Maps in picturebooks: cognitive status and narrative functions

Abstract

This article focuses on the relation between maps, mental representations, description, and narration in picturebooks. It is shown that maps are cognitively demanding, since they presuppose the development of cognitive abilities and the comprehension of complex visual codes, including recognition of the specific combination of signs and names representing land- and cityscapes, geographical abstraction as well as the symbolization, highlighting, and suppression of information. After a survey of findings from cognitive psychology and geography literacy about children's map acquisition, the article gives an overview on some types of maps in picturebooks that are interesting from a narrative point of view, before turning to the pictorial character of maps. Three outstanding picturebooks with maps, Drei Jungen erforschen eine Stadt (1933) by Friedrich Böer, The Story of the Little Red Engine (1945) by Diana Ross and Leslie Wood, and My Place (2008) by Nadia Wheatley and Donna Rawlins, have been chosen to demonstrate the diverse types and functions of maps. Finally, the article focuses on the relationship between picturebook story and map, thus showing that maps are not merely illustrations, but constitute relevant aspects of the overall narration.

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