Picture book

As well as the distinction between album and picture book mentioned in the previews post, there is a fundamental difference between Illustrated book and picture book. 

In today's post, I will discuss a little about what a picture book is.

In the English language, this terminology divides specialists, there being variations of different terms. Kiefer quotes Bárbara Bader, defining the album as an image book that is text, illustration and design, an object of manufacture and a commercial and social product that is also "a cultural and historical document and above all an experience" ( Bader cit. by Kiefer, 2008: 9).

According to Navarro, the album is the Portuguese name corresponding to the picture book Anglo-Saxon, “a widely illustrated genre of children's book, in which the history is fundamentally supported by the illustrations” (NAVARRO, 2011: 5).

Uri Shulevitz (1997) distinguishes the picture book from the illustrated book and understands that this distinction is above all a matter of concept difference.

The illustrated book mainly tells a story with words, where the images amplify the tale and which can be understood without its presence, so the illustrations end up acting as an accessory, having an auxiliary role without implications for the meaning of the story. But in the case of the picture book, the book says

in words only what the images do not show (SHULEVITZ, 1997: 15). Navarro (2011) reiterates this position explaining that text is scarce or even absent and adds that images can take the place of words, assuming their function.

Perry Nobleman (1998) questions about the reason for creating picture books and the reason to add images to a story or create picture books that can formulate a narrative without words, as there is a whole heritage of books without illustrations that can pass on to your story, just in words.

Legenda: Página de Orbis Pictus de John Amos Comenius, Circa, 1657. 

References:

Kiefer, B. (2008). What is a picturebook anyway?: The evolution of form and substance through the postmodern era and beyond. Postmodern picturebooks: Play and self-referentiality.
Navarro, E. (2011). Relatório de projeto: A hora do banho: A influência das guardas ilustradas na interpretação do álbum narrativo para crianças. (Mestrado), Faculdade de Belas Artes, Porto.
Shulevitz, U. (1997). Writing with pictures: How to write and illustrate children’s books. Nova York Watson-Guptill Publications.
Nobleman, P. (1998). Words about pictures. Georgia: University of Georgia Press.