ABSTRACT
Danny was a great enthusiast for reading and Kim was surprised one day to find him writing and drawing on a picturebook, behaviour that was unusual for him. This chapter examines Danny's exploration of Dunbar's picturebook and how he used the ambiguities and nuances of the illustrations to give him the time and space to bring his own experiences to the text. Cora drew a vibrant and colourful house in an illustration complete with all three characters, text and a speech-bubble. Drawing from the text, from their knowledge of the outside world, and from their own experiences, the children parsed out the intricacies of Sendak's human narrative. Nikolajeva explains how the interplay between illustrations and words in picturebooks can provide a tool for children to glean an understanding of human emotions from fictional characters. Children were given parents, characters were given histories, and moments in-between and beyond the pages of the story.
