Restorying the life of Martin Luther King: visual and verbal complexity of nonfiction picture book biographies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24136/rsf.2021.002Keywords:
nonfiction, picture book, biography, counternarrative, visualityAbstract
The article is devoted to the genre of nonfiction picture book biography as a new publishing phenomenon within the area of children's literature. The aim of the article is to analyze the ways of transmitting knowledge by combining visual codes and unconventional verbal narratives in three nonfiction picture book biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr.: Martin's Big Words: The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2007), I Have a Dream (2012), and Be A King: Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Dream and You (2018). It examines how the selected books invite the readers to participate in the process of meaning making and redefining reality. It also discusses the strategies of counterstorytelling and counter-visuality employed by the creators of the books.
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