Picture Books

One of the most amazing courses I have studied during my journey at university was Children Literature. In this course we studied about illustration story books. As the picture of Peter Rabbit book cover shows, those type of stories are very simple in how they look like but in facts it requires a lot of effort to create them in a way that suits young children.

Picture books are a unique literary form of children literature that blends illustrated pictures with textual stories. Children in pre-school age and beginning readers will find it easier and better to understand the story through supportive pictures next to the text or as some books are published for toddlers, the book is all about pictures in which the child can tell the story in his own words.  The importance of illustrations in improving and stimulating the child’s imagination, perception, social and reading skills made publishers more considerate to pictures and art in books.

We were told. “Not to judge a book by its cover”. But children do it all the time. A child is attracted first to the illustration pictures in a book and that verifies how important illustration is in children picture books and in literature in general. In their young ages, illustration entice them to read and interact with the text. They are also motivated to find and learn names of hidden objects and characters or even guess what will happen next and that has to improve their imagination in a very effective and healthy way. It also improves their hidden talents and enhances their perception in real life and build up their own personality and character. Picture books are read to toddlers by a mother or any family member, which forms a strong relationship between them as well.