picture book case study

Picturebooks and Young Children: Potential, Power, and Practices

• Published: 14 June 2024
• Volume 52 , pages 1273–1279, ( 2024 )

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• Patricia A. Crawford   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7189-4035 1 ,
• Sherron Killingsworth Roberts   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-1340-4333 2 &
• Jan Lacina   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7455-014X 3  

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Picturebooks play a vital role in the lives and learning of young children. These complex, multimodal texts offer unique opportunities for meaning-making as readers engage with the interplay between text and illustrations. Picturebooks offer children stepping stones into the literary arts, providing information and storylines that illuminate readers’ perspectives about their own lives as well as offering opportunities to glimpse the lives of others. This article provides an overview of current perspectives of picturebooks, focusing on their potential (i.e., the unique qualities this literary format offers young readers), their power (i.e., the invitations these books provide for supporting readers’ authentic literary transactions and affective responses), and associated practices (i.e., the ways in which these texts can be used as instructional tools to support learning both within and beyond the curriculum). Through picturebooks, caring adults can nurture children’s reading and responses in supportive, developmentally appropriate, and impactful ways.

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Sherron Killingsworth Roberts

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Crawford, P.A., Roberts, S.K. & Lacina, J. Picturebooks and Young Children: Potential, Power, and Practices. Early Childhood Educ J 52 , 1273–1279 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-024-01701-0

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Accepted : 25 May 2024

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The use of picture books in the high school classroom: a qualitative case study.

Melissa Reiker , Rollins College Follow

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Master of Liberal Studies

Dr. Debra Wellman

Picture books (stories in which the both the text and illustrations contribute to meaning) have long been thought of as appropriate only at primary grade levels because of their short length, simple plots, and minimal number of characters. When used at the secondary level, their principal function has been as remediation for struggling readers or English language learners (ELLs). However, anecdotal evidence and an exhaustive literature review strongly suggest that the supplemental use of picture books increases engagement and learning among high school students at all instructional levels. The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of picture books on high school students’ engagement with these texts.

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Preschoolers’ Causal Reasoning During Shared Picture Book Storytelling: A Cross-Case Comparison Descriptive Study

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This study investigates how shared picture book storytelling within a peer-group setting could stimulate causal reasoning in children aged 4 ½ to 6 years. Twenty-eight children from preschool classes of three schools were allocated to one of six groups (four to five children per group). Each group participated in six storytelling sessions over a period of 2 weeks. During these sessions, the children freely generated stories from stimuli in two picture books. Storytelling discourse was analyzed in the groups that showed the lowest and the highest pre- to postintervention improvement on a series of causal reasoning tasks. In the most-improving group, discourse was distinguished by detailed interpretations of perceptual features, causal explanations, and explicit justifications of statements. The least-improving group was distinguished by “superficial” talk (i.e., labeling perceptual features, simple inferences, uncritical acceptance of statements, and disagreements). These types of discourse could be related to time spent on storytelling. The findings generate hypotheses for future research on stimulating causal reasoning in early childhood education.

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1. Given the number of groups, group size, and number of matching variables, significance testing of group differences on these variables is not meaningful.

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Effective Strategies for Teaching Young Children Critical Thinking Through Picture Book Reading: A Case Study in the New Zealand Context

Critical thinking is a life skill that empowers people to participate fully in everyday life and to make reasonable judgments and inferences on important issues. Critical thinking is not viewed as an individual, fixed entity, but is instead malleable and influenced by the social and cultural contexts of the learner. This study explored the strategies used by primary school teachers to promote young children's critical thinking, and their rationales for those strategies. It also investigated children's responses to picture book reading, including their opinions and behaviours. A qualitative case study approach was used to investigate the development of critical thinking skills during picture book reading lessons with junior primary children. Four teachers in two schools and 22 children aged five to six years participated in this study. Methods included observations of picture book reading lessons, individual interviews with teachers, paired interviews with children, and collection of documents. These methods were used to collect data about teaching strategies, and to obtain an insider's view of the teachers and children. Data were analysed within and across reading lessons using a content analysis approach, and the children's responses were analysed against the Four Resources Model (Luke & Freebody, 1999a) framework. Six teaching strategies were found to be effective in promoting critical thinking in children. These strategies reflected a sociocultural approach to teaching and learning. The children's reading of picture books showed that the majority of these young children engaged in the practices of breaking the code of texts, of participating in the meanings of texts, and of using texts functionally, with a minority engaged in the practice of critically analysing and transforming texts. This study suggests that to foster critical thinking there is a need for teaching practices to focus on nurturing children to be text analysts and encouraging children to be active questioners.

