Picture Books for Children

by Mary Northrup

  Colors may change from one page to the next when the scene or the mood changes. Robert Ingpen’s illustrations of a crowded vessel feature blues, grays, and light violets in Liz Lofthouse’s Ziba Came on a Boat. As if clearer than her present existence, memories of her life in a war-torn land feature, in many cases, more defined and varied colors. Only toward the end of the book does life on the boat take on brighter hues as Ziba and her mother look to the future.

  Line

  The many variations of line and shape impact the mood, as well as the characterization and portrayal of action.

  In Sophie Peterman Tells the Truth! by Sarah Weeks, illustrator Robert Neubecker employs bold black lines to outline the characters and to highlight certain words, indicating the mood of strong negativity toward the little brother. Compare the difference in the delicate lines of Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers, a gentle story of friendship.

  The horizontal line separating sky and ground in Grace Lin’s Thanking the Moon appears in almost every page spread, indicating stability and calm. Contrast this with several scenes in Anu Stohner’s Brave Charlotte and the Wolves, where Henrike Wilson uses diagonal lines in a forest to represent danger.

  Shape

  John Segal’s The Lonely Moose combines geometric shapes with organic. The triangular mountains and pine trees coexist with the irregular shapes of the pond, animals, and deciduous trees, just as the taciturn moose coexists with the bright, bubbly bird. Artists create interesting shapes in the technique of collage with found objects. Hanoch Piven uses everyday school objects as facial features in My Best Friend Is as Sharp as a Pencil, such as crayons to represent the art teacher’s mustache and an open book that becomes the smiling mouth of the librarian. Observe scale and proportion in evaluating, too. In Matthew Cordell’s Trouble Gum, almost every illustration is small on each page, even tiny on some, with plenty of white space surrounding. This makes the impact of the final scene huge.

  Texture

  Does the art look as if it would feel like grass, or a blanket, a rock, or a furry animal hide if it were touched? The texture of the artwork, which depends on the medium and the technique used, adds to the visual style and emotional appeal. Ed Young, in Kimiko Kajikawa’s Tsunami!, uses various materials in collage illustrations to create fields, water, and houses with touchability. The oil paint of Robert J. Blake’s illustrations for Swift appears in daubs and lines that give an almost 3-D effect to the landscapes.

  Space and Perspective

  Whether the artwork appears flat and in the foreground or portrays distant objects in perspective to foreground objects will lend a distinct feel to the story.

  A good example of realistic perspective can be seen in Jean Craighead George’s The Last Polar Bear. In one illustration, illustrator Wendell Minor places a large polar bear so close to the front of the illustration that her whole body does not fit within the pages. Then, to one side of her, a snowy road stretches to the horizon, framed by telephone poles drawn closer together the farther back they go.

  Many of the scenes in David Conway’s Lila and the Secret of Rain feature landscapes that include mountains. Illustrator Jude Daly uses the technique of differing shades to show distance: houses and gardens are dark brown, distant fields are light tan, and the faraway mountains shimmer a bluish white.

  Motion

  Can a static illustration portray movement? Perry Nodelman in Words about Pictures emphatically states that it can, whether in a single image or a series of pictures in which one character is portrayed in different positions or a setting is shown with varying circumstances, implying active movement or transition through time.2

  Movement across a page spread indicates the forward motion of the story, or the journey of a character from the beginning, through any problems or obstacles, on to the end. Generally, a character moves from left to right across the page spread to indicate this forward movement.

  See this in Johannes Hucke’s Pip in the Grand Hotel, in which Daniel Müller illustrates the children and the mouse chasing, following, and searching from left to right over each two-page spread.

  Motion can be shown in illustrations by lines around the character or object suggesting movement, or by the portrayal of the character several times on the page, each time in a different position.

  In Denise Fleming’s Buster, a few page spreads feature four views of the title character in action. Readers and listeners readily understand from the preceding scenes and from the text that there are not four Busters, but that Buster frolicked and ran a long time throughout the day.

