In her Coretta Scott King Award acceptance speech, Virginia Hamilton said, "Literature gives us images with which to think." This is literally true for the illustrations which fill many children's picture books. (2)
The Israeli scholar Joseph Schwarcz proposed that illustrations have a psychological effect on children, that the illustrations that children encounter teach them how to deal with problems in their lives, how to model their lives, how to become adults. (3)
Illustrations that children encounter in their early literature can become important parts of their understanding of the world, part of the building blocks of their thinking, something to which they will refer in their actions as they grow up. As Jacque Roether states in her essay, one of the ways in which black children in America create their thinking and understanding is through the illustrations they encounter in the literature to which they are exposed as children. Children, especially young children, are sensitive to illustrations. They concentrate on illustrations while another person reads the words to them. In this way, they are subject to the impressions that illustrations create. The images children absorb can remain with them for the rest of their lives. (4)
Schwarcz named two phenomena that children experience through images - emotive response and cumulative effect. The effect of illustrations is especially important in telling the story. Since illustrations are visual, the response they elicit is emotive, and the influence can be very subtle. In The Picture Book Comes of Age, Schwarcz says illustrated stories bring to the child's subconsciousness ideas which would be difficult to present at a conscious level (5). "Pictures are never ... simple. Their structure, proportions, configurations, colors, angles of lighting, perspective, and many other components hold allusions, associations, and over- tones, which may eventually turn into metaphors and symbols expressing points of view . . . " (6) . Children are not mature enough in the conventions of art to know that certain colors and shapes create certain moods and meanings. They can easily be swept along by the emotion that first overtakes them, and not quite understand its meaning.
Cumulative effect is just as it implies. Repeated exposure to images can create a lasting impression; negative or positive images will become part of the child's understanding. But the effect can also be more subtle than this. Sustained absence can take on meaning as well. (7)
What might happen to children of minority cultures reading illustrations in children's books? If negative images of black people appear in children's literature, it is bound to do damage to children trying to understand their place in society. For minority children, the negative images will partially inform their understanding of themselves. (8) Using the six hats strategy is a way to begin to discuss these issues, thinking about the pictures from different goals in mind.
But negative portrayal isn't the only problem, however. If African American children are absent from the illustrations in the picture books they see, again, how are they to judge their place in this society? If they see no black faces in hospitals, courthouses, homes, department stores, even in crowds, will this not affect them?
The focus for this unit is contemporary African American artists who create books for young children. The images these artists draw, paint, photograph and more place African American children and families at the center in their work. They are the main characters who experience wonderful, exciting adventures. These amazing, talented artists bring rich, award-winning images to their young audiences through folktales, fantasy, real-life and non-fiction.