The (ideal)ized reader and the creative processes of children’s books

Abstract

Our focus is on picture books and wordless picture books, categories which incorporate concepts both from Literature and Text Genres, recognizing that pictures have an essential role in building meaning. How the children respond to a picture book is something appreciated by those artists who find readers who are willing to read the book disregarding external factors. We aim to indicate, through interviews, the artist’s conceptions concerning their idealized reader. The interviews demonstrate that the artists are not restrained by the “for children” label, and neither by the “childish” stigma, in the erroneous sense that the term may sound, that is to say, a simple or shallow book, fit to an unprepared reader or unfit to aesthetic experience.