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A case study of picture books as a stimulus for a project approach in Hong Kong

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Picture book’s illustration and young children: A case study

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How to Write and Publish Children's Books

Self Publishing Children’s Picture Books: A Case Study

It’s my pleasure today to feature a self publishing children’s picture books case study for a change of pace. Full disclosure: Shelby Wilde is an editorial client of mine from earlier this year. We worked on this picture book manuscript together and discussed her career next steps. She decided to self-publish her project, and did, in my opinion, a wonderful job with it.

I don’t often feature client work on the blog or do interviews, but I chose this project because I think it’s extremely well done and I think Shelby has some great insights that will be useful to other writers considering self publishing , especially self publishing children’s picture books. (For any writers in this boat, I highly recommend the Self-Publishing Blueprint  from Writing Bluerpints. It’s a comprehensive online class on the ins and outs of becoming an indie publisher. I watched the whole thing with great interest.)

Here, she shares her experience with deciding to “go indie,” the unexpected things she learned, and her lovely book. A long article, but a must-read. Hear about it directly from Shelby, below. I will pop in occasionally to comment with takeaways over the course of the interview!

Self-Publishing Children’s Picture Books

When I decided to self-publish SCAVENGER SCOUT: ROCK HOUND, I spent months researching the process. I knew I would have to pull out all the stops in order for the book to compete with the quality of traditionally published books on the market. I chose to have hard cover books printed in China, which I would then sell through Amazon. Hard cover format is the preferred format for self- publishing children’s picture books .

There is another self-publishing path called Print on Demand (POD). I did not choose that option because there are very few POD options for hard cover books and the quality is not where it needs to be, in my opinion. Traditional publishers have set the bar high when it comes to the quality of children’s books and self-publishers need to meet and exceed consumers’ expectations.

Kidlit Takeaways : Picture book writers have the self-publishing options of choosing to print physical books in softcover, hardcover, or both (a big investment upfront as you have to buy a print run of expensive books), POD (no upfront investment but quality control can be an issue), or ebook (despite being easily suited to illustrated content, ebooks do not offer the same reading experience for parents/children as physical copies).

Shelby’s point about competing with traditionally published books is spot on. I tell this to my clients all the time: You  can do whatever you want when you self-publish. But you are selling to customers who are used to spending money on traditionally published books, and standards are high as a result. You need to offer them something equal or better in order to convince their dollars to come over to the side of indie writers !

Self-Publishing Children’s Picture Books: The Decision to Go Indie

What is this book’s “origin story”?

SCAVENGER SCOUT: ROCK HOUND was inspired by my daughter, who is a rock hound—she loves hunting for rocks. One day she sat me down and started telling me stories about how she acquired each of the rocks in her collection. In her stories, she debated with dragons, haggled with mermaids and convinced aliens so she could take home her treasured rocks. The combination of fantasy and reality inspired me, and I know it is something that captivates kids.

How did you make the decision to self-publish and why?

Early on, I considered the traditional publishing path for SCAVENGER SCOUT, but soon after the manuscript was completed, I realized I felt a strong connection to the main character. I wanted to guide her story through the publishing process myself, overseeing every aspect. Another reason I decided to self-publish is that I wanted to select the illustrator. If you choose the traditional publishing path and sell your book to a publisher, they will select the illustrator. Because I was so connected to the character of Scout, I wanted to be able to choose the style of illustration that would bring her to life.

Kidlit Takeaway : Choosing to self-publish gives you ultimate control over your project. Control you would lose with traditional publishing because the publisher does have final say on issues like title, format, illustrator, etc. But with great power comes great responsibility, and it behoves you to do your due diligence and make strong, marketable decisions.

Self Publishing Children’s Picture Books Logistics

Describe the process of preparing the book for publication. What was unexpected? What did you learn?

