Representing the Reading Experience. The Reader’s Education through Picture Books

Today metaliterature encompasses the picture book but there are not specifics studies about it. This paper explores picture-book publishing in Italy and analyses the work by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston A Child of Books (2016), recipient of the 2017 Bologna Ragazzi Award. This picture book epitomises the aesthetic and literary features of the various types of picture book. Metaphorically speaking, the book’s multi-layering recalls the bildungsroman as well as the distinction between imagination and the creative power of invention. The iconic code accompanies readers on their journey into the imagination that is at the heart of the reading process. The use of the calligram is both an integral part of the picture and a metatext referring to a multiplicity of other literary works sometimes only touched upon. The paper explains that the best metaliterary pictures enable readers to access the polysemous world evoked by pictures and images while also nurturing the spirit and assisting in the formation of the self. Although their intended audience is children, who are shown how pictures and images are able to generate new thoughts, these books also address adult educators, inviting them to think critically about reading and develop new educational paths to help future readers to grow.