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Compositional and interpersonal analysis
of the picture book Stella brings the family:
deconstructing affection1
ONOMÁZEIN 55 (March 2022): 1-23
DOI: 10.7764/onomazein.55.01
ISSN: 0718-5758
Universidad de Alicante
España
María Martínez Lirola
55
March
2022
María Martínez Lirola: Departamento de Filología Inglesa/Department of English Studies, Universidad de Ali-
cante/University of Alicante. ORCID:orcid.org/0000-0002-6427-425X. | E-mail: maria.lirola@ua.es
Received: May 2019
Accepted: September 2019
Journal of linguistics, philology and translation
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Compositional and interpersonal analysis of the picture book Stella brings the family... 2
This study attempts to carry out an analysis of the compositional and interpersonal meta-
functions of the picture book Stella brings the family (2015). The analytical tools employed in
this study are based on the model for reading visual narratives proposed by Painter, Martin
and Unsworth (2013) and on Kress and van Leeuwen’s Visual Social Semiotics (2021), which
are useful models for the analysis of multimodal texts. The compositional and interpersonal
analysis intends to deepen the deconstruction of meaning in the picture book and how the
characters express affection. The compositional analysis reveals that the visual and the writ-
ten text are complementary and that the different focus groups highlight the characters. The
types of themes and the layout foreground the protagonist Stella. In addition, from an inter-
personal perspective, the analysis reveals that Stella has more physical contact with one of
her fathers, which suggests that Stella has a closer relationship with him. The compositional
and interpersonal meanings contribute to establishing a close connection with readers so
that they identify with Stella’s problem of not having a mother to celebrate Mother’s Day.
1 This study was carried out as part of research project FFI2017-85306-P (The Construction of Dis-
course in Children’s Picture Books, AMULIT), funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry
and Competitiveness.
Abstract
Keywords: multimodality; picture books; compositional and interpersonal metafunctions;
visual/verbal modes.
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1. Introduction
Picture books are an important resource to socialize children and to introduce them to liter-
ature and literacy (Painter, 2018). They are understood as social texts that establish relation-
ships between the reality they describe and the social context that frames them, i.e., they are
discourse, following Wodak (1997: 6): discourse “[…] constitutes situations, objects of knowl-
edge and the social identities of and relationships between people and groups of people. It
[…] helps to sustain and reproduce the status quo and […] contributes to transforming it”.
The analysis of children’s picture books is important due to the central role they have in
school curricula. These texts are important to help children express their feelings in the so-
cialization process (Nikolajeva, 2014). This will also contribute to helping children understand
their own emotions. In Nikolajeva’s words (2018: 110), “as picturebooks are likely to be the rst
kind of books that emerging readers encounter, they may potentially offer a powerful tool for
understanding one’s own and other people’s emotions, in particular for pre-literate readers
with a limited ability to make connections between the experiencing of an emotion and its
verbal signier”.
Literature for children has a key role in the way they develop their ideology and in the
way they understand the world. In this sense, in the last decades, part of this literature
has represented two-father or two-mother families and families in which there is a boy
or a girl who does not behave as children from their sex would normally do. This fore-
grounds the importance of representing new family models and the behaviors of children
who feel different.
Sex-role socialization is one of the areas where picture books can contribute. They help chil-
dren create an affective-sexual relationship; they also help children establish their gender
schemas by observing the different gender portrayals present in the visuals of the picture
books they read (Campagnaro, 2015; Coats, 2018; Soler Quiles, 2015).
Of the books in which there are two-father families, we will concentrate on Stella brings the
family (2015) because this book can be used to introduce the importance of the expression
of emotions in the classroom; the way Stella expresses her emotions can be used as a mod-
el to highlight the importance of feelings and coping with different emotions while we are
children. This book foregrounds not only two-father families but also other types such as
two-mothers, one-mother and families in which there are people from different races.
The plot of the story is simple: Stella has two fathers. Her teacher organizes a Mother’s Day
party, and this is a problem for Stella because she has no mother to bring to the party. One
of her classmates suggests that she bring her whole family to the party. By doing so, Stella
enjoyed the Mother’s Day celebration and sorted out her problem.
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The main objectives of this paper are the following: a) to offer a compositional and interper-
sonal analysis of the book in order to deconstruct meanings; b) to explore how Stella estab-
lishes physical contact with her fathers in order to deepen the different characters’ expres-
sion of affection, and c) to observe different relationships between Stella and her two fathers.
