Comprehensive Design of Picture Book on Growing Up for Children and Adults

Slikanice so posebna vrsta knjig, v katerih je vsebina tesno povezana z ilustracijo in v najboljših primerih postaneta pravzaprav neločljivi. Slikanice, ki nagovarjajo več generacij, so v slovenskem prostoru slabo prepoznane in jih ne ločujemo od klasičnih slikanic, zaradi česar ponavadi na slikanice gledamo predvsem kot na literarno delo za mlajše otroke. Namen magistrskega dela je bila analiza nekaterih obstoječih knjig za otroke in odrasle ter celostno oblikovanje lastne slikanice na temo odraščanja z bolj abstraktno predstavitvijo, ki bi jo lahko po svoje razumeli tako otroci kot tudi odrasli. Analizirali smo štiri knjige – Mali princ (Antoine de Saint-Exupery), Tja, kjer so zverine doma (Maurice Sendak), Priklenjeni slon (Jorge Bucay, Gusti) in Fant, krt, lisica in konj (Charlie Mackesy). Pri tem smo sem osredotočili na vsebinski in oblikovni vidik posamezne knjige. S pomočjo teh analiz smo nato zasnovali lastno slikanico. Pisanje zgodbe in ilustriranje je potekalo hkrati, s čimer smo želeli zagotoviti tesen odnos med besedilom in sliko. Nastala je slikanica z naslovom Mozaik, ki smo jo tudi natisnili. Sledila je še analiza pripravljene slikanice s prostovoljci dveh starostnih skupin – z otroki, starimi od 5 do 10 let, in odraslimi med 20 in 60 letom starosti. S pregledom rezultatov analize smo slikanico na koncu ovrednotili in ocenili, ali smo uspešno nagovorili tako mlajše kot tudi starejše bralce.Picture books are a specific type of book where the content is tightly intertwined with illustrations and in the best case they are inseparable. Crossover picture books are not yet well recognized in Slovenian literature and we have difficulties distinguishing them from classic picture books which is why we consider them mostly as literature for young children. The purpose of this master’s thesis was the analysis of a few crossover books and a comprehensive design of a picture book on the topic of growing up with an abstract representation that could be interpreted by both children and adults. We analysed four books – The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupery), Where the Wild Things Are (Maurice Sendak), The Chained Elephant (Jorge Bucay, Gusti) and The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Charlie Mackesy). Within the analysis we focused on the content and the design aspect of each book. With the help of this overview we designed our own crossover picture book. We wanted to ensure a “tight bond” between the words and pictures which is why writing and illustration took place simultaneously. We have created a picture book with the title Mosaic, which we also printed and analysed with the help of volunteers of two age groups – children aged 5 to 10 and adults aged 20 to 60. Lastly, with the overview of the results of the analysis we evaluated the picture book and assessed how successful we were with addressing both younger and grown-up readers