Picture book illustrators use so many different media to create engaging—and often revealing—elements for the pages children examine during read-aloud times. Sometimes the illustrator makes use of a tool other than a brush, a pencil, pen, or cut paper. Sometimes, we see picture books—in a range of age interests from board books to informational books for middle graders—presented with clever camera work.
In the board book category, Adventure Babies from Tiger Tales, brings little lapsitters a counting book by Rosamund Lloyd replete with photos and other illustration styles mixed cleverly by Chris Dickason. Laughing infants hove into view from imaginative settings, and little ones can spot lots of playmates as well as themselves in the book’s own mirror. The concept of interspersing “real” infants with drawn settings might offer an art project to provide slightly older kids: print off some snapshots you’ve taken of them and provide paints, crayons, and paper so the subjects can imagine new surroundings in which to find their own faces.
Penguin Parade from Flowerpot Press, comes in board book format as well as paperback, making it suitable for both toddlers and early elementary students. Nature photographer James Roberts gives viewers up close and brightly lit photos of the fascinating birds in their native habitat, pursuing all the activities that fascinate readers of all ages. There’s just enough text to provide conceptual contexts (learning to swim, caring for young) with much of the information served up in delightful photos.
Pajama Press offers an array of photo-illustrated picture books for preschoolers, including A Flower Is a Friend, by Frieda Wishinsky and photographer Karen Patkau. Beyond early childhood, however, photo-illustrated books can provides rich details, too. In Bat Citizens: Defending the Ninjas of the Night, animal activist and biologist Rob Laidlaw takes us into the dark with camera views that show accurate details of the often-maligned flying mammal. The photos are amplified by sidebar details and there’s a glossary as well as an index here, making this a heftier approach to animal science through photos, just right for middle grade students (and adults, too!).
Lola is a therapy dog and is featured by special education therapist and photographer Marcia Goldman, in a series of informational picture books published by Creston Books. The newest in this series, Lola Says Goodbye, offers readers the opportunity to join Lola in her mourning of a deceased pet goldfish. The photos of Lola are close-up, clear, and uncluttered so that viewers can engage fully with this tiny pup. In previous tours of her training and her work, kids can discover what happens when Lola Goes to School, Lola Goes to Work, Lola Goes to the Doctor, and more. Spanning both preschool and early grade interests, each photo offers an opportunity to discuss details of interactions and emotions.
Photography gives viewers the opportunities to see closeup details and to imagine what a real life prsence can look like when other art forms that introduce fantasy contexts are combined with them. Take your camera outside and look through it up close at shrub in your neighborhood and then take it home to write your own story of what you can see in the picture: Do you find details you missed when casually glancing at the twigs and leaves? Can you imagine a shrub-dweller no one else would ever see there unless you told them the story?