2. Theoretical background: compositional and interpersonal meanings
Contemporary societies are multimodal because communication takes place through differ-
ent modes, which makes clear that it is not possible to create meaning just with one semiotic
system (Jewitt, 2009; Lemke, 1998; Molina and Alonso, 2016; O’Halloran and Smith, 2011). That is
the reason why social-semiotic theory pays attention to the different forms used to express
meaning. In this sense, van Leeuwen (2014: 281) makes clear that “the term multimodality
refers to the integrated use of different semiotic resources (e.g. language, image, sound and
music) in texts and communicative events”.
We follow a social-semiotic approach, based on a discourse-analytic framework such as the
model of visual grammar proposed by Kress and van Leeuwen (2021). Their model is appli-
cable to images of any kind including web pages, advertisements, news stories, diagrams
or cartoon strips. They base visual grammar on the theory proposed by systemic functional
linguistics (SFL) to analyse any text and on the three metafunctions, ideational, interpersonal
and textual (Halliday and Matthiessen, 2014). The visual social-semiotics proposed by Kress
and van Leeuwen (2021) assign representational, interpersonal and compositional meanings
to visuals. This article will pay attention to both verbal and visual systems in order to observe
how they contribute to the expression of meaning by analysing the compositional and inter-
personal functions.
In the last decades, various scholars have done research on the relationship between the
image and the written text in children’s picture books, such as Lewis (2001), Painter (2007,
2008), Serani (2010), Unsworth and Ortigas (2008), Moya Guijarro (2014), Moya Guijarro and
Ruiz (2020) and Baguley and Kerby (2021). All these studies point out that although there are
different relationships between images and written texts, they always interact in the process
of creation of meaning.
In order to deconstruct meaning it is necessary to explore the relationship between the writ-
ten text and the visual. This will allow an in-depth observation of the way(s) picture books
present different social realities (Kümmerling-Meibauer, 2014). In some picture books, the
role of the visual predominates the written text, whereas in other cases there is a balance
between both modes of expression (Kümmerling-Meibauer, 2018).
Non-verbal and linguistic modalities carry meaning and contribute to the way people under-
stand a particular message. However, it is necessary to continue doing research on how both
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modes interrelate and how the visual can add to the verbal. SFL has been used to analyse the
text-image relation in children’s picture books (Martin, 2008; Painter, 2008).
Scholars have highlighted the importance of multiliteracies and how children develop them
from an early age in the last decades (Lewis, 2001; New London Group, 2000; Moya Guijarro,
2014, 2016; Moya Guijarro and Ruiz, 2016; Moya Guijarro and Ventola, 2021; Painter, 2007; Pinar
and Moya Guijarro, 2016; Unsworth, 2014). Literacy and literacy pedagogy need to continue
exploring the way visuals extend the meanings expressed by the written text.
3. Analysis of compositional and interpersonal relationships in Stella brings
the family
3.1. Compositional meanings
This picture book starts with an image of Elmwood Elementary School, where the teacher
is waiting outside welcoming the children. Right after that we nd Daddy and Papa holding
Stella in their arms just before she comes to school. One of the fathers has dark hair (referred
to as Papa on page 24) and the other is blonde (Daddy). There are only four pages where Stella
appears alone with her two fathers, and in three cases she appears right in the middle (pages
6, 28 and 30). On page 9, Stella appears in a corner of the page, and the two fathers appear at
the top inside a bubble. On page 16, apart from the fathers and Stella, her classmate Jonathan
is in the visual. The two adults appear on the left and the two children on the right. When
the whole family appears in the visual, Stella is also foregrounded by appearing right in the
centre holding hands with her two fathers (gure 1).
FIGURE 1
Stella’s family. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chronicle Books
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This picture book alternates placing the written text at the top and at the bottom of the visu-
al. Although the verbiage is given more importance when placed at the top, the fact that it is
written in small letters makes clear that the main emphasis is on the visual text throughout
the picture book. The written text is integrated with the visual. The pattern observed is inte-
grated expanded: instated: co-located.
Although we cannot see real bubbles, the written text appears symbolically in them, especially
where it appears on top or next to the characters that say the words. There is a clear bubble in
one of the last pages of the picture book, on page 29. Howie appears leaving school with his two
mothers. As it happened with Stella at the beginning of the book, in this case it is Howie’s face
that shows that he is worried. The bubble is a clear example of a mental process because Howie is
represented holding a Father’s Day party card in his hands. This is a way of showing that children
that belong to families with two mothers will also face Stella’s situation when Father’s Day arrive.
Regarding framing, the visuals in this book are unbound because the image extends in the
page without any specic margin; the only boundary is the page edge. We agree with Painter,
Martin and Unsworth (2013: 105) in that, in this way, “the depicted characters are less con-
strained by their circumstances […] and the story world is more opened up to the reader”.