When it comes to preparing the book for publication, selecting the illustrator is only the tippy top of a very large iceberg. The most important thing I learned is something that should have been obvious to me: When you decide to self-publish, you will need to wear all of the hats that a traditional publishing house does. Hiring an editor (or editors—did you know there are different kinds?), an illustrator, a book designer (or your illustrator may be able to provide this service), a printer, a shipping company, storage space (if you are having your books printed and shipped to you, instead of ebook or POD). The difference is that the publisher has a team of people who are specialists in their areas and you have just … you. A writer. The learning curve is steep, but it is doable as long as you’re willing to put the time in.

One unexpected challenge was dealing with long timelines. Traditional publishing cycles are long: it typically takes two years to bring a book to market. Self-publishing is a little bit faster—mine took 11 months from start to finish, but still not quick. You have to have a lot of patience. If you have ever created something to sell, the last thing you have is patience. You can’t wait to get it out there. And even though you are a small, nimble company (yep, you need to get a business license if you want to self-publish), you are stuck with a lot of timelines that you don’t own. It takes weeks to months for the illustrator to complete their illustrations, months to print and ship the books, months to promote the book before launch.

Another unexpected challenge: Advertising budget: I didn’t think much about funds for advertising when I was in the planning stages. It’s just a fact that if you want a product to sell, you have to advertise it. Advertising is a skill and it costs money. It’s also relentless. If you stop advertising, you will see an immediate drop in sales. While it’s true that even if you sell your book to a traditional publisher you will still have to market it, at least you’ll have some support from the publisher. (Here are some book marketing strategies .)

Kidlit Takeaway : The leap from writer to publisher can be a rude awakening. Self-publishing isn’t just a shortcut to making your work available. You are responsible for many things you’ve thought of–and haven’t yet! Shelby also brings up a great point: budget. Do you have one? Picture books are especially expensive to self-publish (as opposed to a novel made available on Kindle, for example) because the biggest expense is the illustrator. To hire a good one, you have to pay thousands of dollars (five figures isn’t unusual). Otherwise, it will show. Unfortunately, readers do  judge a book by its cover. Layout costs more money. Then, if you’re creating a physical book, you have to pay for expensive full color printing on a bigger trim size product. Shipping. Storage. Shipping to the consumer. And that’s before you even think about marketing. Picture book self publishing comes with sticker shock!

Describe the process of launching the book. Any lessons there?

This is another area where you have to understand that publishing is a business and you have to do all of the same things that traditional publishing houses are doing in order to compete. Among the activities you will want to put on your launch list: blog tour, social media ads, frequent social media posts, giveaways, partnerships, cross promotion with coordinating products, press release, media interviews, email blasts. Just like the production of the book, launching the book involves skill sets that writers don’t often have: public relations, media relations and marketing. The most important thing I learned when I launched my book is that you have to start months in advance.

Kidlit Takeaway : Marketing is a skill in and of itself. But all writers, whether indie or traditional, have to learn it at some point. The good news is, you are allowed to take small bites. That’s why I like the tip about starting months in advance–you’ll want to give yourself plenty of runway to learn.

Self Publishing Marketing and Career Path

What’s life after independent publication like? How are you currently involved in marketing the project?

I have completed my launch communication plan and have now moved into the “Keep the momentum going” phase. Frequent social media posts, cross promotion, blog tours, book reviews, giveaways, email blasts, etc. Once you self-publish a book, you are now on the hook for marketing the book forever. (More tips on social media for authors here.) That sounds daunting, but you have to think of it like any other product. Products don’t sell themselves. You have to put yourself out there as the author, put the book out there through ads, all to keep the stream of people flowing to your book. I enjoy the marketing aspect so it’s fun for me, but it is also time consuming.

Kidlit Takeaway : Ah, the old “ art vs. business ” debate! A great reminder that any book, even a traditionally published one, becomes a product. And then you sell it forever. The good news is that every positive review, blog post, interview, etc. gives you additional traction, but you always have to be proactive about creating opportunities. Unfortunately, “if you build it, they will come” is not a realistic adage in the age when hundreds of thousands of books are being traditionally and independently published per year.

What’s on the horizon for you? Would you self-publish again? Why or why not?

When I wrote SCAVENGER SCOUT, I also wrote a sequel so I have committed myself to self-publishing that book as well. I anticipate launching in Q2 of 2019. Once SCAVENGER SCOUT Part 2 is out, I will definitely have my hands full managing the printing, shipping and inventory that will come with both books. I am just one person and I’m not interested in becoming a small publisher. I have three other completed manuscripts that I’ve decided to pitch to agents in hopes of getting a contract from a traditional publisher. Choosing the self-publishing path means you are choosing to focus on the business side more than you will focus on the creative side. I want to have more time to spend on writing so I’m happy to let a publisher handle the logistics, even if it means lower profits for me.

