Text and Illustrations

In a successful picture book, the illustrations and text should reinforce each other and create a sense of unity between the visual elements in the story. Here are a few books that I believe do a beautiful job combining the two with excellent results. If you haven't read these books, rush to your nearest library and check them out!

Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School
Mark Teague

On the opening pages of Dear Mrs. LaRue, we read a newspaper article about Ike, canine companion of Mrs. LaRue, who is entering obedience school because of his bad behavior. It looks like an actual newspaper clipping has been cut out and laid on the page. On each spread that follows, there is a letter to Mrs. LaRue from Ike or another newspaper clipping that tells the story. Ike's stories are, of course, just horrible. He says they are treating him terribly and he wants to come home! Accompanying each letter from Ike on the two-page spread are two pictures. One picture is in black and white and illustrates the letter. The other picture is the reality of obedience school, painted in color and showing how plush the place really is! Although there is never a positive word uttered in Ike's letters about the situation, we learn a whole other side to the story from the pictures. Often times in books, we find that the pictures tell the story even more than the words. That is definitely the case with Dear Mrs. LaRue. Teague uses bright colors, juxtaposed against the harsh black and white to let us in on the truth. If we were just reading Ike's words, we would never know what the school was really like and not just the way Ike is perceiving it. Mark Teague is a brilliant artist and a great illustrator who makes great use of color and perspective to tell a fun story.


Julius, the Baby of the World
Kevin Henkes

Julius, the Baby of the World is a charming story that so many of us can relate to. It tells about the relationship between a big sister and little brother immediately following his birth. Lilly is, of course, jealous of Julius and does everything she can think of to get her parents attention off of Julius and back onto her. Henkes use of language in this book is brilliant. I love the dialogue between Lilly, her parents, and Julius. The pictures that Henkes drew illustrate the text well and also give us more detail into what is actually happening. On most of the pages, Henkes has drawn several pictures, each in their own box, in a cartoon-like style. Often, you will even see what Lilly is saying to Julius written above her head, similar to a speech bubble. I think this is one of the most fun details within the illustrations. Lilly's parents tell her that they want Julius to be as extraordinary as she is, so they tell him how beautiful he is and how much they love him all the time. Henkes states next that when no one is looking, Lilly has her own idea. He doesn't tell us what she says through the text, but in the illustration we can see her saying "I hate you" and "You're ugly." He also illustrates pictures that Lilly has drawn within the illustrations to show us how she feels about him. I love his combination of the cartoon style along with the naive style of children's art to tell the story. I am a huge fan of Kevin Henkes' mouse books. They are fun for both children and adults.


Knuffle Bunny
Mo Willems

Knuffle Bunny is a great book not necessarily for the story it tells, but for the way the pictures go so well with the story. Willems won a Caldecott Honor for this book, and for good reason! In Knuffle Bunny, Willems uses a graphic media style which isn't seen quite as often as the painterly style of paint, pencil, and/or ink. Part of this book is done in paint, but it's laid over photographs for a collage effect. This book takes place in New York City and the backdrop of each page is a photograph of some part of the city- the outside of their home, a school, the park, and both the outside and inside of a laundromat. The thing that is so interesting and adds so much pop is that all of the people are hand illustrated in bright colors and then put on top of the photos. While using a cartoon style where the people are fairly simple looking, they have still have great detail so that you can see exactly what emotions they are feeling at that moment. This is an excellent picture book that deserved the Caldecott Honor is received.


Officer Buckle and Gloria
Peggy Rathmann

Caldecott Award-winning book Officer Buckle and Gloria is another classic example of illustrations telling a story that the words could never adequately tell. The story is just plain fun. Officer Buckle is a policeman that goes out to schools and gives safety tips to the kids. Officer Buckle, bless his heart, is actually quite boring and the kids never seem to pay much attention until Gloria, the department's new police dog, begins to accompany him on his visits. While the story never talks much about what Gloria does on those visits, the pictures show us without even needing words. Gloria imitates Officer Buckle and acts out the safety tips as they're being presented. Gloria's actions, as well as the students reactions are evident in the illustrations. Without the pictures in this story, so much would be lost. Rathmann uses a naive/cartoon type of style and bright colors in her work, which is really appealing to children and adults alike.


So You Want to be President?
Judith St. George and David Small

Another Caldecott Award-winner, So You Want to be President? is a bit different than the previous books I talked about. This book is non-fiction, while the others have all been fiction books. It's also illustrated in a surrealistic style, which isn't something I usually gravitate towards. David Small has done an excellent job illustrating all of the interesting and fun facts Judith St. George has written about in this book. While all of his pictures look just like the president(s) being discussed on that page, he uses a caricature-like style to add some humor to them. One of my favorite involves lowering one particular president into his bathtub by a crane and another shows a particularly spry president doing a little jig. I'd never have thought of any of our former presidents in a funny way until I read this book. Seeing them illustrated the way they were helped me to realize that presidents are normal people, just like us! The illustrations work beautifully with the text to make a non-fiction children's book accessible and interesting for children and adults.


One other thing I would like to point out is that of these five books, four of them were illustrated by the same person who wrote them. The fifth is an author/illustrator team that works together quite often. I think there is much to be said for an author who can illustrate his own books. While there have been many good books written that out-source their illustrations, it seems to me that often the text and illustrations are most cohesive when done by the same person or at least by a team who often works together. When the vision an author has for his illustrations can come to life by his own hand, there is just something magical that happens.