Typeface is Different
Imagery is presented through typeface. Or maybe it’s font. Whatever the difference is between those two things, it is utilized for the purpose of imagery and it is done quite effectively. Whenever the most important dialogue is spoken—the dialogue that centers the thematic foundation of the entire story—it is set off from the typeface (or font or whatever) used in the narrative through the substitution of a handwritten style. Examples include “Different isn’t weird” and “Why does she look so weird, mommy?” and “Different is OK.”
Withdrawn Charley
A very subtle bit of imagery underscores the fact that Charley’s sense of feeling “different” has to do with sometimes preferring his own company. Charley is active and social enough—he is initially portrayed wearing a lion costume and expelling a loud “ROAR!” in the imagery relating this aspect of personality. The next page is revelatory of Charley’s occasional preference for withdrawing from social interaction and simply enjoying being alone and this imagery is conveyed through an illustration showing Charley lying on the floor drawing while his two of friends from the previous page stand idly by.
The subtlety is in what Charley is drawing. It is upside-down so it is difficult to make out at first, but it turns out to be a turtle—perhaps the most iconic animal symbol of antisocial behavior. Charley is not just drawing a turtle from memory, however; he is actually painting it with watercolors based on an open book with a picture of a turtle on it almost too small to make out even when the page is turned upside down. Even more subtle—possibly—is that there is also a picture of the head of a bird on the page opposite that of the turtle which may possibly be—it is impossible to tell for sure, but it sure looks like it—the head of an ostrich: another animal symbol of antisocial behavior due to the myth of its burying its head in the sand.
Being Different
The most explicit use of imagery is the visual illustration of the many ways in which people are different. In addition to Emma—born without hands—in her wheelchair, other illustrations depict other ways in which people are not the same as everybody else around them. These include a deaf mother signing to her kids, a young girl carrying a canister of oxygen with tubes attached to her nose, a boy kicking around a soccer ball while using a walker, and a blind person using a cane.
A Different Family
Another subtly done bit of imagery is the portrayal of Charley’s family. It seems to consist in its entirety of just Charley and his mother. It isn’t just that only Charley and his mom are actually active characters in the story. No evidence exists that Charley’s father is part of the equation. Only one illustration is actually set inside their home and that one illustration just shows Charley and his mom sitting on the sofa with a single framed photograph on the wall. It is small, but quite clear and it is an image of just Charley and his mother. So even though the story does not directly address the issue, the overarching message that being different is OK is implied as being attached to family structures as well.
