A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images.
The images in picture books can be produced in a range of media, such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor, and pencil. Picture books often serve as educational resources, aiding with children's language development or understanding of the world.
Three of the earliest works in the format of modern picture books are Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter from 1845, Benjamin Rabier's Tintin-Lutin from 1898 and Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit from 1902. Some of the best-known picture books are Robert McCloskey's Make Way for Ducklings, Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat, and Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. The Caldecott Medal (established 1938) is awarded annually for the best American picture book. Since the mid-1960s, several children's literature awards have included a category for picture books.
Target audiences Picture books are most often aimed at young children. Many are written with vocabulary a child can understand but not necessarily read. For this reason, picture books tend to have two functions in the lives of children: they are first read to young children by adults, and then children read them themselves once they begin learning to read.
Categories
The majority of picture books are constructed in the same way as books for older children and adults, but there are a number of special types.
Board books are picture books printed on sturdy cardboard—called paperboard—for young children who tend to be less careful with traditional books. Paperboard is used for both the cover and the interior pages. The pages are specially folded and bound together. Soft books, also aimed at very young children, are made of cloth or soft plastic. Pop-up books employ paper engineering to make parts of the page pop up or stand up when pages are opened. The Wheels on the Bus, by Paul O. Zelinsky, is an example of a best-selling pop-up book. Touch and feel books included textured surfaces in the pictures. Pat the Bunny, by Dorothy Kunhardt, is a popular touch and feel book. Concept books teach children about specific themes such as the alphabet or shapes. A famous example is A Is for Apple by Georgie Birkett. Easy reader books are for children who are beginning to learn how to read and include simple text and descriptive illustrations. Non-fiction children's books are used to teach children in a simple and accessible way. Wordless picture books tell a story only through images. They encourage creativity and can be appreciated by children who cannot yet read. A famous example of a wordless picture book is The Snowman by Raymond Briggs.
Genre The genre of picture books is unique because of the complementary relationship between text and art.Nodelman, P. (1988). Words About Pictures: The Narrative Art of Children's Picture Books. The University Of Georgia Press. Picture books have existed since 1658, when the first picture book specifically for children, Orbis Sensualium Pictus, was printed.Picture Books. (2015). In D. Hahn (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature (). Oxford University Press, Inc. The genre continues to be popular today. While some picture books are written and illustrated by the same person, others are collaborations between an author and an illustrator.Hoppe, A. (2004). Half the Story- Text and Illustration in Picture Books. Horn Book Magazine, 41-50. These collaborations give equal power to both and allow each to bring their own creativity to the book. Children's book illustrations can drive the plot or bring the plot to life. Editors of picture books often look carefully for an illustrator that matches the style of the text, while still adding their own artistic value to the book. There must be mutual respect between an author and an illustrator in the creation of a successful picture book.
Pedagogy Picture books can serve as important learning tools for young children.Jalongo, M. R. (2004). Young Children and Picture Books (2nd ed.). National Association for the Education of Young Children. They are often used both in the classroom and at home to help children develop language and creativity skills. A psychology study showed that wordless picture books have been shown to improve children's storytelling skills and boost their engagement in books.Zevenbergen, A. A., Angell, A. L., Battaglia, N. A., & Kaicher, C. M. (2021). Co-Constructing Stories: Sharing Wordless Picture Books with Preschoolers. Children & Libraries: The Journal of the Association for Library Service to Children, 19(4), 22-26. Additionally, children's picture books can help children tackle philosophical questions and life concepts.Zelinsky, P. O. (2021). New Picture Books Pose Two of Life's Biggest Questions: Picture Books. For example, Mac Barnett and Carson Ellis's picture book What is Love? serves not only as entertainment for children, but as an introduction to important life questions about love and empathy. A study in Australia found that reading postmodern picture books led to better text analysis skills for students.Small, N., & Callow, J. (2021). Using postmodern picture books to support upper primary students' text analyst skills. Australian Journal of Language & Literacy, 44(3), 6-21. Picture books can also improve young children's descriptive vocabulary and reading and drawing behaviors at home.Hsiao, C. (2010). Enhancing Children's Artistic and Creative Thinking and Drawing Performance through Appreciating Picture Books. International Journal of Art & Design Education, 29(2), 143-152. The art element of picture books aids with creativity development and engagement with books. Not only can picture books help children develop literacy and creative skills, but they can also help children develop logical thinking and mathematical skills.Natthapoj, V. T. (2019). How picture books help maths teaching: Using maths story picture books. The Times Educational Supplement. Math-based stories can help children conceptualize mathematical concepts and develop language skills to discuss math.
