The Mighty Picturebook: Providing a Plethora of Possibilities

Abstract

Picturebooks are books in which both words and illustrations are essential to the story’s meaning. . . . In a true picturebook, the illustrations are integral to the reader’s experience of the book and the story would be diminished or confusing without the illustrations.”1 Readers may agree with this definition, but that is not the end of the conversation. Picturebook readers continue to engage in discussions in the library world and children’s literature field about the audiences for, formats of, and uses of picturebooks in the literacy lives of readers, listeners, and viewers.