Fierce Bad Rabbits: the tales behind children's picture books

This is another recent publication exploring children's literature - this time specifically the development of picture books. In this book Clare Pollard investigates some of the themes occurring in picture books, provides background information about the lives of authors that may have led to the creation of the picture book as well as looking at the variety of ways some picture books have been interpreted by adults.

Clare Pollard provides a brief history of the development of picture books for children, especially in the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries. However it is since the 1960s that the explosion of picture books has occurred. The books discussed by the author are picture books that she enjoyed as a child or read to her children. A sample of titles include The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Bread and Jam for Frances, The Snowy Day, The Tiger who Came to Tea and Where the Wild Things Are.

A question to be asked is are picture books published for children or adults? Clare Pollard argues that picture books are often more complex than they appear on the surface suggesting that on analysis they can quite often be dark in subject matter.

Contrary to the belief of many adults, picture books are not just produced for preschoolers - some are definitely aimed at older readers. Children and adults may also look at picture books (and books in general) differently. Picture books may therefore be interpreted differently by different audiences.