My friend, Tonilyn, asked me the other day if I thought illustrations and text were a 50/50 partnership in picture books. Hmmm…. lets find out.
Fight!
Illustrations can make or break a picture book. You cannot have a great book without great pictures.
Mediocre Text + Fantastic Pictures= Good Book
Fantastic Text + Mediocre Pictures= Mediocre Book
Ouch! I’m sure there are exceptions to the ‘Law of Pictures’ that I’ve just totally pulled out of my b… uh… brain. But, 
ultimately, illustrations have the power to bring a book to life. They engage and capture us. If the pictures don’t resonate with us, the reader, if they don’t give us a rich, active world, then the story and characters are never going to win us over.
But wait! Words still have a chance here. I mean, they come first. The words are what inspire the pictures. Without words, there are no books. Right?
But, what about Flotsam by David Wiesner? Or Rainstorm by Barbara Lehman? They don’t have any words.
Okay. Without stories, there are no pictures. I suggest that authors and their stories are what inspire the pictures in the first place. If the words don’t hint at more than just what’s on the page, or if they give too much detail, then the illustrators can’t create wonderful pictures. Words and stories are critical in their ability to fire up the imagination of both the illustrator and the reader.
Ooops. Does that mean, in this fierce battle to the death, that pictures and words really are an even match?
Ummm…
Good question.
3 Comments
it is certainly an interesting dance that words and pictures perform. but this article? PERFECT. Player 1 Wins!
Oh you and your Street Fighter humor;)
Maybe we need to separate out the word half of it – and acknowledge that there are (at least) two components that make up the words: The story, and then the text that tells the story. I’ve definitely read some books where I loved the story but I thought it wasn’t told from the best viewpoint, or in the most exciting way… So I think maybe it’s 40% story, 10% text, and 50% pictures for picturebooks. And yes, those statistics are straight out of my Brain, too. In a novel, I’d go for 50% story and 50% text… how much of that is character, I’m not sure…
hmmm…
who knew math would come in so useful?