The best new picture book illustrators
By Ian Beck writing in The Times Online.

Here is a familiar scene. The author and/or illustrator of picture books for children is at the end of a long school visit. Parents and children are queueing up to buy books. Young Basil from Year 3 would like the picture book his class had enjoyed earlier.

But there is a look of horror from Basil's anxious parent: “No, no, Basil darling, you are reading chapter books now, these books are for babies.” There is an exasperated sigh from the author as Basil is pulled away disappointed.

Picture books are not just for babies and pre-schoolers - they are for everyone. To encourage appreciation of the art, Booktrust has launched The Big Picture campaign, and a panel of judges has selected the ten best new illustrators published in the UK since 2000. Here are ten emerging and varied talents, adding to the quirky and thrilling picture book canon, which stretches from William Nicholson to Shirley Hughes. In our increasingly visual culture, picture books offer a bridge to literacy, but they are also a rich source of simple aesthetic pleasure and storytelling.

Best New Illustrators exhibition: the Illustration Cupboard, London, from April 17 to May 3. Details of this and other events at bigpicture.org.uk

And for the full story and list of participants go to Times Online.

Read review of Dexter Bexley & The Big Blue Beastie by Joel Stewart.