Perry Nodelman observes, "[W]hen most people think of books for children, they think first of picture books. . . Not only is the picture-book story the most common form of children's literature, but it's a form of storytelling almost exclusively reserved for children."  (Pleasures, 215) This is somewhat odd, because there is some evidence that pictures are not at all specifically comprehensible to children and may even work against the usually cited purpose - to help children understand the words.  Pictures have been shown in some studies to be a distracting stimulus, drawing attention away from the words of the story.

However, there is also considerable evidence that picture books are increasingly cutting across age categories.  Eve Bunting reports that her picture books, which deal with topical issues such as homelessness (Fly Away Home), the aftermath of the Viet Nam War (The Wall), and the LA riots (Smoky Night), generate letters from people of all ages, and are being used by adults, both in school and in personal life.  One correspondent suggests that this may be related to the decrease in illustration for middle-grade books (Wendy Betts, 4/6/95).  Other ideas may be the increasingly visual nature of information transfer in the modern age (TV, WWW, etc.) and/or the increasing sophistication of the texts and pictures employed.

At any rate, picture books are unique in that they require simultaneous attention to both the words and the pictures - to the story told by each alone, and in combination.  The pictures in picture books uniquely serve a narrative purpose - the best picture books will so integrate words and pictures that it is difficult to conceive of either independent of the other.  Unlike "art" pictures, the meaning of the picture books is somewhat delimited by the words that accompany them; on the other hand, the pictures may contradict the words, or alter our perception of the words' meanings as well.

Things to look at in picture books:

•  The nature of the image: long-shot, medium-shot, close-up, with corresponding    effects on narrative distancing;
•  Influence of pictorial representations on story mood: color associations, intensity, black and white (==>"seriousness");
•  Effect of style on interpretation of the story (cartoon, surreal, impressionist, "Oriental," etc.)
•  Use of visual symbolism and cultural coding.

 Contemporary children's books make increased use of color reproduction and a wider variety of artistic techniques – this is an artifact of developments in printing technology such as those which make color photos in the daily paper possible.  When I was young, picture books were much less commonly full color, and the use of mixed media, etc., was greatly reduced.  Part of what has happened is that the technology has improved to the point where bright colors with full separations have become affordable in a children's book - now the problem may be in getting notice for a book that isn't in color.

Now, however, we are also getting a wider palette.  Muted and dark colors have appeared in a number of picture books, which would not have occurred a few years ago - this partly reflects a greater range of moods possible in children's picture books.  Thus changes in the type of pictures that we see are only partly explicable by reference to technological change - they also reflect a new conception of children's book.

More dramatic and more sophisticated visual renderings may be a response to the unprecedented level of visual stimuli with which we are bombarded.  Books are the ultimate interactive medium, but must compete against video games, television, etc.

In recent years, "picture book authors and illustrators have . . . undoubtedly pushed or expanded the purposes and audience of picture books. . ." (Patti Sinclair, librarian, Madison WI, CCBC-NET).  Books are increasingly less concerned with "story" in a linear plot sense -- note the very postmodern approach to story in such notable books as Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's  The Stinky Cheese Man and David Macaulay's Caldecott winner, Black and White, which integrates and fractionates four stories at once - or is it four views of one story?  Sometimes one, sometimes the other?

Picture books increasingly address social concerns in some way - e.g., Bunting's Smoky Night, etc.  But even those that don't deal directly with social concerns may include significant socially relevant content.  For example, interracial human families appear in picture books without comment (Bear E. Bear by Susan Straight), whereas some years ago a book was challenged in southern states because it showed a bunny family mixing up different-colored animals.

 We can note in this regard the highly multicultural nature of picture books (children's books generally, actually).  Not that such books didn't exist at all previously, but they are increasingly prominent in publishers' lists and more likely to be noticed by teachers, librarians, etc.  Change has not come without complaint.  There is some evidence of backlash against multicultural books, although the larger consensus seems to be that it is important to include these.

But what constitutes a "multicultural" book?  Consider Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, or any of Paul Goble's books.  Jerry Pinkney says of his work that his goal is to communicate to a large audience: "I am always trying to reach out and explain or expand on some given text."  He and Julius Lester have been engaged in a project of taking established cultural images related to black people and reconstituting them from a black perspective; they have collaborated on two books of Uncle Remus tales, on John Henry, and on Sam and the Tigers, a retelling of "Little Black Sambo."