AustLit

Today’s children frequently experience multiple versions of literary narratives as more and more picture books appear also as animated movies and i-pad/tablet apps. In some cases the animated versions are very different from the books but in other cases the language and the visual character representations maintain the essential features of the book versions. Works such as these afford the opportunity to appreciate how quite subtle changes in depiction from static to moving image can effect significant shifts in the interpretive possibilities. This kind of interpretive context is addressed directly in the Australian Curriculum: English, which indicates, for example, that year four and five students should be examining variation in visual point view and its impact on audiences. This chapter firstly examines the knowledge about the meaning-making resources of still and moving images that is necessary to negotiate these kinds of curriculum expectations. This is illustrated through a comparative analysis of corresponding segments of three well-known picture books.