Fairytale Book Research

Hannah Woollaston

‘Tiddler’ by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Axel Scheffler. Book 1 Research.

• The appearance of the book is bright, colourful and full of illustrations on the front and immediately jumps out when placed next to other children's books. It is a paperback book but was also published as a shortened, boardbook for younger children.

• The only method used to illustrate this book is drawing, the drawing is sketchy and that runs throughout the book, the drawings are very detailed which makes the book more interesting and educating for the child.

• The age range for this book would be, interest level 3+ and the reading level 6+.

• The font used in this is a serif one, this makes it easier for the children to read as this font helps the eye to be guided along the text, the text used is not small but not big either, however capitals and a larger font is used at some points in the book to add emphasis to certain words/sentences.

‘Tiddler’ research continued… • In this book the amount of text varies on each page, the minimum on a

page is one sentence, the maximum on a page in the book is a paragraph and two extra sentences at the bottom of the page, this is accompanied by plenty of illustration and the pages with the most writing have the most illustration to describe what is going on if the child isn’t that advanced at reading yet.

• This book has 32 pages this is a suitable amount for the recommended reading age as at the age of 6+ they will be in school where their reading skills will be pushed.

• The author of this book is Julia Donaldson, she is a well known and trusted author, one her most popular book is ‘The Gruffalo’, which is made to appeal to similar age groups.

• The illustrator for this book is Axel Scheffler, the use of drawing as illustration is a typical technique for Scheffler. He has also worked on other Julia Donaldson books, including ‘The Gruffalo’ is illustration style is recognisable as it has a colourful, sketchy and detailed look to it.

• This book was published by Alison Green Books in 2007, this a popular childrens book publisher and has published all of the other Julia Donaldson/ Axel Scheffler she has also published other books by authors and illustrators such as Gareth Edwards/Hannah Shaw.

• The dimensions of the book are 25 x 0.4 x 28.1cm. It is quite a wide book this enables the illustrator to fill it with more images, the images on some of the pages are that wide that they take up a page and a half (horizontally) this makes the pictures more interesting for the children to look at, if they are at the visual interest age of 3+.

‘Tiddler’ research continued…

• More about the illustrator…

• The illustrator for this book is Axel Scheffler, he first started to work with Julia Donaldson 20 years ago on the first book which was ‘A squash and a squeeze’. His style throughout all of his illustrations have always been cartoon-like, colourful and sketchy drawings.

• After doing some research into Scheffler’s work pattern it seems he draws many different drawing for one story and selects the best set with the author of that particular book. He also says that if he is struggling for inspiration on a certain book he will often go out and take pictures to get some inspiration going.

• He also says when he gets a new project to work on he often looks back on older books he has illustrated to see what he would improve and for example if he would improve the brightness of the colours in a book he would see if he could apply this to his new project, so he didn’t make the same mistake again.

‘Hairy Maclary’s Showbusiness’ Written and illustrated by Lynley Dodd, Book 2 Research.

• The appearance of the book is reserved and a little boring, with quite dull coloured drawings on the front against a lime green background. Unlike ‘tiddler’ this book doesn’t stand out against others as well, this suggests its more about the content than the drawing.

• The methods used to illustrate are all watercolour paintings, the colours used are not very bright and eye catching but illustrate the story well.

• The font used is a form of serif, this technique is used in a lot of childrens books because of its ability to draw the eye along the text.

• In this book there is hardly any text on the pages, the maximum amount of a page is 11 lines, which are not even proper sentences, the minimum amount found on a page is 4 words. This means that younger readers won’t get bored as easy as if they had to read or listen to a full page being read to them.

• In this book there are 32 pages, 15 of these have illustration on, this means that for the age group which will read this, it isn’t too much writing for them to take in.

‘Hairy Maclary’s Showbusiness’ research continued…

• The author and illustrator of this book is the same person. Lynley Dodd, she has written many childrens book and is a popular choice for children and their parents allover as her writing style and illustration is very recognisable. She is best-known for this series of books, ‘Hairy Maclary’s Showbusiness’.

• The illustration in this book is very busy and fills the whole page, this makes the drawings in the book interesting for a younger child that is perhaps being read the book, to look at and take in. however for a older, more advanced reader the images provide a good mix between reading and looking at the pictures to help provide a visual aid in telling the story.

• I would say that the age range for this book would be 3-7 years, with the lower end of that age range just being a visual interest and the higher end being reading interest. This is because the images provide a lot of detail and add a lot to the story, but the text is not that advanced either.

• This book was published by Puffin books in 1993, but was re-issued in 2007. Puffin books are a popular childrens book publisher and are also very popular, well-known and trusted.

‘Mr Tiger Goes Wild’ written and illustrated by Peter Brown, Book 3 Research.

• This book has a very eye-catching and busy cover, this helps it to stand out to the child and make it more appealing to them.

• The methods used to illustrate this book are different to the other two I have research as the illustrator has taken a more digital path when creating the images, this makes the book look more modern and interesting when compared with other children's books I have researched, I like the feel it gives to the book.

• This book is also a lot longer than the other ones I have researched as it has 48 pages, this would suggest that it is for more advanced readers and older children with a longer attention span .

• This book is very unique and the illustrations for the book were created with India ink, watercolour, gouache and pencil on paper, the illustrations were then digitally edited, composited and coloured. This information is available at the back of the book and could make it more appealing toi the people buying the book because it Is something different.

• The font of this book is ‘Rockwell’ and display type was hand-lettered by peter brown, the author.

• I would say the age range for this book would be 5+ as it is quite long and younger children may be challenged or loose interest in this.