Almost sounds like the beginnings of a joke. “Book Art, Picture Book and Illustrated Storybook all walk into a bar. Each one says, ‘Ouch!’ -but with different pictures.”
An activity book is a type of coloring book, one with special pages that prompt the reader to complete a certain type of task. Activity books sometimes have a storyline, sometimes they don’t.
This is a type of pictorial reference book, a book about an artist’s work and sometimes their personal life.
This is when a storybook ebook is made considerably more interactive. With the touch and swipe of a finger, a child can make character images move, or play a story-related, in-book game, or listen to a song, or listen to the narrator telling the story. The Book App essentially makes it possible to make a story fully gamified. It’s a cross between books and interactive games.
Nosy Crow is a highly respected children’s book publisher who also publishes Book Apps.
Book Art is for any age group, but typically adults. The focus here is on art so that the images are typically thematic and usually without words – and even if there are words, there is no story at all. When words are used, it is to underscore the metaphor or symbolism of having written words on or with the images, not to create a story.
Sometimes Book Art can even be a Concept Book for adults, for example: an ABC book of nudes. What really distinguishes Book Art from any other kind of book with pictures is that it is always handmade. Sometimes it is a one-of-a-kind, sometimes a limited edition.
This is essentially a specialized baby or toddler book made out of non-toxic plastic sewn and padded so that it can be safely taken into the bath. These can be picture books or illustrated stories.
This is a picture book or an illustrated storybook printed on a thick paperboard (typically 40pt cardstock, laminated). These are more tear-resistant and often used for pre-readers. Newer variants of board books are pull-the-flap and peek-a-boo board books, designs borrowed from pop-up book traditions.
This is a small pamphlet or booklet of about 16 pages, stapled together with a paper cover. Most often, chapbooks are filled with poetry and a few pictures. Sometimes, chapbooks contain short stories (like flash fiction or drabbles).
These are the first type of novel a child will read, meant for kids in second and third grade. They are large print short novels with three to five illustrations in every chapter – usually about ten chapters per book. Chapter books are also characteristic in that the chapters end in a cliffhanger so that young readers will want to keep going with the story. Chapter books are usually no more than 1200 words, though there are exceptions.
For details on how to structure a chapter book, go HERE.
Many coffee table books are really just larger, more expensive picture books. It’s for adults, so you can look at it with a cup of coffee (or something stronger) rather than a glass of juice. Sometimes these are extra-large resources, sometimes pure art. As a Print-On-Demand coffee table book, even a personal remembrance is now possible.
Coloring books are just that: books you can color-in yourself, any way you want. Most often, these are fun images that can be taken separately from each other – in that there is no storyline. However, coloring books with a story you can follow are becoming more popular.
Comic Books started in the 1930s. Sometimes called a Comic Magazine, this is a form of illustrated storytelling that uses strictly defined panels along with overlaying text written in speech balloons, captions and sound effects like “KAPOW!” to convey a story.
The artwork is done in a specialized traditional manner, usually by two or three different people: penciller, inkist and colourist.
Ebooks aren’t just for novels. There are also plenty of illustrated storybooks now available as ebooks. Some parents prefer ebooks and apps to printed books because an ebook reader takes up less space than a library and ebooks generally cost less than printed editions.
It is doubtful though that books will cease to be available in print, simply because tangibility matters. For little fingers, learning to carefully turn pages develops fine-motor skills. For more mature readers, the enjoyment of a real book is experientially different from holding a small monitor.
When it comes to full-color stories heavy in artwork, most people do prefer a solid book they can hold in their hands.
This is a far too loosely defined term. It was first used in 1964 to describe a lengthy dramatic story that utilized a traditional comic book format but at a greater, more indepth length. However, it is also used to describe comic book anthologies – and even popular collections – that are bound together.
One could also argue though that the term comic book is perhaps a misnomer, because most comic books today are not comical at all, but rather dramatic (or even tragic) stories with epic consequences.
An adult novel that is so popular it is re-released with artwork: an illustrated novel. Not to be confused with a graphic novel, which has a more symbiotic relationship between words and images. Think of The Lord of the Rings with lush artwork (the original wasn’t illustrated), or the stories written by Mark Twain – now commonly released fully illustrated.
What constitutes an illustrated storybook and what differentiates it from a picture book is a matter of contention. In many cases, these two terms are treated as if interchangeable. Sometimes the picture book is thought to be a story with pictures, where the text is key – but then where does that leave the illustrated storybook?
So with this disclaimer, I’m going to tell you what I think the difference is. I’m basing this on what I see over and over in today’s market.
An Illustrated Storybook is one that is illustrated in some kind of manner (be it painting, photography, collage, illustration, etc.) to accompany and strengthen the written story. This can be for any age group and any demographic. What’s key is that the artwork and the story have a synergy to them (see sample, below).
