Guest Author - Yvonne Russell

While traditional hard back, paperback and board books are the most common, innovative picture book sub formats often add an extra zing and appeal to a picture book. They extend the picture book experience with an interactive element.

Touch & Feel Books
Textures add an interactive element. An excellent example of touch and feel books are the popular Dorling Kindersley (DK) Touch and Feel board books series. They combine simple text and an excellent quality photo with realistic textures for each page. One of my favorites is DK Wild Animals. The green texture of the chameleon seems to shimmer as it catches the light. It just calls out to be touched, which makes the book much more interesting to the child.

Die Cut Books
Eric Carle's classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar is the best known example of a die cut book. The holes in the pages, where the caterpillar "ate through one apple" etc. are die cuts. This is an expensive process, especially where the shapes of the die need to vary from page to page. In such cases, a new die needs to be made up for each separate shape.

Board books lend themselves to die cuts. This is due in part to the target age group, to the interactive nature of the die cut, and to the sturdy nature of the board book.

Lift the Flap & Pull Tab Books
A favorite lift the flap or pull tab book can be a special sharing time with a young child. Some parents, grandparents, schools and libraries, keep these books aside for special times, as they require particular care.

Lift the Flap Books
There are also lift the flap books where the flap is actually a half page folded back onto the full page. When the story is read, this half page flap can be folded out to reveal a surprise or the next part of the story. This type of lift the flap book is usually made on a sturdier paper or light card.

Toy Books
Some picture books have inbuilt puppets or toys. A popular example is Ten Little Dinosaurs. This is a rollicking romp with an underlying theme about endangered species, coupled with counting. Huge bulging 3D rolling eyes can be seen and touched through the die cuts on each page. Bath books and cloth books are also popular.

Pop Up Books
Robert Sabuda is the king of the pop ups. His books are a work of art. While they are children’s stories, Sabuda’s pop up books are popular with adult collectors. I was lucky enough to see Sabuda’s original art work and design sketches at an exhibition at the Eric Carle Picture Book Museum. My favourite Robert Sabuda pop up book remains Alice in Wonderland.

As technology enables more sophisticated and cost effective publishing equipment and processes, we see elements such as magnetic books, holograms and liquid crystal inserts appearing in picture books. It will be interesting to see what future advancements will bring to the world of children's picture books.