Book Review: Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling by Martin Salisbury with Morag Styles

If you like art history of any kind, you'll want to grab a copy of Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling by Martin Salisbury with Morag Styles.

In this fascinating book published by Laurence King Publishing in 2012, readers explore the history of children's picturebooks from the days of painting on cave walls through to the twenty-first century. It discusses picturebooks as an art form, citing the work of popular artists; it talks about their importance in children's literature; and even touches upon controversial topics in picturebooks.

When first asked to review this book a few years ago, I did so to learn more about my craft. Though I haven't written anything brand new in a while, my first book was a picturebook and I have two more under contract. For this reason, the sections Print and Process and The Children's Publishing Industry were especially interesting to me.

Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling is a resource I'll be holding onto and referring back to as I grow in my craft.


Paperback: 192 pages
Publisher: Laurence King Publishing (February 8, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 185669738X
ISBN-13: 978-1856697385


I received a copy of this book directly from the publisher. This review contains my honest opinions, which I have not been compensated for in any way.

The Friday 56 - Week 164

Welcome to Week 164!

Rules:
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it) that grab you.
*Post it.
*Add your (url) post to the Linky at Freda's Voice. Add the post url, not your blog url. It's that simple.


I offered to review the following book some time ago. I'm still trying to catch up on all my owed reviews. As an author of children's picture books, the art of visual storytelling is fascinating to me. I wish I had such a talent.

So the question remains: How does the picturebook artist emerge? Can the art of the picturebook be taught? Fortunately, artists are far too unpredictable to allow for easy answers to these questions, but there are many skills--conceptual, creative and technical--that can be acquired with the right sort of help.