A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images in picture books can be produced in a range of media, such as oil paints, acrylics, watercolor, and pencil. Picture books often serve as pedagogical resources, aiding with children's language development or understanding of the world.
Maurice Bernard Sendak was an American author and illustrator of children's books. He became most widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. Born to Polish-Jewish parents, his childhood was affected by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak also wrote works such as In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There, and illustrated many works by other authors including the Little Bear books by Else Holmelund Minarik.
Raymond Redvers Briggs was an English illustrator, cartoonist, graphic novelist and author. Achieving critical and popular success among adults and children, he is best known in Britain for his 1978 story The Snowman, a book without words whose cartoon adaptation is televised and whose musical adaptation is staged every Christmas.
The Yoto Carnegie Medal for Illustration is a British literary award that annually recognises "distinguished illustration in a book for children". It is conferred upon the illustrator by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) which inherited it from the Library Association.
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husband-and-wife team "a seamless amalgam of both their hands". In more than 50 years, they created more than 100 speculative fiction book and magazine covers together as well as much interior artwork. Essentially all of their work in that field was joint.
Mabel Lucie Attwell was a British illustrator and comics artist. She was known for her cute, nostalgic drawings of children. Her drawings are featured on many postcards, advertisements, posters, books and figurines.
Ed Tse-chun Young is a Chinese-born American illustrator and writer of children's picture books. He won one Caldecott Medal for the year's best American picture book and for his lifetime contribution as a children's illustrator he was twice the U.S. nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.
Michael Foreman is a British author and illustrator, one of the best-known and most prolific creators of children's books. He won the 1982 and 1989 Kate Greenaway Medals for British children's book illustration and he was a commended runner-up five times.
Barbara Cooney was an American writer and illustrator of 110 children's books, published over sixty years. She received two Caldecott Medals for her work on Chanticleer and the Fox (1958) and Ox-Cart Man (1979), and a National Book Award for Miss Rumphius (1982). Her books have been translated into 10 languages.
Lisbeth Zwerger is an Austrian illustrator of children's books. For her "lasting contribution to children's literature" she received the international Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 1990.
Roger Antoine Duvoisin was a Swiss-born American writer and illustrator best known for children's picture books. He won the 1948 Caldecott Medal for picture books and in 1968 he was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's illustrators.
Nancy Ekholm Burkert is an American artist and illustrator. Her most celebrated work is the picture book Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1972), which was a New York Times Notable Book and a Caldecott Honor Book.
Molly Garrett Bang is an American illustrator. For her illustration of children's books she has been a runner-up for the American Caldecott Medal three times and for the British Greenaway Medal once. Announced June 2015, her 1996 picture book Goose is the 2016 Phoenix Picture Book Award winner – that is, named by the Children's Literature Association the best English-language children's picture book that did not win a major award when it was published twenty years earlier.
Elizabeth Ann Mrazik Cleaver was a Canadian illustrator and writer of children's books. For her contribution as a children's illustrator she was a highly commended runner-up for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award in 1972.
The Monster Bed is a 1987 children's book by Jeanne Willis and illustrated by Susan Varley that revolves around the twist on the common "monsters under the bed" story that frighten children. The book is a young reader, normally aimed for 4 years or older. The main character, the monster Dennis, believes that human children are under his bed and will get him as he falls asleep. His mother, however, tries to get him to go to sleep. Eventually, a human child accidentally ventures into their home cave, and both the human and Dennis discover each other, frightening both.
Anthony Edward Tudor Browne is a British writer and illustrator of children's books, primarily picture books. Browne has written or illustrated over fifty books, and received the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2000. From 2009 to 2011 he was Children's Laureate.
John Burningham was an English author and illustrator of children's books, especially picture books for young children. He lived in north London with his wife Helen Oxenbury, another illustrator. His last published work was a husband-and-wife collaboration, There's Going to Be a New Baby, written by John and illustrated by Helen for "ages 2+".
Patrick James Lynch, known professionally as P. J. Lynch, is an Irish artist and illustrator of children's books. He has won a number of awards, including two Kate Greenaway Medals and three Christopher Awards. His most successful book, The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski, has sold more than a million copies in the United States alone.
Jan Ormerod, born Janet Louise Hendry, was an Australian illustrator of children's books. She first came to prominence from her wordless picture book Sunshine which won the 1982 Mother Goose Award. Her work was noted for its ability to remove clutter to tell a simple story that young children could enjoy, employing flat colours and clean lines. She produced work for more than 50 books throughout her career, including publications by other authors, such as a 1987 edition of J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan and David Lloyd's retelling of "The Frog Prince". Ormerod began her illustrative career in Britain after moving to England in 1980, but she returned to themes connected to her home country with Lizzie Nonsense (2004), Water Witcher (2008) and the award-winning Shake a Leg (2011) for Aboriginal writer Boori Monty Pryor.
Barbara Reid is a Canadian illustrator and author of children's books. She has been called "one of Canada's major literary figures".