  Michael Emberley depicts the passage of the school year in Barbara Bottner’s Miss Brooks Loves Books! (And I Don’t). Several pages of illustrations show school librarian Miss Brooks dressed in costume for various holidays. The accompanying text, with its phrase “all year long,” reinforces the fact that all this happens over a span of months.

  Composition

  Composition—the way the picture is put together with color, line, shape, and texture—offers a myriad of creative possibilities. Bo R. Holmberg’s A Day with Dad features art by Eva Eriksson in which she composes each illustration with the young boy and his father typically in the middle of the piece. On this day they spend together, they are each other’s center. The tightly controlled framing of each illustration, the color pencil texture, and the muted colors with just a splash of red all work together. The composition of Looking Like Me by Walter Dean Myers features collages layered with shapes and photographs by illustrator Christopher Myers. Colors that pop, silhouette shapes, and the placement of these elements incorporating the text give a very active sensibility to a book full of energy and pride.

  Throughout Those Shoes by Maribeth Boelts, illustrator Noah Z. Jones depicts Jeremy as smaller than the other characters. In some of the illustrations, Jeremy wears subdued colors that also symbolize his powerlessness over the situation—wanting the shoes that all the other boys have. But on one page, he is in the center, wearing a red shirt, and large: the page where he finds those shoes, unbelievably, at the thrift store. Later in the story, he is also depicted larger when he makes the decision to give the too-small shoes to another boy.

  Media and Technique

  Illustrators of artwork in children’s picture books work with most media available to artists, including acrylic, oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, pencil, ink, colored pencil, crayon, chalk, pastel, markers, charcoal, clay, found objects, paper cut or torn (in collage), and wood and linoleum (in printmaking). Artists use a variety of techniques with these media, including painting with brushes or other objects, drawing, printing, collage, photography, or etching. Many of these techniques can be done either hands-on or digitally. Illustrations may also be mixed media, in which the artist uses two or more materials.

  Artistic Styles

  For those who wish to pursue a more detailed analysis of illustrations or learn more about artistic techniques, the suggested resources section at the end of this book contains several good titles, especially those by Shulevitz, Salisbury, and the Withrows. The following styles refer to recognized characteristics in the work of an artist.

  Abstract art: The artist uses form and color only as a means of portraying mood in this style. Simple forms and geometric shapes are common. Reality may not enter into what is perceived, although the figures may be recognizable. In his picture book John Coltrane’s Giant Steps, Chris Raschka employs abstract shapes to depict a box, a snowflake, and raindrops. The kitten that appears is identifiable, but this little animal, too, is all bold black line and shape. An improvisation that is perfect for a book about a jazz classic!

  Cartoon art: Nonsensical, preposterous, or exaggerated, these illustrations can run the gamut from mildly amusing to laugh-out-loud funny, from simple to full of details. The popularity of the graphic novel for all ages has brought added prestige for cartoon art. Steven Kellogg, a master of the detailed cartoon, uses this style to great advantage in The Pied Piper’s Magic. The illustrations containi
ng people, even crowds, feature a great variety of comical facial expressions and poses. Nothing sinister here; even the pictures of rats overrunning the town show a silliness and exaggeration helped along by sunny colors and kaleidoscopic swirls.

  Expressionistic art: To communicate the emotion of what is depicted, expressionistic illustrations go beyond reality. Feeling is more important than direct reproduction. Enjoy the carefree, almost wild lines employed by Marjorie Priceman in Kitty Griffin’s The Ride: The Legend of Betsy Dowdy. There is no doubt as to the emotions on display in each illustration as Betsy goes from worry to determination to fear to exhaustion to relief. The lines and colors mirror this ride.