However, pages 22 and 23 show the invitations prepared by Stella and her classmates to invite
their families to the Mother’s Day party, and in these case we nd the picture of each family
clearly framed. Although images are unbound because they extend right to the page edge,
there are some frames created by the ideational content such as the school (p. 5 and 29), a
door (p. 6 and 16), buses (p. 14) or the decoration used for the classroom (p. 18, 20, 21 and 24–27).
There are different focus patterns found in this book: in some cases, it is centrifocal; centred
because in some pages the visual appears right in the centre of the space. This is very clear in
the pages where Stella appears in the classroom sitting on a carpet with her classmates and
the teacher (p. 7 and 8) and when children are playing outside the school (p. 14). This is also the
pattern where Stella appears with her two fathers at the beginning and at the end of the story
(p. 6, 27 and 30) (gure 2) and when Stella’s classmate Howie appears represented with his two
mothers (p. 29). It is signicant that this example appears right before the nal page where
Stella is represented with her two fathers. In this way, this book not only foregrounds families
like the one Stella has with two fathers but also the one in which a child has two mothers.
In other cases, the pattern is centrifocal; it is polarised because we observe the opposition
of different depicted elements in the visual. For example, on page 9, Stella is represented on
the right corner at the bottom of the page, and the two fathers appear washing and drying
dishes on the left corner at the top of the page (gure 3). The same pattern is observed on
page 11, when Stella appears playing football with her classmate Leon (the black one): Stella
is foregrounded on the right corner of the page, and Leon appears further up, towards the
left corner at the top of the page.
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FIGURE 2
FIGURE 3
Stella in central position. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chronicle Books
Stella observes her fathers. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chronicle Books
However, the most common focus is itinerating aligned because “[…] the elements are nearly
always organised in fairly regular ‘lines’” (Painter, Martin and Unsworth, 2013: 111). This pat-
tern can be observed when Stella is working with her classmates in the classroom and they
are all sitting in chairs (pages 10, 12, 13 and 18) (gure 4), when she is playing football with a
classmate (p. 11) or is riding a bike with another one (p. 15), when she is with her fathers and
with the whole family (p. 16 and 20), when the children appear with their families (p. 21-25),
when Stella is talking to her teacher (p. 26).
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The theme-rheme analysis shows that the themes are unmarked in most cases: 1) Subject in
declarative clauses: Stella, Mrs. Abbott, we, each of you, Jonathan and Leon, Carmen, etc. 2)
WH-element in a WH-interrogative, i.e., what, who and why in questions such as the following:
“What’s wrong, Stella?”, “But who reads you bedtime stories like my mother does for me?” and
“Why don’t you invite them all?”
However, there are some examples of marked theme that consist of textual themes, in partic-
ular, a thematic conjunction such as ‘but’, which is used six times, with examples such as “But
Stella had two dads”. It is noteworthy that on several pages we nd also textual themes that
are adjuncts, and therefore they are called conjunctive themes; all of them have in common
that they are adverbials of time and that they appear in a different color and the letter’s size
is bigger than the rest of the verbiage, which highlights the time that Stella was worried: ‘That
afternoon’, ‘The next day’, ‘All week’, ‘soon’, ‘later that day’ and ‘For Father’s Day’. There is also
a marked textual theme that is a continuative, i.e., the ller well in the following sentence:
“Well, that’s a long answer,” said Stella. Most of the themes are simple, as table 1 makes clear.
FIGURE 4
Stella is sitting in the classroom. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chro-
nicle Books
TABLE 1
THEMES ABSOLUTE VALUES VALUES IN PERCENTAGES
Simple theme 29 70,73%
Multiple theme 12 29,27%
Total number 41 100
Types of themes
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Out of the 41 sentences in the picture book, Stella is the theme in fourteen, i.e., the protago-
nist of the story is the theme in 34,14% of the cases; she is the theme of a series of clauses in
around one third of the story; the title of the book also makes clear that the story is about her.
Stella is also the visual theme in sixteen pages out of twenty-six (61,53%) either by appearing
on the right of the page, in the centre and by being foregrounded although she is on the left
(see table 2). It is obvious that the written and the textual theme add a sense of coherence
to the book and both present Stella as the protagonist. Moreover, Stella is also highlighted
because we can see her whole body in all the visuals with the exception of pages 17, 27 and
30. Representing Stella on the right 43,75% of the times she appears in the visuals makes clear
that she is the centre of attention by appearing on the most important part of the page, as
table 2 makes clear.
