Picture books can be traced back to China. It may be that the early Japanese regarded China's Buddhist scriptures (changing pictures) and Hokkekyo as picture books, which later developed into today's picture books. This is also the earliest picture book. In order to avoid confusion with books, I am used to using this term imported from Japan.

It is very difficult to define a picture book, because the picture book is a very inclusive concept, with a wide variety and blurred boundaries. For example, some people divide picture books into: baby books, alphabet books, counting books, concept books, toy books, etc ... However, we will mainly discuss picture story books in this book.

So, what is a picture book? Is the illustrated book written for children a picture book? Obviously not.

In what we usually call picture books, pictures are no longer subservient to words, no longer dispensable, and even the life of picture books. Picture book is an art of telling a complete story with pictures and words. This is an ensemble of pictures and words. In the abstract, it is the art of telling stories through the interweaving and interaction of pictures and words. Of course, there are exceptions, such as a wordless book without a word.

Picture books should use pictures to speak, with great emphasis on the coherence of pictures. Usually within 32 or 40 pages, these dozens of pages should form a continuous visual image, just like a short film. The author of each picture book (more refers to the painter) is equivalent to a film director. He must tell a story clearly and beautifully in a limited space, which requires him not only to be good at using the lens language, but also to have the ability to grasp the visual rhythm. Therefore, a good picture book, even if a child can't read, should be able to read the general meaning as long as he "reads" the picture. In addition, generally speaking, picture books have well-designed layouts, from the cover and title page to the text and back cover, forming a complete whole; The left and right pages of words and pictures are interdependent; Push forward the plot by turning pages ...

It is also worth introducing that most people think that picture books are read by adults for children.