Week 2 - Research Task

Identifying art styles for different genres:

Baby/toddler - First Objects Book

These need a simple bold style of art work. Many of the books available have photo images, but from experience, I have found that simple pictures work just as well with this age group. 

• Mainly board or cloth books - durable
• Small size - for little hands
• Bright colours - eye catching for little minds developing
• Simple drawings/pictures - easy to focus on
• Touchy/feely - visual and tactile to interest more senses for young inquisitive minds
• Few words - eg.colours, opposites, numbers etc.
• Lift the flap books - more interaction
• Examples - That's Not My ...(puppy, train, penguin, etc.) series, All Fall Down and Ten Little Fingers, Ten Little Toes by Helen Oxenbury

Here is a book I have used time and time again. Its from 2001, but still works well. Not the best art work, but the girls liked it and soon recognise the words without me saying them! This was printed by Parragon books.

Here is another word book by Fisher Price that is bright and cheerful for young children. The single words do aid reading later on as babies and toddlers minds take in everything they see and are able to recall these images later on in their development.

This third book for toddlers has a much more artistic approach to the illustrations, yet keeps the simplicity. It is a book printed by Red Fox and Illustrated by Georgie Birkett: 

Picture Books for 3-6 year olds

This genre of books has a very wide variety of styles from simple artwork to far more complex illustrations that have additional stories to be told through each page.

• Bigger books - bigger hands 
• More sophisticated illustrations - to engage children and feed their imaginations
• More words - Story more involved, sometimes teaching books
• Bright and varied; hand rendered art and computerised
• Rhythm and repetition sometimes used - helps memory
• Humour - to hold the child's interest

I chose 2 books from my collection which demonstrate the variety of style and depth of illustrations. The first is Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole. This book is hilarious and the illustrations have a lovely free style that suits the text well!
 

My second book choice is from the Stinky Face series by Lisa McCourt and illustrated by Cyd Moore. These stories are about the relationship between a mother and her son and the wild imaginations of the the two as they explore the What if idea... 

The clever use of typography in with the illustrations makes this book enjoyable to look at with young children.

Information/reference title aimed at 9-11 year olds

 The books in this genre can have less illustrations and more text as they are teaching books. Although the ones with illustrations that have text broken up all around work well. This style on the page help hold older children's interest for longer.

• More text - its an educational book; information is important!
• Less illustration, though sometimes large illustrations interspersed with text works better 
• Realistic illustrations - to teach

This Dorling Kindersley, Scholastic book on Cars is a very good idea for this age range as the inside cross sections with text engage a child's interest. The artwork is life-like and engaging.