The shortlist for the Kate Greenaway award shows how illustrated books for older children are flourishing in the digital age.
Illustration by David Roberts, taken from Tinder by Sally Gardner, published by Indigo 2013
The Telegraph - 17 Mar 2015
Take a look around any junior school library and you’ll see a distinct lack of picture books. The theory seems to be that, once they can read, children should be encouraged to move on to “proper” books that lift standards of literacy and tend away from illustrations.
All this began to change in December 2013 when an artful illustrated volume containing the maps of the world shattered the orthodoxy. Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski, from the newly launched imprint Big Picture Press, became an unexpected Christmas bestseller. For an industry wedded to the idea that picture books were for younger children, it proved there was an appetite for inventive, daring publications in this older age bracket too.
The shortlist for this year’s CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, an annual award judged by librarians that aims to uncover the best book for illustration, shows that this shift has continued apace.
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