Kidlit Takeaway : The takeaway I hear from clients all day every day is that writers are very surprised that they have to become publishers/marketers/businesspeople when they self-publish. They are not just writers. In fact, writing often falls to the bottom of their To Do list. Shelby’s point here is a great one to remember. It’s echoed in Teresa Funke’s excellent and very in-depth  online class on self-publishing via Writing Blueprints: each project has its own life and potential. For some projects, self-publishing is the way to go. For other projects, you can always try traditional. Having these options means you can learn about them and choose the ones that are right for you on a project basis, and on a career basis! The bigger message is this: Successful, tenacious writers have more than one project in the pipeline!

Looking to make the jump into self-publishing? My editing services are perfectly suited to writers preparing to go indie. Get professional eyes on your work so you create the strongest product possible.

4 Replies to “Self Publishing Children’s Picture Books: A Case Study”

I was very interested to read Shelby’s story because I also recently self-published my middle grade novel, The Art of Being Remmy. I took the print-on-demand route since a novel doesn’t have the same production quality issues as a picture book. Being a graphic designer, I was able to handle all the layout and production functions, as well as the 70 illustrations. The hardest part of the process is getting the book into public awareness. Many trade journal reviews are closed to indy books (unless you pay for them). Self-promotion has been frustrating, especially since I want to reach teachers, parents, and librarians. I hope that slow and steady will win the race. Best of luck, Shelby, in your venture! I’m curious which advertising/marketing outlet has resulted in the most sales. Now to blow my own horn: http://www.maryzisk.com/the-art-of-being-remmy.html

Mary and Shelby, thanks for sharing this journey! I have some self-publishing clients, too, and am sending this to all of them.

That’s awesome! I think she shares some real wisdom here, and I think writers are going to be much more receptive to hearing it from someone who’s been through it.

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• DOI: 10.4236/ojml.2021.115060
• Corpus ID: 240533122

Pictorial and Multimodal Metaphors in Informational Picture Books for Children —A Case Study

• Wujuan Wang
• Published in Open Journal of Modern… 13 September 2021
• Education, Linguistics

2 Citations

Multi-modal metaphorical analysis of children’s picturebook <i>little stone lion</i>, investigating the perception of multimodal metaphors by iraqi efl learners, 15 references, visual metonymy in children's picture books, visual and multimodal metaphor in film: charting the field, the identification of target and source in pictorial metaphors, multimodal metaphor in ten dutch tv commercials, non-verbal and multimodal metaphor in a cognitivist framework: agendas for research, the development of metaphoric understanding: implications for a theory of creativity, metaphor and film, embodied metaphors in film, television, and video games: cognitive approaches, the metaphor 'colin is a child' in ian mcewan's, harold pinter's, and paul schrader's 'the comfort of strangers', the meaning of the body : aesthetics of human understanding, related papers.

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Case Study Illustration

Case Study: Pencils of Promise. Picture Book Creation Process Step by Step

Check how we created picture book with bright illustrations for pencils of promise and see how design and art can amplify powerful world-changing projects..

Our team is mainly known for various branding and digital projects such as websites, mobile applications, landing pages, identity designs, and business illustrations. Yet, in this case, we want to unveil a totally different story about making something tangible, world-changing, and socially impactful. Let us show you how we created a picture book from scratch for Pencils of Promise. See how design and art can amplify influential world-changing projects.

Client and Project

Pencils of Promise is a global non-profit organization that helps communities achieve better futures through education. The team literally shapes the education landscape by building numerous schools in distant areas, coaching teachers, providing water filters and equipment, and so on. Here’s how they describe their founding story:

It began with a question. A young boy on the streets of India. “What do you want most in the world?” “A pencil,” he replied. I reached into my backpack, handed him my pencil, and watched as a wave of possibility washed over him. A smile erupted, and his eyes brightened. I saw the profound power and promise brought through a gesture as simple as giving a pencil to just one child. Over the next five years, I backpacked through more than 50 countries, handing out thousands of pens and pencils across six continents. These pencils, these small pieces of potential, led to powerful conversations with local parents and children across countless cultures and languages.  From years of listening to their words, it became clear that there was a need for an organization led by a staff of local leaders from within each country of impact. This would require active community participation in each school’s creation, as well as ongoing support, training and monitoring of each school to ensure long-term success. These are the guidelines on which PoP was founded in October 2008. Since starting with just a $25 deposit, we have now built more than 550 schools.

