Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,’ thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?’

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Thinking about Illustration

Often, we remember the illustrations in our childhood books sometimes more than we do the story. Here, you’ll learn a bit about the history of children’s illustrations and how we go about ‘reading’ them.

Picture books tell a story through a visual medium. Often with text, but sometimes with only images. When we read a picture book, we read those images just as we read the text. Please watch this short history of children’s illustrations.

Watch

You may have seen some images that you recognized in this video. Awards for children’s books include the John Caldecott Medal and the Kate Greenaway Medal, named for those illustrators.

Task: Fairy Tale Illustration

As explained in the video above, much of the early history of children’s illustrations was tied to fairy tales. Please look through this slideshow of illustrations of famous fairy tale illustrators. As you scroll through, choose two images (from different artists) that stand out to you (they do not have to be of your fairy tale.)