A Study on Images of Main Character in Picture Books Perceived by Elementary School Students

• Main Authors: Chia-Hsing Wang, 王佳欣
• Other Authors: Chung-Chi Lai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/78747370295368345733

碩士 === 大葉大學 === 設計暨藝術學院碩士在職專班 === 97 === Picture books have become a staple of modern children’s reading. However, purchase and choice of picture books are mostly dominated by adults. This study aimed to understand children’s perception and preference for the images of main characters in picture books. The result could serve as a reference for related research and also help parents and schools purchase picture books expected by children. Illustrations of main characters in picture books recognized with international awards and suitable for low-grade elementary school students were selected as research samples. From picture books and children’s language, image words of main characters in picture books were collected. Later, 10 most representative illustration cards and 8 image words were selected to create a questionnaire on perceived image words using 5-point rank-order scale. The questionnaire was administered to low-grade elementary school students in Changhua County. 365 valid responses were obtained. The collected data were later analyzed using SPSS12.0 to understand the children’s perception of the images in the 10 illustration cards. The major findings of this study included: 1.Main characters illustrated with a cute and interesting image were more favored by low-grade elementary school students. 2.In the choice of main characters in picture books, low-grade elementary school students preferred main characters in animal images to those in human images. 3.The children’s preference for illustrations of main characters in picture books was not significantly affected by their gender or whether they have read the picture books selected for this research. However, children of different genders showed inconsistent perceptions of interesting/non-interesting illustrations of main characters. This inconsistency was probably associated with the themes for main characters in picture books.