TABLE 2
POSITION OF STELLA IN THE PAGE ABSOLUTE VALUES VALUES IN PERCENTAGES
Centre 6 37%
Right 7 43,75%
Left 3 18,75
Total number 16 100
Position of Stella in the page
Colours have a role in the expression of textual meanings. Characters in this picture book
wear clothes of different colours, but red, yellow and blue are three colours present from the
rst visual to the last one. In this sense, we coincide with Painter, Martin and Unsworth (2013:
35) in that “[…] repetition of a colour may be used cohesively as a kind of visual rhyme to link
different parts of a narrative”. Papa wears a yellow pullover and blue jeans at the beginning
of the book. Stella wears a red dress, and Daddy wears red trousers; the teacher also uses
blue clothes.
These colours are also used in the clothes of Stella’s classmates. There is a change on page 11
when Stella is playing football with Leon because they both appear wearing a green t-shirt
and red shorts, the uniform of the school team. After this event, Stella appears wearing a yel-
low dress. The classmates also wear different clothes but red, yellow and blue continue being
the colours that predominate. In the next visual where Daddy and Papa are represented, their
clothes are also different: Papa is wearing a yellow shirt and green trousers, while Daddy is
wearing blue.
Finally, when the party takes place, it is Papa who appears wearing blue trousers and a red
pullover, whereas Daddy is wearing yellow trousers and a blue shirt. The fact that the colours
of Daddy’s clothes coincide with Stella’s (she is wearing a pink dress and a blue jacket) helps
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to connect the two characters. Observing the clothes of the different people that go to the
party, it is clear that red, yellow and blue are the three predominant colours. Colour is a social
phenomenon and its use has a social effect in society (Pastoreau, 2008; van Leeuwen, 2011).
Red is associated with passion and love, blue is associated with masculinity (Heller, 2004) and
yellow, following Nodelman (1988: 61), is considered “the conventional color of cheerfulness”,
and, therefore, its use associates cheerfulness with the Mother’s Day party.
3.2. Interpersonal meanings
In this section, I will observe how visual elements create interpersonal meanings in the book
by focusing on image and gaze, social distance and intimacy, horizontal angle and involve-
ment and vertical angle and power (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2021). The aim is to observe if the
characters are presented close to the audience or detached. The analysis of the 26 illustra-
tions presented in table 3 shows the visual techniques used by the illustrator Clifton-Brown
to create engagement with the children reading the story.
TABLE 3
IMAGE ACT
AND GAZE
SOCIAL DISTANCE
AND INTIMACY
HORIZONTAL ANGLE
AND INVOLVEMENT
VERTICAL ANGLE
AND POWER
Offer
25 (96,15%)
Close-ups
21 (80,76%)
Frontal
24 (92,39%)
High
1 (3,84%)
Demand
1 (3,8%)
Middle-shots
4 (15,38%)
Oblique
2 (7,69%)
Eye-level
25 (96,15%)
Long shots
1 (3,84%)
Low
0
Total: 26 (100%) Total: 26 (100%) Total: 26 (100%) Total: 26 (100%)
Interactive features in Stella brings the family
Regarding image and gaze, the analysis shows that there is a predominance of offer (96,15%)
over demand images (3,8%). Concerning social distance and intimacy, the fact that most of the
visuals are close-up reinforces the relationship between the audience, Stella, her classmates
and her family and contributes to the identication of children with Stella’s problem. Close-
ups foreground Stella’s feelings and generate involvement with her. Moreover, the number of
frontal angles generates involvement between Stella, the other characters and the readers,
which contrasts with the two examples of oblique angles which create a sense of detachment
(Kress and van Leeuwen, 2021: 135). With regard to vertical angle and power, there is a clear
predominance of eye-level angles (96,15%) that contributes to involving the audience.
The book starts with a clear middle shot where readers can see Elmwood Elementary School
with the teacher waiting for children at the door and three children arriving at school. There
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is a fence in the foreground that establishes a distance between the world of readers and the
one narrated in the story; children are seen from the back, which separates the world of the
audience from that of the story.
After the fence, the children appear in the mid-ground and the teacher and the school in the
background. The fact that the horizontal angle is used through obliqueness contributes to
position viewers detached from the action presented in this visual. This is the only example
of the vertical angle that shows that readers see the school from a high position.
The next visual is very signicant because Stella appears with her two fathers in a close-up.
Both fathers hug Stella right before she enters her classroom. In this case, the frontal angle
used involves readers in the action; it seems that both fathers are introducing Stella to the
audience. After this, Stella appears sitting on a carpet inside the classroom in two visuals.