This is not a story interrupted by images or a collection of images interrupted by words. It requires both to tell the full story.
For details on what an illustrated story requires, read 10 Must Haves for a Solid Illustrated Storybook.
For insights on what an author/illustrator does, read GSB’s Special Interview with Lita Judge.
Independent Readers (UK and Australia) or I Can Read Books (US and Canada) are essentially the visual book format that bridges a storybook and a chapter book. The text is very large print, always in present tense, and very simple for youngsters to read.
These are for kids who are anxious to start reading on their own but might not be able to handle a chapter book just yet.
Sometimes, these types of books are written with phonics in mind, but that’s really a decision that’s specific to certain publishers and what they want to offer in their catalogue.
Indestructibles™ are a brand new type of book for babies. It’s a Trademarked format published by Workman Publishing. I don’t know what the material is, but they look like sturdy paper books, very simple. This is not a board book and it’s clear that they don’t have any kind of shiny finish on them.
These books are rip-proof, tear-proof and non-toxic. So it’s safe for a baby to use this book as a teething tool (which, let’s face it – they always teeth on their books). Here is a video that demonstrates this brand new type of book:
Thanks go to Valerie Doherty for letting me know about these!
Sometimes called pull-the-flap, these are board books that have an added interactivity feature: a flap that a child must find and then open (without ripping it). Underneath there is a surprise image to discover. These books are really good learning tools and often very sweet, but they do get ruined pretty quickly.
These are novels for kids in the middle grades (3rd-5th), typically aged 8-12. For readers, it’s the step after chapter books and before YA novels. Stylistically and thematically, these books are fun, though they do venture into more serious topics as well.
For insight on what an MG Novelist does, read GSB’s Interview with MG Novelist Shelley Tougas.
For details on How to Write an MG Novel, go HERE.
These are comic book styled history lessons. They’re usually really bad… but not always. Some are award winners.
This is a board book with special cut-outs in some of the pages so that what is underneath on the next page peeks through the hole. Little kids love these, and inevitably use the peek-a-boo hole to stick their little fingers through it and turn the pages from there.
This is any kind of Non-fiction reference heavy on pictures. While these are generally thought to be travel books heavy on photography, it is actually any kind of informational reference that uses a lot of images. Atlases, anatomy books, interior design and pattern books – these are just a few examples of pictorial references.
Please see “Illustrated Storybook” above. Then read here.
Picture Book is a term that is today typically used in one of two ways:
Sometimes called pop-ups or movable books, these are the three dimensional, interactive illustrated books designed by Paper Engineers. They are the immediate favorite and the inevitably ruined book. (We tell ourselves that pop-up books are for kids, but really I think they’re for adults.) Pop-ups are whimsical and coveted collector’s items, involving various different types of movement and pop-up styles.
Another name for a cloth book, these are books that are typically released as board books and are now coming onto the market as washable Rag Books. These sometimes have squeakers sewn into the book or crinkly pages.
What makes rag books particularly attractive to parents is that they are washable, easy to repair with a needle and thread, and they aren’t covered with a toxic lamination (which babies eat when they’re teething).
Silent books, sometimes called Wordless Books, are actually stories without any text. To be clear, these are quite different from any other kind of illustrated book, because these absolutely must have a clear plot. If it doesn’t have a plot, it isn’t a silent book (it has to be something else on this list).
This is also a widely-defined term, but it is essentially a Japanese graphic novel that uses Manga-styled artwork. Tankōbon books can be about anything at all, including beauty tips. They can also be any size of book, everything from a pocket-size to a large format book.
ō
ban is a high quality collector’s special edition Tankōbon with added specials.There are some great books that have no words at all, where the story is shown purely with pictures that are packed with little details that we’re meant to discover: that’s a wimmelbook, sometimes called a Look-a-book. In some cases, it’s like an impressively fun art portfolio because the books are so big – sometimes with fold-out pages.
But wimmelbooks are different from silent books. Wimmelbooks do not necessarily have a story to them, and much of the fun is really about spotting all the amazing details.
These can be great teaching tools because you can use them to get kids talking about what is in the picture. Wimmelbooks can be fun, inspiring and even moving if the artist has actually built a storyline.
YA stands for Young Adult, and it really is just that. These are novels for teenagers, and every chapter starts with a small illustration. Sometimes random full-page illustrations will also be inserted into the book.
YA novels are always about teenaged characters dealing with the social situations they face day-to-day, but often in an other-worldly situation. The Hunger Games and Divergent are today’s most popular examples of YA novels. The length of YA novels varies somewhat, but many are 50-75 pages long.
Keep creating, no matter what.
--Download Types of Books with Pictures as PDF --
The ‘graphic novel’ is a great marketing gimmick. Grown-ups can buy comics about men in flashy briefs, unabashedly.