  Folk art: This style arises from the culture portrayed. The art matches the sensibilities and characteristics of a particular ethnic group or nationality. Ben Hodson, the illustrator of Janet Ruth Heller’s How the Moon Regained Her Shape, uses traditional Native American motifs to illustrate the story and as borders on each page.

  Impressionistic art: These illustrations feature a soft undefined line, light, and colors that mix into each other. Not crisp or realistic, the pictures convey just an impression of a scene. In Gloria Whelan’s Yatandou, the people, buildings, and tools by illustrator Peter Sylvada appear indistinct, although the eye can tell what they are. The texture of the color and the contrast of light and dark enhance the mood of this courageous story.

  Naive art: The naive style may look as if the illustrator never learned artistic technique, yet its very simplicity captures the emotion of each scene. Bright and unnatural colors are often used, with no sophisticated perspective aspect. Lynn Rowe Reed employs naive art in Oliver, the Spaceship, and Me. Her painted characters exhibit a childlike innocence and sense of fun, with googly eyes, dots for teeth, and curvy hairstyles.

  Realistic art: As the name suggests, this artwork represents people, places, and objects as close to reality as possible. For an example, look to Lois Lowry’s Crow Call, wherein illustrator Bagram Ibatoulline portrays characters and settings of the 1940s. His people look lifelike in face and body. Details such as wisps of hair, curved fingers, the set of a mouth, and the bend of a knee are ultrarealistic. How appropriate for the story of a girl and her father reconnecting after he has been to war.

  Technology

  As it has in almost every other field, technology has changed aspects of children’s literature. With the advent of the Web in the early 1990s, authors and illustrators embraced this new way of introducing themselves and their work, and publishers took to this outlet for marketing their books. Most authors and illustrators of picture books maintain personal websites as a way to reach out to their audience. In some cases, a website for an individual title may be created. Teachers and librarians can find some great information for author studies and classroom activities on the sites. Cynthia Leitich Smith’s website (www.cynthialeitichsmith.com), well organized and easy to use, includes teacher guides for her books as well as information, interviews, and “blogbuzz.” Packed with resources, Jan Brett’s site (www.janbrett.com) features activities, including bulletin boards and “how to draw” videos. In addition to entering individual’s names in a search engine to find their sites, lists of author and illustrator websites with links can be found on compiled websites, such as one page in the American Library Association’s Great Websites for Kids (gws.ala.org).

  In order to connect personally with their readers and publicize their work, picture book authors and illustrators may use social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Some maintain blogs or post YouTube videos. These outlets, unimagined a few years ago, provide information for librarians, teachers, and others keeping up with favorite authors and artists on their existing works and upcoming titles.

  Taking technology to a core audience for picture books, some websites provide digital children’s books. One of the best known is the International Children’s Digital Library (http://en.childrenslibrary.org), with more than 4,000 books from around the world in fifty-five languages. Children’s librarians seeking picture books in a child’s native language, teachers investigating multicultural themes, or parents looking for additional sources of books can view these full text volumes; the site also makes available apps to download the books to an iPhone or an iPad.

  Digital Illustration

  An area where technology has changed the very making of the picture book is illustration. An artist can now create a picture book illustration entirely on a computer. More common is the process in which the artist draws by hand, digitally scans that drawing, then uses software to select and add color, change the size, add layers, create texture, and complete the illustration digitally. This software enables illustrators to create art that looks as if it were produced using their favorite media or technique, painted with a specific kind of brush, for example, or on a certain type of textured paper. Some artists draw with a pen and graphics tablet, which preserves the hands-on artistic technique but takes advantage of the technology by producing the drawing on a computer rather than a piece of paper. Collage illustrations can be created using Photoshop. Found objects, photographs, and items from nature can be manipulated and layered with the other elements of the composition.

  Working digitally allows the illustrator to edit, change, and try out ideas without permanently committing them to paper. The copyright page of the book often states what media were used in the illustrations of a picture book. Check there to see if digital techniques were part of the process.