Both are examples of close-ups where the horizontal angle is used again to involve readers
in the story. There are some signicant differences between both visuals: in the rst one (p.
7), the faces of all the children are seen although none of them looks directly at the audience;
they all look happy.
In the second one (p. 8), we nd the teacher telling children that they will have a celebration:
“We’re going to have a celebration for Mother’s Day,” she says, “and each of you can invite a
special guest”. In this visual, two of the children have their back to the audience because they
are facing the teacher. Moreover, this visual is very signicant because this is the rst time
that Stella is represented with a worried expression on her face. She appears at the bottom
right corner of the page, i.e., quite close to the audience, and this is the only visual in the pic-
ture book where we can see her looking at the audience, clearly demanding an answer due
to the fact that she faces the situation of not having a mother to bring to the Mother’s Day
celebration because she belongs to a two-father family.
The next visual also represents Stella in the bottom right corner of the page, sitting on the
school carpet, but at the top of the page, inside a bubble, we can see that she is thinking of her
two fathers who are represented washing dishes at home. Stella is again represented close to
the audience and again a frontal horizontal angle is used in order to make clear Stella’s prob-
lem, which is also shown with her facial expression and clearly expressed in the written text:
But Stella had two dads.
Everyone else had a mother. Howie had two!
Stella would be the only one without a mother
at the Mother’s Day party.
Again there is a close-up when Stella is represented in her classroom thinking while she stares
at her clay. The horizontal angle is used to see Stella from the side and to involve the audi-
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ence in Stella’s situation. Next, we nd another close-up where Stella appears standing up on
the right of the page, quite close to the audience. She looks distracted playing football with
her classmate Leon. The next two pages show Stella and her classmates sitting inside the
classroom while they eat their lunch. Again the horizontal angle is used so that readers can
see children frontally. It is signicant that Stella is reading a little note written by her daddy
saying: “Your favourite. Love, Daddy”. This note is important because it reinforces that it is
Daddy who prepares her lunch, as Stella makes clear when her classmates asked her what
happened to her. As we can see in the written text, Stella reinforces the reason why she is
worried by repeating it:
All week, Stella’s
appetite was gone.
“What’s wrong, Stella?”
Jonathan asked.
“I have no mother to bring for the
Mother’s Day celebration.”
“No mother?” Asked Leon. “But who packs
your lunch like my mom does for me?”
“Daddy knows what I like”, said
Stella. “The problem isn’t lunch. It’s
that I have no mother to bring for
the Mother’s Day party.”
Horizontal angles are also used when children are represented leaving school. On page 14,
Stella’s classmates are represented smaller, whereas, on page 15, Stella and her classmate
Jonathan are represented bigger when they are going home by bicycle. Readers can see both
children frontally and quite close to the audience.
Page 16 is signicant because Stella’s facial expression changes when she arrives home with
Jonathan and he proposes to invite all her family to the party. Stella seems relieved in this visu-
al, and again the audience is involved because of the use of the horizontal angle in a close-up:
Jonathan asked,
“Why don’t you invite them all?”
“What a wonderful idea!”
Papa and Daddy said.
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But Stella’s worry is clearly reinforced in the next visual (p. 17) when she is in bed. Her facial
expression clearly shows that she is worried and even frightened. This is one of the two vi-
suals in the picture book where Stella appears alone. A close-up and a horizontal angle make
readers close to Stella’s feelings.
The same angle and the same social distance are found in the three following pages. However,
there is a signicant contrast between pages 18 and 19 because while Stella’s classmates are
represented facing the audience when they are crafting their invitations, Stella is represent-
ed alone with her back to the audience on page 19 (gure 5). There is a contrast also because
while Stella’s classmates appear working sitting at their desks, Stella is represented sitting
on the carpet, on the left on the page, which gives importance to the party invitations for her
family that appear towards the right.
FIGURE 5
Stella is working alone. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chronicle Books
There is also a contrast between the visual where Stella appears with her whole family, which
follows the pattern of social distance and social relation common in the book, and the next
visual where Stella’s classmates appear with their families. In this case some of the family
members are represented with a middle shot and there is an oblique angle, which highlights
the connection of the audience with Stella and her family and to be more detached from the
other families by using an oblique horizontal angle.
The two visuals where we nd the different invitations to the party prepared by the children
also follow the pattern of close-up and frontal horizontal angle (gure 6).
However, there is a change of pattern when the different characters appear having fun at the
party: Leon appears foregrounded, much closer to the audience, while Stella, Papa and other
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classmates appear in a middle shot but this time at eye level. This contrasts with the next
page where we nd Daddy and the rest of the adults that have gone to the party, again with
a close shot and a horizontal frontal angle (gure 7).
