In Defense of Picture Books

So I’ve titled this blogpost “In Defense of Picture Books,” because I think picture books need defending. To be clear, I don’t think that there’s anyone actively combating picture books. I strongly suspect that the number of people with a personal vendetta against this genre is very, very low. But I do think that picture books are often overlooked and that people tend to dismiss them too easily without appreciating how wonderful these books are. So I’ve decided to do a video talking about how great picture books are.

But first, a brief history of picture books.

The origin of picture books can be found in medieval illuminated manuscripts. Often religious works, these manuscripts are when we first see bound books that have pictures in them. Then in 1658, the first illustrated children’s book is published. Titled Orbis Pictus (or Visible World in Pictures), it was written 
by Czech educator John Amos Comenius. Originally in Latin and German, the illustrations were woodcuttings and the book was similar to a children’s encyclopedia.

Also in the 17^th century, we have John Locke, the British philosopher. His views, especially his book Some Thoughts Concerning Education (published in 1693) influenced how the western world viewed children and their development. Locke believed in tabula rasa (or blank slate), the idea that children’s minds are empty at birth. Lock also thought that children were rational creatures. Therefore, according to Locke, early experience and education were very important. He believed it was imperative for children to enjoy learning and to be engaged in what they were learning. One way for this to happen, he said, is through books. A child should have easy, pleasant books with pictures in them. These type of books should have virtues in them for this is how children can develop from being a blank slate to being a rational adult.

On the other side of the world, during the Edo period (about 1661-1748), Japan had akahon, or “red books.” These were illustrated booklets for children. They were filled with folk tales, fairy tales, and children’s stories. Because these booklets were often a child’s first introduction to literature, they had lots of pictures and easy language.

That said, it wasn’t until the 1800s, that there started to be this concept of illustrated, bound books for children. These books were primarily concerned morals and fables and lessons and nursery rhymes and fairy tales and didn’t have quite the same “story-telling” element we typically expect when we hear the word picture books.

The 20^th century, however, is when we really begin to see picture books as we think of them today. One notable example is Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published in 1902. And there are several reasons for this.

In the early 1900s there was a lot of social reform going on, and these reforms included the welfare of children. There’s this new emphasis on promoting children’s development and growth.

Additionally, this is around the time when Andrew Carnegie begins to donate money for the construction of libraries. The man Carnegie chooses to oversee this project, James Bertram, has criteria for these libraries. One of which is that these libraries need to have a children’s reading room.

Also, during the 20^th century, two awards for children’s books are introduced: the Newbery Award in 1922 and the Caldecott Award in 1937. These awards bring more prestige to children’s literature.

Post World War II, however, really brings about a boom in children’s literature. With the increase of children being born after World War II, there is a new, large demand for children’s books. While themes of picture books have differed throughout the years, for example, the 1950s saw an emphasis on idealistic picture books while the 1960s had more realistic topics, picture books have remained an integral element of literature.

One really cool benefit that picture books provide is that they help children see that books are not just for grown-ups or that it’s something only adults can do. Books are for everyone, even the youngest among us. Additionally, when someone can’t quite read yet or they are learning how to read, picture books can be a lot more exciting than books that only have words in them. Through picture books, children start to realize that reading can be enjoyable and that book aren’t boring. Picture books also help foster children’s imaginations and their creativity. One great example, is It Looked Like Spilt Milk, which shows how one thing can look like a lot of other things.

Beyond that, picture books also support language and math skills in children.

They not only introduce children with a broader vocabulary and richer language, picture books also provide complex grammatical formats. Or in other words, picture books allow children to become familiar with diverse sentence structures. One example I personally really like is The Mitten by Jan Brett. It does a masterful job of showing complicated sentences.

In terms of mathematics, one area in which picture books help children is with their geometric and spatial reasoning. The pictures often allow children to see certain settings from different angles, as well as see the same scene from a different distance. For example, in Virginia Burton’s book The Little House, we see the house get smaller and smaller the more skyscrapers surround it. Moreover, picture books can help with addition and subtraction. In Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey, children are introduced to the idea that if you have a collection of objects, but then you take some of these objects out, you have less and, if you take all of them out, you can end up with nothing. Also, Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown has a line that says, “Goodnight nobody,” which presents this idea that nothing (or zero) can exist.

Picture books also help children start to be able to identify sequence and these books help them build their predictive and inference skills. The pictures aid them in figuring out what is going on in the story and what might happen. Many picture books have a traditional story structure, a beginning, a middle, and an end. In many pictures books children are beginning to become acquainted with Act 1 of a story where the reader is introduced to the characters; Act 2 where there’s the rising action; and finally Act 3, where we see the climax and resolution. In The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, there’s the beginning where the train breaks down, the middle where the characters stranded and several other trains refuse to help, and the ending when a train finally does rescue the characters.

Another area that picture books help in children’s development is with their social-emotional skills. Because there are pictures in picture books, children can see a variety of people and see different cultures and see different ways of life, which can be much more impactful than simply hearing words spoken to them.