  E-Books and Apps

  Where do picture books fit into a world bursting with e-books? Dedicated devices for adult books and children’s books without illustrations are great for their purpose, but when Apple introduced the iPad, followed by Barnes & Noble’s NookColor, picture books as e-books became possible. These devices allow the view of a page spread instead of one page at a time, absolutely necessary for picture books. They also make possible the ability to display in color, another must.

  An adult can read picture books on e-readers or tablets to a child, or can activate the option to have it read by a narrator. The books can be read on an e-reader, tablet, or smartphone. For large groups, the librarian or teacher can connect the iPad to a projector. Words that pop up as they are read, animation in the illustrations, entertaining music, the ability to bookmark a page—all these make the e-book fun and can enhance literacy instruction.

  E-books are generally available in a format such as EPUB or PDF, two of the most popular. Apps refer to the applications, or software, that are downloaded. An app to read e-books may be downloaded to an e-reader. Or apps that are e-books can be downloaded; these books are more interactive, allowing children to do more with the story, such as tapping or clicking on objects within scenes. Additional activities, including coloring and games, or features such as changing to a different language, may also be part of the package.

  More than two-thirds of public libraries now make e-books accessible to their patrons, and just over a quarter offer access to e-book readers.3

  For libraries considering the purchase of e-readers, price is of course a concern, but so is possible obsolescence of the device in a few years. E-reader technology is changing rapidly. As for e-books themselves, availability of titles is an issue. Will every new picture book also be available as an e-book? Licensing is still being hammered out, as are digital rights management (DRM) issues such as who owns electronic rights and questions of access, including number of checkouts allowed, whether simultaneous checkouts are permitted, and interlibrary loan.

  New developments in e-books, e-readers, and apps are emerging. Look for new products and applications in the months and years ahead.

  Using This Book

  Mirroring the child’s social development, this book begins with the child’s personal concerns and family relationships and then moves out into the community and on into the larger world. A chapter on imaginative books is included, followed by one containing folktales and fairy tales. Each chapter gathers a variety of outstand
ing books with wonderful stories and beautiful illustrations.

  So open this book to read about some of the best in recent children’s picture books. Then open a picture book with a child and enter the world where words and art come together.

  Notes

  1. Zena Sutherland, Children and Books (New York: Longman, 1997), 119.

  2. Perry Nodelman, Words About Pictures (Athens: University of Georgia, 1988), 159.

  3. Judy Hoffman, John Carlo Bertot, Denise M. Davis, and Larra Clark, Libraries Connect Communities: Public Library Funding & Technology Access Study 2010–2011. Digital supplement of American Libraries, June 2011. Available at http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/857ea9fd. 7, 24.

  2

  My Family and Myself

  The picture books in this section represent the child’s comfort zone. Primary relationships with parents, grandparents, or siblings make up the stories. The books feature everyday concerns, such as going to sleep, wanting a pet, welcoming a new baby, or visiting Grandma and Grandpa’s house. The characters are human, or can be animals if anthropomorphized. Some of the stories are set in other countries or cultures but concern universal feelings and experiences.

  Ashman, Linda 4–8 years

  WHEN I WAS KING

  Illustrated by David McPhail

  New York: HarperCollins, 2008 | 978-0-06-029051-1

  A look at the experience of being a big brother, this story is told from the point of view of the dethroned “king.” He reveled in his role as the center of attention, but now his parents and grandparents dote on his baby brother. The baby even plays with his toys. But when the baby chews on his baseball glove and big brother has a meltdown, his mom gives him sympathy and reminds him of how much he can do that little brother cannot. With rich colors and facial expressions that reveal a range of emotions, the illustrations complement the text and its moods of resentment and anger, then pride and love. The font shows what is important: certain words are larger, especially I and mine. Any older child who has had to deal with sibling rivalry will relate to the king. For a big sister-little sister variant, see Rosie and Buttercup by Chieri Uegaki (Kids Can, 2008).