Engaging with Endpapers:
A Visual Literacy Experience Upon Opening a Picturebook
Geri Chesner
National Louis University, USA
Abstract. Picturebooks are sophisticated forms of visual design that offer much to delight and inform readers of all ages, not just within the pages of the story, but in the design of the books’ peritextual elements. Picturebooks contain highly illustrated elements of art and design that can support the understanding of visuals and narrative. Those developed for young people are an indispensable tool for developing and extending visual literacy skills when emphasizing their visual elements and structural design (Stewig, 1986). Endpapers, an integral peritextual element are often illustrated and provide good sources of information for visual interpretation. In recent years, well developed and cleverly utilized endpapers in picturebooks have provided a growing opportunity for readers and viewers to understand and engage with the meaning of the visuals and narrative intended by the artists who create them. This research details a study done of the endpapers in eighty-five picturebooks published in 2016 in relation to two endpaper typologies, that of Sipe and McGuire (2006) and Duran and Bosch (2011). It was evidenced that of all the story elements reflected, theme was the most prevalent in the books studied.
Keywords: Comprehension, endpapers, picturebooks, visual interpretation, visuals