Picture books also present difficult concepts and ideas to children, who might have trouble understanding some of the sadder or unpleasant parts of life. One really great example is Now One Foot, Now the Other by Tomie DePaola. In this book, it talks about a grandfather who has a stroke and is no longer able to engage with his grandson like he used to. This story does a beautiful job of showing children that sometimes bad things happen to our older relatives and our loved ones, but that doesn’t mean that the love we have is gone.

Speaking of loved ones, picture books provide a great way for children to bond with their caregivers. Having brought this up, I do want to highlight that if you as an adult are reading with young children, it is important to be engaged with them and the book. Let them spend time looking at the pictures, allow them to go back to another part of the story, ask them questions. Talk about the illustrations and what’s happening in the story. Engaging with them really helps them to develop literacy skills and it helps bring the adult and child closer together.

Finally, picture books help children know and recognize culture references and common myths and folklore. For those of us in the Western World, or at least in the United States, we’re familiar with the stories of Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk and many of Aesop’s Fables. We know who King Arthur is and who Zeus and Hercules are. Picture books can introduce children to these timeless legends and stories, which increases their general knowledge as well as their ability to engage with the society and culture around them.

And you know what’s really awesome about all these ways that picture books help children? Is that these books, or at least the good ones, they do all of this without being preachy or boring or being painfully obvious with what they’re trying to do or teach. Let’s go back to Blueberries for Sal and how it can help children start to see the idea of subtraction. Robert McCloskey doesn’t say something like, “If you have a bucket of blueberries and you take some of them out of the bucket, there are fewer blueberries in the bucket now.” No, that’s boring. Instead, Sal is eating blueberries out of her mother’s bucket and her mother tells her to run along because otherwise there will be no more blueberries left. It just subtly brings up this concept that taking something away will mean there is less than the original.

This helps highlight just how complex picture books can be. They are often carefully created works of literature. The illustrations aren’t just an afterthought or pictures randomly added to a text. Both text and illustrations are woven together to make a story that’s appealing to children, and often adults, and these books, even if that wasn’t the goal of the author or illustrator, do so much to benefit children’s development and growth.

Picture books aren’t just dry boring textbooks blandly chock full of life lessons nor are they simply pretty plain postcard pictures. They are works of art that can positively change a young person’s life.

I love picture books. I think they’re wonderful and amazing and I hope you do too.

Some Books DO Belong in the Trash

Did you know that books can carry bed bugs? While unlikely, it is possible. In fact, some libraries have specific procedures for what to do when materials are found to be housing bed bugs. Don’t worry, these procedures are made with consultation from pest management and exterminators and other professionals. And don’t worry about using your library for fear of getting bed bugs. It’s highly unlikely to happen and you’re as liable to get bedbugs from the library as you are from almost any other public place.

I bring this up not because I want to increase anyone’s paranoia but because one of my pet peeves is when I hear people complaining about libraries throwing away books. I worked in several libraries over the course of about seven years and one of my positions was working with a collection and acquisition librarian. I can assure you, there are valid reasons for libraries tossing certain books. Besides bed-bugs, books can grow obsolete- how many people really need a 300-page book on VCR repair in the year 2026? When libraries toss books, they aren’t being careless with them nor are they saying they aren’t important. Rather, throwing them away is a much-needed process to ensure libraries are serving their community as best as they can. Although, to be fair, they don’t really just chuck a book into the nearest garbage bin; when they do toss a book, they try to recycle it.

That being said, when libraries do get rid of books, or discard them as it’s often called, there’s a process to it. They’re not throwing away books willy-nilly, there are several factors looked at when libraries decide whether they should keep or remove a book.

Photo: Why do Libraries Weed Their Books?

Library books have a life cycle of sorts to them, and each stage, including the end stage of getting rid of them, is planned out. At the top of the cycle is selection, and that’s choosing what books go into the collection. Say for example, a new Harry Potter book was released. Almost as soon as it was announced that there would be a new Harry Potter book, a public library in a small town would decide to have several copies to meet the anticipated demand. They would then order the books (i.e., acquire them) when they became available for purchase. When the books came in, the books would be sent off to be processed and cataloged. Each one of them needs a barcode and a call number. Additionally, each has to be entered into the online catalog. After that’s done, the books can be put on the shelves for people to check-out and read. As the books go through this process of being checked out, read, returned, and put back on the shelves over and over, they go through wear and tear. Depending on the wear and tear, sometimes the book will have to be mended, like if a couple of pages are ripped out, they can be glued back into the book. Other times, if the wear and tear is more serious then library will get rid of the book, which is a process called weeding. If a book has multiple, suspicious stains and the pages keep falling out even after being glued back in, then the library will throw it away. Sometimes the library will order a new copy of the book to replace the old one if it’s still being checked out regularly. They also might order a similar book, like if a picture book about trucks needed to be tossed, they would just order a more recently published picture book about trucks. Yet other times, the library will simply get rid of the book altogether and not bother to replace it. For example, if a grocery-store romance novel published thirty years ago needed to be mended but it had only been checked out once in the past five years, then the library wouldn’t bother replacing it, especially if they already had other romance novels that were more recently published and were being checked out more frequently.

