What makes a great picture book?

Remember this guy?

Thinking back, you can probably remember some great children's picture books.
If you're still in Primary school there might be some that you love and read right now. If you're older, you might have given them up in favour of novels, graphic novels, magazines or a whole bunch of other things (Wii, Xbox, Nintendogs...)

But hopefully when you were small you got to read (or had read to you) some amazing and memorable picture books.

A good picture book is not easy to create. You need the right amount of words on each page, with just the right font. The text needs to work with the pictures so that when you look at the story it all blends together like magic. A good writer can make or break the whole experience. So can an illustrator. A good picture book relies on balance of the whole.

There are many, many wonderful picture books out there. Stories like Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, William Steig's Shrek, the Meg and Mog books by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski, Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg... you get the picture. Chances are you have heard of, remember reading or have watched movie versions of these stories. Actually, when writing this post one of our secondary students asked me for a picture book from his childhood - The Tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr. He is hoping to adapt it for a school project.

Every country has their own favourite picture books. Some classic NZ ones are Lynley Dodd's Hairy MacLary books, The Witch in the Cherry Tree by Margaret Mahy and Greedy Cat by Joy Cowley... but there are many others! Not sure what the Thai ones are - will have to ask around!

It's really fun to wonder which new stories will become tomorrow's classics.

When pondering the idea of a successful picture book, it makes sense to consult with the experts about what exactly makes a good picture book great.
Anthony Browne (an amazing picture book artist himself) talks here about the Best New Illustrators award from Booktrust in the UK and his ideas about picture book illustration in this Guardian slide show.