The primary question posed at the panel discussion on the Art of Children’s Books at OCAD was a very simple one: what is a good picture-book? Is it the writing, the illustrations or a combination of both? Is it a given book’s ability to appeal to both children and adults, or is it the book’s ultimate readability – a quality that makes a reader want to explore the book it again and again? Furthermore, what is the function of a picture-book?

These are but a small sampling of the vast array of possible questions that arise when considering the creation and distribution of children’s literature, and the Art of Children’s Books panel, a joint event produced by Luminato and the Canadian Children’s Book Centre, addressed these issues with great insight and clarity, offering a look into the world of children’s publishing that is much more complex than one might initially believe. Consisting of a panel of two author/illustrators, Wallace Edwards and the fabulously quirky Barbara Reid, along with the director of publishing for Scholastic Books, Diane Kerner and Michael Solomon, the art director for Groundwood Books, this event proved indeed to be a very interesting discussion that illuminated wonderfully the key issues of an often-overlooked field.

So again, what makes for a quality children’s book? Well, a lot of it, as adults, has a lot to do with what stands out the most when we think of the picture-books that we read as children. From there we can ask: what made them so memorable and what, as a child, made us want to return to them?

Some of the titles that immediately sprung to my mind and which, with my cynical semi-grown-up goggles, I shall now bastardize here:

Matthew’s Midnight Adventures – Allen Morgan, Michael Martchenko

I adored this series as a kid, and now after reading a few synopses online to refresh my memory, I realize that these are the sort of books that would appeal spot-on to a young boy and that they’re a lot weirder than I remember. In the first title, Matthew and the Midnight Tow-Truck, Matthew, a little boy with a penchant for toy cars and an unnatural obsession with red licorice, without batting an eye hops into a strange man’s tow-truck in the middle of the night. The man then proceeds to pump Matthew full of as much red licorice as he can possibly handle while they ride around stealing cars and shrinking them down to Hot Wheels size in a magic car wash. If this were a novel it would be a totally twisted one and, of course, while it’s implied that the whole thing may or may not have been part of the boy’s imagination, it seems like kind of a dangerous precedent to be setting. But then again, this was the early nineties…

The Bungalow Boys

Another series that I recall reading extensively, The Bungalow Boys were a group of rather incompetent middle-aged men that, along with their typically intelligent dog, were always getting up to some kind of crazy adventure. The one that I remember most involved their outer-space expedition, a book that portrayed their strict training regiment and the planning of their voyage followed by their ultimate launch beyond the stratosphere wherein they see all kinds of fantastic, wonderful things. In the end, it turns out that they didn’t go into space at all but rather had been on a space-themed roller coaster at an amusement park. I still think that’s pretty funny. Oddly, though, I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet, which leads me to believe that either they are not in fact called the Bungalow Boys, or that even as a very small child, I was still a complete and utter elitist prig.

The Hockey Sweater – Roch Carrier

That Canadian classic! Quebec boy covets desperately after a Canadiens jersey and his mum buys him a Leafs one. Everyone is totally pissed that he, only after his mother refuses to let him out of the house in his ratty old Montreal sweater, sports the colors of the enemy, which leads him to high-tail it to the local church where he prays that his Leafs jersey will get eaten by moths. I know a lot of people right now that are wishing that their Leafs swag would get eaten by moths and this story is set in the 1940s! Hell, I know a lot of people that wish that the Leafs would get eaten by moths, for that matter. Me, I’m an Oilers fan - when those guys almost make the playoffs, it’s cause for celebration. Anyway, The Hockey Sweater is obviously a pretty big deal in Can-Lit - even as a children’s book - and has attracted quite a lot of literary criticism for its treatment of Anglo-Franco relations and the cultural barriers that still exist today.

The point of this trip down memory lane is quite simple: there isn’t, nor should be a strict formula for producing a memorable children’s book (or otherwise) and because, like the graphic novel which has become so prevalent recently, the picture-book is an amalgamation of literature and visual art, the possibilities of the medium are quite limitless. However, there is still very much to consider: as it was noted in the panel, the considerations of the adult are equally if not more important in children’s literature as it is more often than not their money which is used to buy the books and to some degree, they do choose what their children read.

Furthermore, it was asked of the panel, what the purpose of the picture-book indeed is and why should picture-books continue to be read. With the advent of Readers and new literary technologies that put the very existence of the book as a medium in jeopardy, these are interesting questions to consider. The moderator of the panel, a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Toronto, stated his view, one that I found very relevant, that for the vast majority of children, picture-books are their first exposure not only to art at large but art that they can understand and appreciate. The future of the children’s book, as with any book is currently uncertain, particularly when it is considered that kids are reading less and less today and with the promise of new, exciting ways of reading such as moving picture-books, we may see reading degenerate with it. When we take away a child’s first exposure to art, what is to come of art?