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 7
Invitations for the party. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chronicle Books
Having fun at the party. Figure taken from Stella brings the family (2015), from Miriam Schiffer. © Chronicle Books
Apart from Stella appearing alone in two visuals, Mrs. Abbott, the teacher, is represented
alone resting at a desk to point out that she was very tired after the preparation of the Moth-
er’s Day party. She is reinforced with the pattern observed in most cases in the book: in a close
up and a horizontal angle. After that moment, Stella appears talking to her; they both appear
close to the audience and observed frontally. On the next page, Stella appears happy, leaving
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school with her two fathers after the party. This visual and the last one of the book where
Stella appears eating at home with her two fathers are close up, and the characters can be
seen frontally thanks to the frontal horizontal angle. However, this contrasts with the visual
between this two, where we can observe the fence that also appears in the rst visual, clearly
establishing again a distance between the action represented and the audience. Then Howie,
Stella’s classmate who has two mothers, appears in a middle shot, at eye level. This time, it is
Howie who looks worried, thinking about the celebration of the Father’s Day party, as we can
clearly see in a bubble showing his thought (mental process).
TABLE 4
TABLE 5
MOOD STRUCTURE ABSOLUTE VALUES VALUES IN PERCENTAGES
Declaratives 36 (3 are exclamative) 85,72
Imperative 0 0
Interrogative 6 14,28
Total number 42 100%
EMOTIONS ABSOLUTE VALUES VALUES IN PERCENTAGES
Stella is happy 8 50%
Stella is sad/worried 8 50%
Other characters are happy 10 90,90%
Other characters look sad (Howie, Stella’s
classmate who has two mothers)
1 9,09%
Mood structure in Stella brings the family
Expression of emotions in Stella brings the family
4. Discussion: the contribution of the picture book to children’s expression
of emotions and intercultural aspects
Stella is a useful book for children to go more deeply into the expression of emotions and con-
tact. When the teacher mentions a Mother’s Day celebration, there is a sudden change in Stella’s
facial expression because she looks worried (p. 8). A similar facial expression is on pages 9, 11,
15 and 17. This contributes to the naturalization of being worried. Then, at the end of the story,
she is happy, which can help children understand changes in their feelings. The fact that the
story has a happy ending and that Stella’s feelings were equally of happiness and of worry in the
book shows children that it is natural to have different feelings. Table 5 shows the main feelings.
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Observing the different ways Stella establishes contact with her fathers suggests that they
have different roles in the family and there are differences in their expression of affection
and their construction of masculinity. It is signicant that Papa appears on the right the rst
time that the three characters appear together, because this position contributes to the im-
portance of this father. Moreover, this father’s hand appears bigger in the visual, and it is
clearly foregrounded by covering Stella’s chest. Daddy’s hand is smaller and is touching Pa-
pa’s hand, giving him support in the action of holding Stella in a way. The fact that Stella’s
hand is touching Papa’s hand shows contact and gives him more importance.
In addition, the next time the three characters appear together on page 9, Papa is the one
who is washing dishes and Daddy is drying them. It is also Papa who appears looking at Stel-
la in this visual while Daddy is represented with his eyes closed. In this sense, it is Papa who
has a more active role in taking care of Stella. On page 16, it is he who appears sitting down
holding Stella’s hand, which is very clear sign of affection, while Daddy is standing up right
behind the other father, in a protective posture. This visual where one father is sitting down
and the other is standing up also evokes the roles of traditional families in which one family
member, normally the mother, expresses affection more openly. Papa and Stella are clearly
joined by vectors and they are situated at the same level, whereas Daddy appears behind
both characters.
Again, there is a closer connection between Papa and Stella on page 20, when Stella appears
with her whole family. Although both fathers appear holding her hands, Stella is closer
to Papa and her body appears covering part of his body, which again suggests that Papa
is closer to Stella and has a more active role in taking care of her. Daddy is the rst one
mentioned in the written text and the one represented on the right, which contributes to
foregrounding him.
The fact of Papa being more affectionate and closer to Stella while Daddy is more serious
is clearly reinforced on pages 24 and 25 when they are at the school celebrating Mother’s
Day. It is Daddy who appears with adults in the party (p. 25), which contrasts with Papa who
appears playing with Stella and her classmates (p. 24). This is an example of the doublé-page
spread, considered to be a single layout: the left/right division of the page coincides with
new information being given. The fact that Stella is sitting on his back and he is surrounded
by children makes clear that he likes being close to children and that he is able to establish
good relationships with them. Daddy appears in a corner having a drink, observing how the
other characters dance.
