How Picturebooks Work

How Picturebooks Work is an innovative and engaging look at the interplay between text and image in picturebooks. The authors explore picturebooks as a specific medium or genre in literature and culture, one that prepares children for other media of communication, and they argue that picturebooks may be the most influential media of all in the socialization and representation of children. Spanning an international range of children’s books, this book examine such favorites as Curious George and Frogand Toad Are Friends, along with the works of authors and illustrators including Maurice Sendak and Tove Jansson, among others. With 116 illustrations, How PicturebooksWork offers the student of children’s literature a new methodology, new theories, and a new set of critical tools for examining the picturebook form.

Maria Nikolajeva is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at both Stockholm University and Åbo Academy University.
Carole Scott is Professor of English and Former Dean of Undergraduate Studies at San Diego State University. She supervises the Graduate Specialization in Children’s Literature at SDSU.