant-size picture books should not be dismissed. Both are old favourites and with their strong visual content, they lend themselves in their large format to helping children to understand the conventions of illustration. Some very bizarre misconceptions can occur when children have not grasped how to do this.

In Winnie the Witch Korky Paul uses line to convey that Winnie has fallen downstairs after tripping over Wilbur the cat rather than that she has, as one Reception class child thought, lost her temper while sitting reading on the stairs because she could not read the words in her book! Understanding the convention of movement marks and learning that the way in which illustrations are laid out can be crucial to making sense of the story are just two of the many illustrative conventions that need to be explained to children. This is vital for those who do not have a strong literary background and for whom such confusions only exacerbate their difficulties in accessing books.

For some children - at the risk of sounding sexist ... often boys - learning that an illustrator proceeds through stages (concept, ideas, rough sketches, detailed illustration etc.) which mirror the stages of creating written work, can help to improve the quality of their own written work (as well as their illustration!). The purpose of drafting can be more easily understood when seen graphically through the stages of illustration. Learning that there are ways in which artists, like authors, use humorous subplots (cf the changes that occur in the drawings of the rooms in Winnie's house as the story unfolds) and that they too develop our knowledge of the characters and of their feelings can also be illuminating. Learning the language of illustration fascinates children, demands a lot from them and deserves a place in 'literacy hour'.