On page 25, it is signicant that there are two lines of adults: the ones foregrounded are
Daddy, Howie’s two mothers and Leon’s black mother, i.e., mothers and fathers of different
races of same-sex couples. However, the adults in the background are Carmen’s mother, Jona-
than’s grandmother and Nonna. Families with adults from the same sex are also highlighted
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because the page before the last page of the book represents Howie with his two mothers;
Howie appears thinking about what will happen when it is Father’s Day. This is then repre-
sented as one challenge that children who have two fathers or two mothers face.
On page 28, it is Daddy who appears holding Stella on his shoulders and Papa appears walking
next to him, on the right, holding Daddy’s arm. Generally, in heterosexual families, it is the fa-
ther who carries children on his shoulders because, generally, the father is stronger than the
mother is. If we transfer this to the family pattern presented in this picture book, we assume
that it is Daddy who is stronger and that is the reason why he is represented carrying Stella.
Consequently, it is assumed that he is the one with a more masculine role.
Finally, the last time Stella appears with her two fathers, she is in the middle of the visual,
clearly connected by vectors to her fathers, which is also the same pattern observed the rst
time Stella appears with Daddy and Papa at the beginning of the picture book (p. 6). However,
there are two very clear differences between the visuals: the rst one is the position of the
fathers: in the rst visual Papa appears on the right and Daddy on the left. In the last visual it
is Daddy who appears on the right holding the food to be served while Papa appears on the
left side of the table holding Stella’s hand. The second difference is the fact that in the rst
visual there is physical contact between Stella and the two fathers, whereas, in the last visual,
Stella is only holding her right hand with Papa’s left hand.
Moreover, the fact that it is Daddy who appears sitting at the right of the table the last
time that the three characters appear together on page 30 gives him more importance,
because the right is the more important part of the information. This nuance can also be
connected with the traditional place where men would sit in heterosexual couples, normal-
ly at the head of the table, in the prominent position. In addition, Daddy appears wearing
a blue shirt, and the fact that this colour is normally associated with men contributes to
reinforcing Daddy’s connection with more traditional aspects of masculinity because he is
portrayed as more serious than Papa.
It is noteworthy that both fathers have different roles when the Mother’s Day party is taking
place: Papa appears playing with children, Stella sitting on his back while he is crouched down.
Daddy appears with the adults who have gone to the party. However, both fathers share the im-
portance in visual discourse because both of them appear on the right, the highlighted position,
on three occasions: Daddy on pages 9, 20 and 30, and Papa on pages 6, 16 and 28.
In fact, Papa is a clear example of a father who expresses affection, and therefore he illus-
trates one of the characteristics of new masculinities by portraying a father in a two-father
family connected with affection and tenderness. However, Daddy is also portrayed involved
in taking care of Stella because, when Stella tells her classmates that she has no mother,
they ask her some questions about things normally done by their mothers such as packing
lunches, reading bedtime stories and kissing. As we can see in Stella’s answers, Daddy is the
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only one mentioned in one of the answers, which makes clear that it is Daddy who prepares
Stella’s lunch. The answers after that make clear that both Daddy and Papa are both involved
in taking care of Stella:
“No mother?” Asked Leon. “But who packs
your lunch like my mom does for me?”
“Daddy knows what I like”, said
Stella. “The problem isn’t lunch. It’s
that I have no mother to bring for
the Mother’s Day party.” (p. 13)
“No mother?” Asked Howie. “But who reads you bedtime
stories like my mothers do for me?”
“Daddy and Papa read stories to me,”
“But who kisses you when you are hurt?” Carmen asked. (p. 14)
“Well, that’s a long answer,” said Stella.
“I get lots of kisses when I’m hurt either from Papa or Daddy or Nonna
or Aunt Gloria or Uncle Bruno or Cousin Lucy. But I still have no special
guest for Mother’s Day.” (p. 15)
Most of the examples make clear that Stella is represented closer and having more contact
with Papa throughout the book due to the fact that he looks at her while the other father
does not (p. 9), he holds her hand (p. 16 and p. 30), part of her body covers part of him (p. 20)
and she is sitting on him (p. 24). The fact that Papa appears closer to Stella and there are more
examples of physical contact between them makes clear that, of the two fathers, he is the one
showing more affection and being more tender. He is also presented playing with Stella on
page 24 while she is sitting on his back. In contrast, Daddy is presented as stronger because
of holding Stella on his shoulders (p. 28) while they are walking.
