1 The Visual Design of Science Picture Books An Analysis of Visual Communication in Science Picture Books by Visual Social Semiotics Approach

Abstract: Unlike the reading experience of fictional picture books is to enjoy the story, the read-ing experience of science picture books is to join the story. In order to link the knowledge with children’s experience, it has developed a unique process to communicate with children. In this pa-per, a science picture book, Paper Plane is analyzed to discover how science picture books com-municating with young readers. The analysis of visual text and verbal text is respectively based on the interpersonal meaning of visual social semiotics developed by Kress and van Leeuwen and the specific words used in science picture books, called “trigger words”, in Takigawa’s research. The results of our analysis shows that not only words can trigger readers but also images. We can see how verbal texts and visual texts working together to lead young readers to link their daily life ex-perience with the world of science picture books