Importance+of+Visual+in+Informational+Books

How important are the visuals in informational books and why?
Click the **Edit** button (far right side of screen) and paste your content in the space below. Make sure to **Save** changes before exiting. Tracy Landry: Visuals in informational books are extremely important, especially in children’s nonfiction books. Visuals can reinforce and complement the written words, and they can further illustrate the meaning of the text. Imagine a book about the life cycle of a butterfly without visuals of the different stages; or a how to draw horses book without accompanying visuals. The words could not convey the message in a clear, meaningful way. Illustrations, photographs and charts are necessary in most informational books for children. // From Caterpillar to Butterfly Following the Life Cycle  // By Suzanne Slade, Illustrated by Jeff Yesh (Picture Window Books, 2008) offers an excellent example of visuals conveying the meaning of the text. Each stage of the Monarch Butterfly cycle is explained on a two page spread, complete with colorful, accurate illustrations. A text box on each page further explains an aspect of the stage. Without clearly, accurately labeled visuals, the words can’t fully convey the full meaning of each stage. Informational books about history and culture offer visual representation of facts, people and places that bring the text to life. An excellent example of this is // World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places // (World Book, Inc, 2002) This et of encyclopedias offer excellent illustrations and relatively easy to understand text. Each country has information on history and culture; as well as a fact box with information on the climate, government, language, economy and map of the area. The continent of Antarctica is covered in detail, with pages on environment (with illustrations of different icebergs), wildlife, people and a section problems and challenges. A smaller country, like Andorra, is covered in two pages but still filled with details including the illustrations of the wildlife found in Pyrenees. Filled with maps, illustrations and relatively easy to understand text, this set shows how visuals help students ‘see’ other people and places. Informational books about the human body require illustrations and diagrams to clarify how the body functions, and what it looks like inside. //The Way We Work Getting To Know the Amazing Human Body// by David Macaulay (Houghton Mifflin, 2008) is a great example of human body books with helpful illustrations. The pencil and watercolor illustrations and diagrams offer excellent visual representation of functions such as what our legs and hips look like when we walk. Four illustrations accompany text describing which muscles we use when we take a step. Each muscle is clearly labeled, with arrows showing the direction of movement. It even shows the footprint, indicating the position of the foot. Visuals in informational book are extremely important. Often, without the visual representation, the text would be confusing, or even meaningless. In addition, not all learners learn from reading alone, many are visual learners; the added information is, therefore, very helpful.

Macaulay, David, and Richard Walker. //The Way We Work getting to know the human// //body//. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2008. Print. Morgan, Mia. "Informational Books." Salem State College LBS 803. 19 Oct. 2009. Power point Norton, Barbara E. //Through the Eyes of a Child An Introduction to Children's// //Literature//. 5th ed. Upper Saddle river: Prentice-Hall, Inc, 1995. Print. Slade, Suzanne. //From Caterpillar to Butterfly following the life cycle//. Illus. Jeff Yesh. Mankato: Picture Window Books, 2009. Print. //The World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places //. 8th ed. 6 vols. Chicago: World Book, 2002. Print.