I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. Some good information, a lot of which I have learned in library school and with my work with children. An excellent resource for parents, caregivers, and those wanting to work with kids.

This is a wonderful easy to read history and reference for Children's Picturebooks. I really enjoyed the interviews with authors and illustrators. There are a lot of illustrations. Enjoy this comprehensive history

An encyclopaedia of colorful pictures of kids books. They ar ein differen tstyles, catalogued through time. Maurice Sendak. sketchbooks.

This is more a scholarly text than a layman's book, and reads as such. It feels more geared toward professionals, i.e. illustrators, graphic designers, educators, etc, than someone like me who just enjoys children's picture books, but it's definitely informative and will teach the reader a lot about the publishing aspect and history of picture books. I feel like prospective children's picture book authors/illustrators will find this book very useful.

A beautiful book for anyone with an interest in children’s literature, artwork and illustration.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read an advance digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I thoroughly enjoyed this pretty extensive history and examination of childrens picturebooks. The only thing that I did not love is that the font size and style are a bit tough to read.

As an aspiring childrens' book author, I was most interested to receive this review copy. The content was somewhat academic, and the most interesting parts for me were the descriptions of various methods used in printing, and the final chapter about the publishing industry. I thought the range of books covered was not what I'd expected, with many popular and successful authors not being mentioned at all. I guess a topic such as this is open to many interpretations and opinions.
Thank you to the publisher for a review copy.

An excellent resource for those studying or working in art history, art education or early education.

Children's Picturebooks: The Art of Visual Storytelling is a survey text covering the history and development of juvenile graphic literature from the 15th century onward. Originally published in 2012, this second edition is due out 7th Jan from Laurence King. It's 200 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a comprehensive overview, lushly illustrated and well written. The layout is logical and appealing. It's slanted toward the educator/historian, but the language is not overly academic and it's perfectly accessible to layman readers. The chapters are arranged thematically: history, illustration, children's books and children, iconography (an unusually well written coverage of the subject with a lot of good information about the interplay of words and images to tell a story), age-appropriate themes in children's literature (death, sex, violence, etc), print and process, non-fiction, and the juvenile publishing industry. Scattered throughout the book are also short case studies and references along with essays by industry professionals, educators, and artists.

There are numerous references and annotations as well as abundant illustrations from children's literature both historical and modern. This would be a valuable reference for academics, authors, and educators learning what is effective in terms of story and illustration and why they work. The annotations (with internet links, books, and periodicals) and index are comprehensive and full of sources for further reading. This would be a superlative textbook for a classroom setting for teacher training as well as a valuable resource for working teachers and librarians to mine for book recommendations for their young students and patrons.

Building a lifelong love of reading is such an important responsibility for teachers and parents and being able to make an informed decision about books is vital. I found the 5th chapter on the suitability of certain subjects as they relate to children's books very enlightening for me especially (since I was never forbidden any books that caught my fancy at the public library as a child - including a huge library copy of Gray's Anatomy which led to months of questions from me to my sainted parents and teachers), but the entire book is full of good information.

I don't have the first edition for comparison purposes, so I can't speak to the differences between the 1st and 2nd, but the 2nd edition is attractively and well formatted. I received an electronic ARC for review purposes, so considerations about the physical volume are beyond the scope of this review. I can say that my experience of the publisher's other books' quality has been consistently positive.

Five stars

Non è un libro per bambini, ma un libro sui libri per bambini:un viaggio nella difficile arte di rappresentare per immagini storie e sentimenti spesso complessi, aiutando con testi adatti (semplici, non semplicistici - una distinzione fondamentale) a scoprire oggetti, vicende, relazioni, sentimenti.

A riconoscerli. A dargli un nome, in modo che non restino intrappolati in un cuoricino o una mente non in grado di elaborarli ed esorcizzarli.

Uno sguardo dietro le quinte della produzione di strumenti potenti e spesso svalutati come, appunto "cose da bambini".

Interessantissimo, anche nelle analisi di autori e opere particolarmente esemplificativi.

This is a revised version of the 2012 book that features a history of children's picture books, interviews with popular authors and illustrators, and a very detailed look at the genre. With the vast amount of children's books out there, it would be impossible to cover all of the authors and illustrators who made an impact. Most of my favorites are not included here, even big ones. It provides a detailed, scholarly look at many though. It's a huge book and a long read. Since I haven't read the 2012 version, I'm not sure how different this one is from that one and whether it has improved on areas that reviewers criticized then. This is certainly a deep dive into the genre, with a wide variety of art styles covered and lots of color photos of children's books through the years.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Childrens picture books in interesting read for history fans. Not particularly for me but well written and plenty of photos and information of older books.

This book has SO MUCH information. It is really interesting. The history of picture books is outlined in detail from the earliest possible beginning (1400s) to what we’ve all grown up with.

Your reading roots are here in these pages and it was really cool to see these “simple” books picked apart and explained.