FOCUSING AND FOREGROUNDING IN PICTUREBOOKS: DIRECTING READERS’ ATTENTION AND FOSTERING VISUAL AND LITERARY COMPETENCE

Abstract

Children can start engaging with picturebooks from a very young age, and it is reasonable to assume that this early reading practices influence their emergent visual, linguistic and literary competences. This paper explores how this occurs in relation to attention, a key cognitive ability that plays a significant role in information processing and aesthetic experience as well. The first part of the study establishes a link between attentional development and picturebook reception among the youngest. It argues that the primary objective of the first picturebooks is to engage readers’ attention skills and make them receptive for culturally relevant information. My point is that the creation of cognitive emphases in picturebooks is a coordinated process emerging from the interplay between discursive and narrative strategies, and the cognitive abilities and preferences of the reader who is supported by adults. Thus, shared reading must also be included in the investigation. Building on these insights, I will then analyse the specific procedures for directing attention in other types of picturebooks in relation to their storytelling. As children develop, their reading behaviours evolve and picturebooks follow the changes – also in terms of attention direction and foregrounding mechanism. Examples studied here demonstrate that picturebooks for children generally direct the attention quite explicitly. However, some books attempt to challenge expectations and routines by using more unconventional techniques and allowing more scope for reader interaction. Therefore, these books can even help young readers experience foregrounding, which distinguishes literary or aesthetic reading/viewing from non-literary meaning-making.