ABSTRACT
Children learn to read pictures before they learn to read words. Pictures also form the earliest records of man’s attempts at communication: cave paintings, church murals, stained glass windows – all testify to the importance placed on pictorial representation. Children’s books were of course written by adults and for the most part bought by adults for their children. The toy book had nothing to do with toys, but was basically a publishers’ description of a paper-covered picture book. Entertainment was much more to the fore, and nonsense, folk and fairy tales, as well as longer stories, were provided for children’s reading. Some of the finest children’s books date from the 1860s, a notable period for British book illustration, when known illustrators worked with book designers to produce works for children which were as fine inside as out, and as good reading as viewing.