To unveil more about its mission and activities, Pencils of Promise came up with the idea of wrapping it into a picture book. Here’s how they currently describe themselves, the insights from their long-term experience, and the value they strive to contribute to the modern world:

Pencils of Promise is now a global movement of thousands of passionate individuals, many of whom are the most dynamic and impactful leaders we have ever seen. They are committed to supporting a world with greater educational opportunity for all. We fundamentally believe that a day will come in our lifetimes when every single child will have access to a quality education, and we will continue to work tirelessly in breaking down the restraints of today to enable the possibilities of tomorrow.

The book was going to become part of their annual gala event. And that’s where our collaboration began. This project’s creative team from the tubik side included Maryna Solomennykova, Yaroslava Yatsuba, Arthur Avakyan, Oleksandra Mykhalyk, Vlad Radionov, and Nick Zhuravlov.

The book Dreams Unfold is not a fairytale; it tells a real story about real people. It features children from places without good schools and the Pencils of Promise team that helps them access quality teaching. We were provided with the text part and had to transform it into visual storytelling through illustration.

The initial stage included working out the book structure and sketches. Here, the illustrator had to find the set of perspectives and compositions, characters’ appearance, and emotionality that would be perfect to transfer the message and appeal to little readers. Also, the layout of the pages was planned to decide where the text would be placed. As a result, we got the complete storyboard for the book.

Illustrations

The next step meant transforming sketches into colorful, polished illustrations. To make them as close to real life as possible, we explored tons of real photos provided from the areas of the Pencils of Promise activity. Using them as references, we transferred real locations and people, numerous details from real schools and local nature to the pages of the book.

And here, you are invited to dive into some episodes of the creative process, showing the magic of breathing life, atmosphere, and color into the illustrations.

One more interesting detail was the patterns on the characters’ clothes. We learned that each pattern featured in the photos shows which local community the person belongs to. As this visual element is an essential sign of local identities, it was carefully reflected in the illustrations.

Book Design

At the design stage, we chose lovely, readable fonts, married illustrations with text in each page layout, and completed that with an attractive book cover.

Welcome to take a glance at some pages showing how the illustrations, character art, and text were transformed into the completed picture book through design.

Another challenge was to adjust the book to three different language options, English, Spanish, and Lao, to make the story closer to children from different countries.

However, even that was not the final stage, as we found out that the book would be not only printed but also shared in Kindle editions and sold via Amazon, which also has specific requirements. So, we dived into modern e-book standards and adapted the design to look equally nice wherever the reader reaches the story.

Finally, our client got what they came for: a bright and smart picture book that provides another solid touchpoint to their mission and shows the unique cultures of the distant areas they support. It has become a more emotional, clear, and aesthetic way to communicate with society.

And don’t think that’s the happy ending, as our collaboration with Pencils of Promise continued with turning the book into a website. The Dreams Unfold story is going to get a voice and motion and become an interactive online experience with lots of cool details and Easter eggs. We will show you the process and the result in one of our following case studies, stay tuned.

New  design case studies  from our team are coming soon. Stay tuned!

More Design Case Studies

Here’s a set of more case studies sharing the design solutions and approaches for some of the illustration and graphic design projects done by the Tubik team.

Fairytale. Picture Book Illustrations and Design

12 Bright Projects on Visual Identity and Packaging Design

Book Illustrations for Visual Storytelling

Love Sign. Gift Box Packaging Design with Romantic Vibes

PierSide. Packaging Design for Tinned Fish Brand

KOISI Tokyo. Packaging Design for Japanese Restaurant

Sidra Vivo. Vibrant Packaging Design for Cider Brand

Aqua Dudes. Cartoonish Packaging Design for Fish Food Brand

Herteas. Packaging Design for Herbal Tea Brand

Nutribite. Tasty Packaging Design for Granola Bars

Milkimu. Packaging and Marketing Design for Dairy Brand

Dance Festival. Creating a Set of Event Poster Designs

Soaplanet. Soap Brand Packaging Design with Travel Spirit

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20 TED-talks for Designers. Inspiration Full of Thoughts

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