Magic Spells Decoded: Disparate Thematic Messages of Cinderella Picture Books by Two Different Illustrators

In picture books, visual images play a paramount role in imparting the author's and the illustrator's intended messages. Illustrators often embed certain messages in pictures, thus adding new meanings to the corresponding text. Especially, the embedded ideas within the images can engender different thematic messages from a same story, for example a world-famous fairy tale Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper. This article examines the imagery of the innocent heroine from two picture books; and how differently the ideal virtue of femininity is portrayed depending on illustrator's intentions, thereby conveying disparate ideal feminine virtues by different illustrators and altering the thematic messages of the story although the verbal contents carry the same Cinderella myth. Innocenti's Cinderella is described as a unconventional and confident young woman while Brown's Cinderella embodies the traditional concept of ideal woman who is submissive, fragile and blond young lady. The present study illuminates the understanding of how to read visual images of picture books that picture book reading should be an active process in which readers/viewers attend to visual details; and decode hidden messages and artists' intentions to complete the whole meaning of a story. The findings are closely related to critical visual literacy, which is vital component to survive in the 21st century and could be developed through critically reading picture books.