History
Early illustrated books
The production of illustrated books dates back to the earliest days of bookbinding. Medieval illuminated manuscripts were commissioned by the rich, and drawn by religious scribes. Perhaps the most important tradition of medieval art in regard to the development of picture books is the Poor Man's Bible, which sought to make illustrations of important Biblical events so that they could be understood by the illiterate. These illustrations were generally found either on stained glass windows, or as illuminations in Paupers' Bibles.
Orbis Pictus from 1658 by John Amos Comenius was the earliest illustrated book specifically for children. It is something of a children's encyclopedia and is illustrated by woodcuts.Hunt, p. 217 A Little Pretty Pocket-Book from 1744 by John Newbery was the earliest illustrated storybook marketed as pleasure reading in English.Hunt, p. 668 In Japan, kibyoshi were picture books from the 18th century, and are seen as a precursor to manga. Examples of 18th-century Japanese picture books include works such as Santō Kyōden's Shiji no yukikai (1798).
The German children's books Struwwelpeter (literally "Shaggy-Peter") from 1845 by Heinrich Hoffmann, and Max and Moritz from 1865 by Wilhelm Busch, were among the earliest examples of modern picturebook design. Collections of Fairy tales from the early nineteenth century, like those by the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen were sparsely illustrated, but beginning in the middle of the century, collections were published with images by illustrators like Gustave Doré, Fedor Flinzer, George Cruikshank,Hunt, p. 221 Vilhelm Pedersen, Ivan Bilibin and John Bauer. Andrew Lang's twelve Fairy Books published between 1889 and 1910 were illustrated by among others Henry J. Ford and Lancelot Speed. Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by John Tenniel in 1866 was one of the first highly successful entertainment books for children.
Toy books were introduced in the latter half of the 19th century, small paper-bound books with art dominating the text. These had a larger proportion of pictures to words than earlier books, and many of their pictures were in color. The best of these were illustrated by the triumvirate of English illustrators Randolph Caldecott, Walter Crane, and Kate Greenaway whose association with colour printer and wood engraver Edmund Evans produced books of great quality.Hunt, p. 674 In the late 19th and early 20th century a small number of American and British artists made their living illustrating children's books, like Rose O'Neill, Arthur Rackham, Cicely Mary Barker, Willy Pogany, Edmund Dulac, W. Heath Robinson, Howard Pyle, or Charles Robinson.
Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published in 1902 to immediate success. Peter Rabbit was Potter's first of many The Tale of..., including The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, The Tale of Tom Kitten, and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck, to name but a few which were published in the years leading up to 1910. Swedish author Elsa Beskow wrote and illustrated some forty children's stories and picture books between 1897–1952. Lang's twelve Fairy Books published between 1889 and 1910 were illustrated by among others Henry J. Ford and Lancelot Speed.
In the US, illustrated stories for children appeared in magazines like Ladies Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, and Woman's Home Companion, intended for mothers to read to their children. Some cheap periodicals appealing to the juvenile reader started to appear in the early twentieth century, often with uncredited illustrations.
Helen Bannerman's Little Black Sambo was published in 1899, and went through numerous printings and versions during the first decade of the twentieth century. It was part of a series of small-format books called The Dumpy Books for Children, published by British publisher Grant Richards between 1897 and 1904.
Early to mid-20th century In 1913, Cupples & Leon published a series of 15 All About books, emulating the form and size of the Beatrix Potter books, All About Peter Rabbit, All About the Three Bears, All About Mother Goose, and All About Little Red Hen. The latter, along with several others, was illustrated by Johnny Gruelle. Wanda Gág's Millions of Cats was published in 1928 and became the first picture book to receive a Newbery Medal runner-up award. Wanda Gág followed with The Funny Thing in 1929, Snippy and Snappy in 1931, and then The ABC Bunny in 1933, which garnered her a second Newbery runner-up award.