Favorite Board Books

BOARD BOOKS

                                                                       

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Crossing the Line

Today we're discussing a key part of picture book anatomy called the gutter, or the space in the middle of the book where two facing pages meet. Design-wise, it's usually a) worked around so that there's a wide margin of white space, or b) entirely forgotten about to the point where images are lost or warped when the book is printed and bound. Every book has a gutter, though, so it's so fun when illustrators use it to their advantage. Rather than working around the gutter or ignoring it, illustrators use the gutter as an structural element, an irremovable part of the illustrations. In the past couple of months, a few books have come out that emphasize the gutter, and I'm excited to showcase them today!

SHY

I am so, so excited to share Deborah Freedman's SHY today! The timing is just incredible, because today also happens to be the first day of the #kidlitpicks August theme "unique friendships." And the friendship you see in this book is unique, wonderful, and such a lovely surprise
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Trim Size Matters

What does the size of the book say about the story inside? Trim size is the size of the physical book, and books come in all different shapes and sizes.

Let's start with big books. Big books are designed to showcase big ideas. A big book literally gives an illustrator more space on which to show his or her story, so chances are you'll see some extra large characters along the way.