9
Illustration and Picture Books
Perry Nodelman
From Mr Gumpy’s Outing by John Burningham. Copyright © 1971 John Burningham. Reprinted
by permission of Jonathan Cape and Henry Holt and Co. Inc.
I open a book. I see a picture of a man, standing on a path in front of a house. Under
the picture, printed words appear: This’, they tell me, ‘is Mr Gumpy.’
What could be more straightforward, more easily understood? And for good reason: the
book, John Burningham’s Mr Gumpy’s Outing (1970), is intended for the least
experienced of audiences—young children; and therefore, it is a ‘picture book’, a