Picture Book Timeline

I am so glad that Mr. Hill discovered this link. Flipping through it made me remember all the books that I used to read to myself or little brother as a child. I had a Little Mermaid pop up play tent that was in the corner of my and by brother's room at my childhood home. I would sit in that poorly lit tent for hours on end reading and looking at the pictures of the same books over and over again.

While going through the picture book timeline I was amazed to discover that many of my favorite picture books came from the time of my mother and fathers childhood in the 70s and 80s and even before their time in the 60s. I remember my parents reading Beatrix Potter and the Tale of Peter Rabbit to me along with other Mother Goose styled books. I also loved to look at the pictures in the Curious George books. However, the book that I stumbled upon in the timeline that shocked me the most was the Little Red Hen. Every time I would stay at my grandma's house my little brother and I would make her read the Little Red Hen. Her book was way cooler than the normal version of the book because it had the buttons on the right hand side that produced those annoying high pitch noises. The other book that caught my attention was Love You Forever. I don't remember the storyline exactly but I do remember it being quite sad at the end. My other grandma got me this book for one of my early Christmases and now I'm thinking I need to look for it at my dad's house and read it again.

The illustrations that intrigued me the most came from books in the late nineteenth century. The images produced by Howard Pyle, Jessie Wilcox, Arthur Rackham, and Edmund Dulac all caught my attention on the account that their drawings were quite to very realistic and lavish.



I especially enjoyed the works of Arthur Rackham and Edmund Dulac. Rackham illustrated classics such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) with dramatic and graceful pen lines completed with muted watercolors.



Emund Dulac illustrated classics such as Cinderella including stylized figures and elaborate backgrounds to complete the elaborate and fantastical essence of the fairy tale.