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The Modern Picture Book
Jane Doonan
DevelopmentOne of the most fertile areas of growth in children’s literature has been in the
development of the picture book, once the prerogative of the young, which in its modern
form is capable of engaging the interest of children well above the age of infancy and
learner-reader.
The story-telling of the traditional picture book puts the words in charge, even though
the design of the whole is conceived in visual terms. The illustrations are almost always
congruent with the text, engaged at best in a responsive interplay which illuminates,
amplifies, exemplifies, and extends it. The artist’s style is graphic rather than painterly
both as a result of its historical roots in book and journal illustration, as well as in the
limitations imposed by available printing methods. The subject matter and themes are
those which amuse, educate and socialise a young child.
Perceptions about childhood, perceptions about the picture book and the nature and
structure of publishing have changed considerably since the First World War. The story-
telling of the modern picture book exploits more fully the potential of the interdependent
complexities of the form itself: words, pictures, layout, the physical object from cover to
cover with its turning pages. The relationships between words and pictures range from
an obvious congruency through to that of a highly ironic one in which words and images
may seem to be sending contradictory messages, and a challenge lies in resolving the
differences to make a composite text with a satisfying conclusion; at its most extreme,
the nature of the relationship is permanently unclear and a high degree of toleration of
ambiguity is required of the reader-beholder. There is a delight in parodic and satirical
modes most frequently displayed in reworkings of folk- and fairy tales. The metafictional
elements which may be found in contemporary fiction have their picture book
counterparts, as writers and artists question notions of how stories are told and
meanings are made. Conventions and techniques are subverted; boundaries are broken
between fictional characters and the very picture books in which they feature, and
between the picture book maker and the audience; too much or too little information is
given for issues within the verbal and visual stories to be resolved once and for all.
Artists exploit the abstract elements of picture making—line, shape, colour and their
ordering—together with the choice of materials and historical style, to allude to complex
psychological states through images which function as the visual equivalent of simile,