Much of the sharpest and wittiest content has appeared in picture books over the last
twenty years. Gifted artists have shown that the form is no longer the preserve of very
young children, demonstrating its particular ability to catch the irony and the tang of
contemporary childhood. Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen (1970) tells a tale that
has dark edges, by drawing upon the conventions of strip cartoons, movies and
American art of the 1930s. Other artists have exploited the picture book’s potential in
showing the multifaceted nature of stories in pictures. Often, as in Raymond Briggs’s
Father Christmas (1973) and Father Christmas Goes on Holiday (1975) the humour lies
in the gap between pictures and texts: what is left unsaid. And there are many other
artists whose work is worth exploring in this context: from the USA: Tomi Ungerer,
William Steig and James Stevenson; from Britain, Quentin Blake, Michael Foreman and
Anthony Browne. Elaine Moss’s study (1992) is a thorough and thoughtful account of
what picture books contribute to children’s reading in middle childhood.
Books for children in this age group reflect some of society’s concerns and shifting
consciousness. For a long time, there was a gender imbalance in terms of which
characters in books were active and assertive. It is now possible (though still too rare) to
see girls at the centre of plots, engaging and acting rather than sitting on the sidelines.
Gene Kemp’s award-winning The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler plays tricks with the
readers’ perceptions of how girls and boys behave. Similarly, Mary Hoffman’s Beware
Princess! (1986) offers a stimulating postmodern reading within a classic genre.
The young can possess varied frameworks to interpret how boys and girls ‘naturally’
are. There has also been much more effort made by writers, artists and publishers to
reflect the multicultural nature of British and American society in stories for children.
Other diverse and pluralistic cultures need a similar diversity in their reading matter for
the young (Whitehead 1988).
Since the 1960s there has been a practice of ‘packaging’ fiction for young children into
series. Long-held assumptions about the need for structure and linguistic control often
stifle quality. However, during the 1980s and 1990s there have been some highlights,
such as books, by Jane Gardam (Bridget and William (1981)), Bernard Ashley (Dinner
Ladies Don’t Count (1981)) and Barbara Willard (Smiley Tiger (1984)). Meguido Zola’s
Moving (1983) is a superb example of a book with potentially complex ideas and feelings
—the shifting of communities and alienation—dealt with in an accessible way. Particular
attention should be drawn to Judy Blume’s Freckle Juice (1984). It is a splendid example
of a sharply contemporary, fine-tuned kind of writing for 7- to 10-year-olds that
American women writers are particularly adept at. Phyllis Green’s Eating Ice Cream with
a Werewolf (1985) is another fine (and underrated) example of the unpatronising verve
these writers bring. The quality of books at this level might be indicated by the fact that
Kevin Crossley-Holland’s Storm published in Heinemann’s Banana Books series had the
distinction of winning the Carnegie Medal in 1985. Hobson (1992:213–222) gives an
excellent summary of British, American and Australian series.
During the mid-1980s and into the 1990s, writers for this age group showed signs of
interest in new forms and challenging content. This should not be overstated. The
relative lack of innovation has always been a contrast to the adventurous themes and
modes of presentation that picture books provide. Artists who are also story-tellers seem
to be more willing to exploit new forms of telling for a generation who know the
380 TYPES AND GENRES