Wear and tear is a very common reason for throwing away books, however, that’s not the only reason to do so. The American Library Association (ALA) lists these guidelines for getting rid of books, “All materials are considered for weeding based on accuracy, currency, and relevancy. Space limitations, edition, format, physical condition, and number of copies are considered when evaluating physical materials.” (ALA, 2018). Whether or not a book (or books) is determined to be accurate, current, or relevant is largely dependent on the library. Different libraries have different standards for what they deem useful. A public library, serving the general public, is going to need different books than an academic library, which serves students and professors and researchers.

For academic libraries, the ALA says this, “Academic libraries frequently employ a methodology for weeding such as MUSTIE (misleading, ugly, superseded, trivial, irrelevant, or obtained elsewhere) or CREW (continuous review, evaluation, and weeding). The review process may include multiple librarians, faculty outside the library, and/or the library’s dean,” (ALA 2018). When it comes down to getting rid of books in an academic library, outdated information is a big reason for getting rid of books. If someone needs recent information for their research project, it wouldn’t be helpful to have books from ten years ago. So academic libraries will often get rid of these outdated books after consulting others, like faculty in that field. Also, for both public and academic libraries, lack of space is a reason for getting rid of books. As more and more books are published, they require more space on shelves and libraries do not have an infinite number of shelves. One way academic libraries have combatted this issue is to focus more on inter-library loans. Libraries can talk with each other and say something like, “We’ll keep these books and get rid of those books, and you can keep those books and get rid of these books.” If an individual needs a particular book, they can borrow from the library that has it. (Metz and Gray, 2005).

In regard to public libraries, what they often look at is currency and relevancy. If a well-known fiction writer, such as John Grisham, publishes a new book, a public library that serves a town with around 60,000 people might order twenty to thirty copies of the book when it first comes out to meet the demand. However, as time goes on, the books lose their relevancy and won’t be checked out as much. Having twenty-two copies of one book can be excessive, not to mention a waste of precious shelf-space, so the library will look for ways to get rid of all the extras. They’ll likely keep four or five copies and the rest they might try to sell at a library book sale, they might donate some others, they also might recycle some of these books. (Metz and Grey, 2005).

Photo: Why Do Libraries Weed Their Books?

Recycling books is often a last resort. Not every book gets sold at library bookstore and libraries can be limited to where they are able to donate books. For example, public libraries sometimes donate to prison libraries, however, prison libraries cannot accept hard-back books. Other places that libraries donate to have other regulations, like what languages they will accept or what condition. Sometimes the only option is to recycle or even throw away the book. While not every book can be recycled (due to issues like mold or bedbugs), this has been a good alternative to throwing away every book that would need to be discarded. Many libraries will have a recycling bin to toss these outdated or unusable books in and when it gets it filled, off those books go to be recycled, where they might end up being used to make more books.

Photo: Books in the Dumpster by Brewbooks

Just because a library is getting rid of physical books, that doesn’t mean they are getting rid of what’s contained in the book. Several libraries, academic as well as public, have been acquiring eBooks as a way to still have books, but not take up space or deal with dirty ones. While eBooks are still relatively new (only introduced in the late 1990s [Blummer and Kenton 2013]), they have been proving a useful addition to libraries. Both academic and public libraries have found that eBooks are more accessible for their patrons (Gross 2021; Blummer and Kenton, 2013). A library might not keep all twenty-two John Grisham books from earlier, but they can keep a few physical copies and get more as eBooks so there’s still enough for their patrons. This way, they will still have plenty of room on the shelve for when the next John Grisham book is published and they need to order twenty-seven physical copies of those.

At the end of the day, books are not sacred. The information in them might be and there are rare and priceless editions of books. But for the most part, the majority of books, their cardboard spines, their uncoated paper, and their run-of-the-mill ink, the whole physical composition of a book? It’s unremarkable. The physical paper and ink of a book is not an untouchable entity. There are valid reasons for getting rid of them. When library books are thrown away or recycled, it's because they have finished serving their purpose.

Works Cited

Blummer, B. & Kenton, J.M. (2020). A Systematic Review of E-Books in Academic Libraries:

 Access, Advantages, and Usage. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 26(1), 79-109.

Collection maintenance and weeding. Tools, Publications & Resources. (2017, December 29). Retrie

ved, from https//www.ala.org/tools/challengesupport/selectionpolicytoolkit/weeding#:~:tex

t=Academic%20libraries%20frequently%20employ%20a,and%2For%20the%20library's%20dean.

Gross, D. A. 

(2021, September 2). The surprisingly big business of library e-books. The New Yorker. Retrieved 

February 21, 2026 from https://www.newyorker.com/news/a

nnals-of-communications/an-app-called-libby-and-the-surprisingly-big-business-of-library-e-books

Metz, P., & Gray, C. (2005). The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 31(3), 273–279.