Contemporary pictures books make up a very large amount of the books that children are reading today. There are many different elements that make up these picture books, and there are elements that are key for the understanding of the stories. Illustrations and their relationship between the texts are vital, if there is confusion between either, the story will be confusing to the readers. Language style, visual elements, and many more are characteristics that make up these children’s books and are essential for the story.
The genre of the book that I have selected is a contemporary children’s book. The plot of this story is a classroom pet guinea pig named Hercules, who decides to save pumpkin seeds in order to grow his very own garden of…show more content… Hercules is shown as an eager character on pages 11 and 12. Where he shows all of the different ways that he was angry at how his seeds weren’t growing fast enough. “They don’t grow faster if you yell at them.” Daisy showed him that waiting would result in the seeds growing. The children grew and learned about gardening, and this is what made him want to grow things too. He wanted to have his own garden of his own. When he arrived to the summer home, he was introduced to a rabbit who went by the name of Daisy, who taught him how to have his own garden. Daisy introduced the theme of patience; by making sure he was waiting for his garden to grow and not rushing it. With the theme of patience, it is shown how it goes hand in hand with gardening and other activities. Throughout the pages 13 and 14, Herky was shown that it takes time for his seeds to grow. The setting of the story is expanded from it being first in the first grade classroom of Miss MacGauffey. Then the setting is changed to Herky’s…show more content… In the beginning, the sentences weren’t too long, most pages having four sentences at most. The word choice was very easy to understand, which would make the book more suitable for beginner readers. An example of the word choices being simple would be on the very first page, “I am Hercules. I live in Miss MacGauffey’s first-grade classroom.” The text went along with the story with the simplicity of the words and the story itself. The technique that was used in the writing was the simple language and the few sentences. One literary device that was found was repetition, the phrase “I am a pretty lucky guinea pig.” Which was said once on one of the first few pages and then repeated on the very last page. The visual details of the illustrations can affect the texts and their meanings, how they would describe what the story is telling and also describing other factors with the picture