Words and Pictures

Brian Selznick uses a unique combination of words and pictures in his book, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The book qualifies as fifth grade reading material, and it won the 2008 Caldecott Medal.

Selznick talks about his book in a series of interviews, which can be found here. The video clip below provides useful insights into the approach Selznick used when deciding which parts of his story to tell through pictures and which parts to tell through words.

I found it fascinating that Selznick wrote descriptions of the illustrations before creating the illustrations. I would have guessed that he created the illustrations first and later worked on penning prose to complete the book.

This unique book, combined with the video interviews of its author, provides rich opportunities for students to learn about narrative strategies.

Mini-lesson:

1. Allow students to preview the book. Let students thumb through their own copies of the book. If only the teacher has a copy of the book, the teacher should flip through several pages, allowing students to understand that Selznick used illustrations in place of prose throughout significant portions of the book.
2. Ask students to explain why the writer might use illustrations instead of words to tell his story.
3. Ask students to predict why the author would use words instead of illustrations for other parts of his story.
4. Ask students to describe the process they think the author used for constructing the book. Did he use a storyboard? Write out the entire story first? Some other process?
5. If possible, watch the “Words vs. Pictures” video (see above). Alternatively, be prepared to discuss the content of the video.
6. During the video and after the video, have students make a chart, listing the kinds of scenes Selznick chose to illustrate and those he chose to narrate. After watching the video, have the teacher and students compare what they listed in their charts.
7. Were students surprised to learn that Selznick wrote out descriptions of the illustrations, prior to drawing them? Discuss whether Selznick’s approach is the same as theirs.
8. Ask students to write a description of a setting for a story (or work with a description they have already written). Ask a partner to try to create an illustration from the description.
9. Use partners’ illustrations to help authors determine how to improve their descriptions. Did the partner’s drawing match what the author had in mind? What could the author describe more clearly to paint a better word picture?

Connection to Ohio ELA Standards:

Writing Applications – Benchmark A (End of 5-7 Program)

Use narrative strategies (e.g., dialogue and action) to develop characters, plot and setting and to maintain a consistent point of view.