- Direct address to reader / interactive narration / narrator interrupts or asks question
- Multiple narrators / multiple narratives / stories within stories / simultaneous narratives
- Varying styles of print / lettering to convey additional meaning / meaning in images & graphics
- Indeterminate endings / non-chronological / non-linear
- Intertextual relations / mixed genres / mixed language styles
- Requires reader to construct meaning / requires intellect and thinking to read
DIRECT ADDRESS TO READER
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!
by Mo Willems (2003)
In this book, Mo Willems creates a situation where the readers / listeners actively speak back to the characters in a live dialogue. Even before the title page, children are given the task of being "the person in charge" - the adult in the situation - to not let the pigeon drive the bus.
Throughout the book, Pigeon uses all possible techniques to convince the reader to let him drive the bus. The begging "please" is typically familiar to many children, but in this case, they have to interactively say "no!"
Reading this book aloud in the classroom or individually with a child definitely encourages an interactive experience. Postmodern picturebooks suggest new ways of reading books with children - where dialogue with the adult - as well as the characters in the book - is part and parcel to the story.
