The unique rhythm of pictures and words working together harmoniously or in contradiction distinguishes picturebooks from other forms of both visual and verbal art. It is in this interweaving, in this interanimate relationship, that the picturebook is dynamic. Drawing attention to the aesthetic, as Jane Doonan points out, ‘every mark displayed in a picture is a carrier of meaning, beginning with the chosen material or medium and how the mark is made’ (1993: 35). In discovering how much there is to be made from looking into pictures, readers develop an almost unconscious visual literacy. Elements of design and expression, including colour, perspective, position, size, frame and line reveal a ‘grammar’ to visual design. Picturebook creators are capable of communicating different things at the same time through words and pictures, creating a third reality in the mind of the reader. And it is here where magic can happen. Making ourselves and our children more conscious of the interweaving of conventional and complex iconic semiotics of the picturebooks through which we show them their world and themselves will allow us to give them the power to negotiate their own subjectivities.