The lure of illustrated children's books | Books | The Guardian

Guardian: The lure of illustrated children's books:
"…Experts distinguish between "illustrated books", where the picture complements the text, and "picture books", where the pictures come first. But in reality the two often overlap, and words and pictures cast a combined spell.… Each new generation has embraced new writers and artists. And in the past 50 years, the qualities of the book as a three-dimensional object have also been increasingly exploited, from the advent of board books and textured, 'feely' board to the use of cut-outs and pop-ups (a return to a device popular in Victorian nursery rhymes and fairytales). Sometimes I feel that the realm of children's picture books is the one place that 'book art' – playing with a book as a visual, tactile object – has found a home in the commercial world."