Hamish's Picture Book 2/8

Rascal and the Cheese

Written by Paul Jennings, Rascal and the Cheese is a fictional narrative about a small family written in third person narration. The main characters which the story evolves around is Rascal the young pet dragon, a father and a son who's names are not revealed, and a mouse. The story begins with a quick orientation to the character Rascal and his new friend who is a mouse. The story quickly unfolds to the complication which is when the father and son of the family realise that the cheese the father enjoys eating has suddenly disappeared. The father and son suspect Rascal, and began searching the house for him. They then discover it isn't actually Rascal eating the cheese, it is in fact Rascal's friend the mouse. The story then repeats itself by which the father and son begin searching for the mouse. The resolution to this narrative is interesting as the text tells the reader that the mouse was never found, but the illustration provided for this scene shows the reader that the mouse is hidden safely away from the father with only Rascal and the son knowing of  his whereabouts. 

This picture book, Rascal and the Cheese, provides only a small amount of text, and relies more upon its illustrations to help explain to the reader the story. When analysing the focalisation of this picture book it was interesting to note that the text used would be quite literal about what is happening in the scene, where as the illustration accompanying the text would still relate to what is written on the page, but with greater detail and was able to display particular attitudes and emotions from the characters that the text would not reveal.