TrendsThe most obvious change in information books during the past forty years has been the
increase in importance of illustrations. A generation accustomed to taking in the visual
images of television expects a similar approach in its books. This is as apparent in the
‘coffee-table’ books for adults as in the highly illustrated books for children. This has
brought a shift in the respective roles of text and illustration. In the past, pictures
supplemented the explanations given in the text. Now, in many cases, the text seems
largely an appendage, a device for connecting the illustrations. Colour work of high
quality is now available at a relatively modest cost, and information books have become
visually exciting as exemplified in the productions of Dorling Kindersley.
At one stage the colour photograph had become a cliché, especially when text had to be
skewed to fit the findings of picture researchers. There are now, though, signs of more
variety of illustration. There is a continuing tradition of the factual picture book. One
can trace a line from Père Castor’s picture books of the 1930s, via the post-war Puffin
picture books to the 1970s/1980s work of artists such as Aliki, Anno and Juliette
Palmer and thence the 1993 offerings from Walker Books, the Read and Wonder series.
These factual books are written by established picture book authors, and then given to
illustrators used to the rhythm and freedom of stories.
Other publishers, for example Macdonald, have built on the tradition of bringing fact
and fiction together in one subject book, a form which has had a long —and chequered—
history. The factual framework restricts the story, while the fictional form makes
information retrieval difficult. The search for more variety has led to criticism of ‘the
tyranny of the double-page spread’, which breaks up the organic shape of the book and
tends to lead to a crowded page opening, oppressive to the reader. In 1983 Geoff Fox
suggested that the form seemed to be ‘nearing abolition’ (23), but it is significant that
nearly a decade passed before Oxford University Press began publishing its Young
Oxford Books, deliberately organised in chapters rather than double-page spreads.
The economics of publishing is making publishers much more cautious, and has even
led to what appear to be sponsorship deals, for example, a book on car building
featuring the work of one particular car manufacturer, and so, indirectly, serving as an
advertisement for that company. Following the stages of one product in one factory gives
an immediacy to the text, but is bound to raise questions on the appropriateness of this
approach.
Just as the earliest information books sought to make facts palatable, so publishers
today seek to arouse children’s curiosity by a range of devices. There is less evidence
that publishers have succeeded in judging how children will make information their own,
and find space within the text to add their own observations and reflections. In essence,
we are not yet clear whether information books are in the business of presenting facts or
communicating with readers.
ReferencesBald, J. (1987) ‘Days of reckoning’, The Times Educational Supplement 20 March: 47.
Davies, M. (1991) ‘Words apart’, The Times Educational Supplement 19 July: 18.
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