Although it is clear that this book is about a girl with two fathers, it also makes reference to
other types of families: on page 21 Howie appears with his two mothers on the right of the
page, which contributes to giving them importance. It can clearly be observed that one of the
mothers is black and the other one is Asian; in this way, apart from introducing couples of
the same sex, it is also foregrounded that they can have different cultural backgrounds and
different races. Next to them, we nd Jonathan with his grandmother, because his mother
could not come. Next to Howie and his mothers, we nd Leon with his mother; they are both
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black, which again introduces intercultural aspects in the picture book. The rst time there
is a reference to intercultural aspects is on page 7, the rst time Stella appears with other
children in her class and one of them (Howie) is Asian and another (Leon) is black. Howie also
appears with his two mothers on page 29. In both cases, it is clear that Howie looks like the
mother of Asian origin, which is a sign of this being the biological mother.
There is no doubt that Stella brings the family does not only contribute to normalising fam-
ilies with two fathers, but also to foregrounding multicultural families in which different
ethnicities and different expressions of sexuality are present. Consequently, this book is not
only one example of a gender progressive ideology but also of a multicultural ideology where
racial differences are seen as positive and natural.
The portrayal of people not only with different sexual orientations but also with different
ethnic backgrounds will broaden children’s cosmopolitan knowledge and respect for human
beings that are part of minorities. Following Sunderland and Mclashan (2012: 162), “a general
observation (especially in the ‘realistic’ books) is an emphasis on ethnic diversity, which acts
both as a metaphor and an extension of a positive embracing of gay sexuality to other iden-
tities and to social diversity and inclusion more widely”.
Diversity and interculturality are foregrounded in the picture book and in the children’s ideol-
ogy, which highlights global literacy and the development of cosmopolitan skills in children
(Baesler and Lauricella, 2014). Consequently, respect for multicultural values and diversity will
facilitate students’ growth as global citizenships opens to different realities such as families
created by members of the same sex and families of people from different races.
Ideologically, this book gives children an example of how problems such as the one that Stella
had can be overcome. Therefore, not having a traditional heterosexual family does not mean
that children cannot participate in traditional celebrations such as Mother’s or Father’s Day.
In this sense, children are guided to understand different types of families. Introducing books
that refer to the reality of children from same-sex parents families makes the curriculum in-
clusive and helps children overcome the fear of people not understanding their type of family
(Rowell, 2007; Sunderland and Mclashan, 2012).
Using this picture book in the classroom will facilitate students’ appreciation of and respect
for cultural diversity while they learn that cultural differences enrich their lives. This will
lead to peaceful coexistence inside and outside the classroom, which can enrich students’
lives while they learn. Consequently, social consciousness is highlighted from an early age,
and students are exposed to different types of families. Promoting an integrated ideology
from an early age will help students reject any form of discrimination, in particular sexual
or racial. It will also support integration and diversity in order to build a more open society
that leaves prejudices behind.
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5. Conclusions
The different compositional and interpersonal meanings analysed show that the multimodal
text Stella brings the family contributes to identifying the reader/viewer with Stella and her
problem although the utilization of offers does not establish a close relationship with the
reader. The use of the eye-level angle implies that children are at the same level as is Stella
and they can identify with her.
This is a very clear example of a picture book in which the text and the social context sur-
rounding it are clearly interrelated, due to the fact that different types of families are pre-
sented. Children reading this book will not only learn to respect families with two fathers but
also families in which there are people from different ethnic groups and, therefore, different
cultural backgrounds. In fact, presenting plural families from the sexual and the racial point
of view highlights that twenty-rst-century society promotes the integration of different
types of families in which different models of multiculturalism, ethnicity and sexuality are
normalised and presented as a product of the time.
Foregrounding gender diversity and race in this picture book helps children broaden their social
consciousness because they are exposed to different types of families. Consequently, represent-
ing types of families that are a minority makes them visible. They also highlight the difculties
that children belonging to these families have to face when a situation like the one described in
this book (having to celebrate Mother’s Day at school having two fathers) is presented.
This picture book ghts the hegemony from the family type and racial point of view at the
same time in that it favors the coexistence of different family models in a plural society. Stu-
dents reading this picture book will learn that there are different models of coexistence and
that all of them are correct, respectful and accepted. In fact, this book is pedagogical in the
sense that it contributes to students being open and respectful of differences.
Thanks to this book, students will learn to develop skills that allow them establish relation-
ships in a global world where different types of families are becoming normalised. Hopeful-
ly, the ideology transmitted in this picture book will contribute to social transformations,
because if students learn effectively the competences presented in them, they will be active
agents in the process of social transformation. Students will be aware of how unequal re-
lationships between human beings affect social structure and will give importance to the
models of sexual and racial integration presented in the picture book.
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