I was talking to a friend recently about my fascination with comics, specifically Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, and she interrupted me to correct me. “Not comics,” she said. “Graphic novels.” It was all I could do to keep from foaming at the mouth. I then explained to her, as patiently as I could, the excellent marketing gimmick that is the ‘graphic novel’, and how it was originally used to describe comic-book adaptations of short stories and novellas. And how Will Eisner co-opted the term to market his A Contract With God, and Other Tenement Stories to adults, instead of the children who traditionally read comic books. I then directed her to a YouTube video of Neil Gaiman explaining how he wrote comics, and couldn’t, for the world of him, understand what a ‘graphic novel’ was.
This is not unique to Gaiman. Most of the legends of the medium—Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, to name just a few—have insisted that they worked with comics, and that ‘graphic novels’ was just something the marketing department put on the books to make grown-ups feel better about buying them. This includes Moore’s Watchmen, probably the modern era’s quintessential ‘graphic novel’, which was originally serialised in 12 comic-book-sized issues. It’s probably worth adding here that what commonly passes for a ‘graphic novel’ in bookstores today are known as trade paperbacks, a collection of multiple issues containing a single story arc. Unlike Watchmen, Art Spiegelman’s masterful Maus and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis would qualify as true graphic novels, published as single volumes without any serialisation.
The graphic novel syndrome affects most Indian writer-artists working with the comic-book idiom to tell their stories. The term has been injected with a sense of gravitas by its purveyors, and as such, has resulted in plenty of extremely self-conscious and contrived storytelling. For instance, take Amruta Patil’s Kari. It’s a drone of an illustrated short story (or is it captioned paintings?) about a whiny, lesbian advertising professional that doesn’t even use the format of a comic book. Sarnath Banerjee does better with his Corridor and The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers, but offers little more than an honest effort. The latter is particularly disappointing in its storytelling. In adapting to the comic-book idiom, Banerjee compromises the integrity of his story, and it ends up meandering like a severed kite. If ever there was a case to be made for an editor’s guiding hand, this is it. But where does one find an editor who understands the medium well enough to mentor young writers?
The comic-book industry in the West has always straddled multiple worlds. Writers such as Moore, Miller, Gaiman and Warren Ellis, who have all written a number of path-breaking adult comics, cut their teeth writing for DC and Marvel Comics’ pantheon of super-heroes. To paraphrase Gaiman, there’s nothing like writing about grown men swinging around in brightly-coloured spandex to stop you from taking yourself too seriously.
In addition, one might add, the editors at these publishing houses, such as Julius Schwartz at Marvel and Archie Goodwin and Karen Berger at DC, set very high standards for their properties, allowing young, upcoming artists and writers to get used to the rigour of producing high-quality work on a regular basis, and under a tight deadline. Indeed, Miller’s Daredevil and Moore’s Swamp Thing are considered to be some of the best work in the history of super-hero comics.
Contrast this with the scenario in the Indian comics industry. Amar Chitra Katha and its basket of properties focus exclusively on children, and are only now beginning to publish new titles in addition to their decades-old catalogue of over 400 titles. Indrajal Comics, home to the first indigenous Indian comic character, Abid Surti’s Bahadur, has disappeared. Raj Comics and Diamond Comics, with their hugely popular superhero titles, cater to a Hindi-speaking audience, peddling shoddily produced comics to audiences who simply don’t know to expect better.
It is here that the true opportunity exists for young writers to tell engaging and intelligent stories that expand the reach of these characters beyond their current audience. Raj Comics, currently going through a rejuvenation phase, should seize this opportunity in their own right to take their properties to the next level.
One reads comics for the same reason that one might read a short story or a novel: the story. The visual medium is merely a device that enables the story to be told using certain techniques, providing a unique experience to the reader, but it is really the story that will bring him back for more. A good story with mediocre artwork will attract far more readers than superbly-drawn comics with poor story-lines.
Virgin Comics learnt this the hard way, watching their brilliantly-drawn but horribly-written titles circle the drains with no end in sight. And good writers can only become great writers if they are pushed to deliver a higher standard by the publishing mechanism, through mentorship, editorial input and collaboration. Ditto for the artists, whose responsibility it is to make the story come alive on the page.
But let me add here that this system is not necessary to produce superstars. Harvey Pekar, Chris Ware and Art Spiegelman did not have to go through the grind before delivering comic-book masterpieces. Osamu Tezuka, that legend of Japanese manga, produced amazing work as an amateur before abandoning his medical practice to produce manga. But India is yet to produce a Spiegelman or Tezuka, and we should not hold our breath. All we can do is appreciate them when they do arrive. Meanwhile, it is best to hope that the system can deliver a strong pipeline. Of course, a thriving ecosystem with mentorship and apprenticeship is no guarantee of high-quality professionals. Just look at Bollywood.
o
r Sumant Srivathsan
Comments
Please Join Us to post.
0