ABSTRACT
So, what is a picturebook? For much of the twentieth century a picturebook was an artifact of culture that contained visual images and often words. Pictures and words were printed on paper and bound between hard board covers. Picturebooks most generally consisted of thirty-two pages of story, poem, or concept but they included endpapers, information about the book, author, artist, and publisher as well. For most of the century the picturebook was created for the enjoyment of an audience of young children with the object of engaging them in a pleasurable experience. The picturebook’s material content refl ected societal norms and its physical form was the result of the printing technology available to produce and sell it.
