Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Book?

A picture book by Lauren Child

There are lots of things which author and illustrator Lauren Child does (not just in Who’s Afraid of The Big Bad Book? but in her numerous other stories too) which goes against the general advice from children’s publishers. She uses words and old style phrases unfamiliar to contemporary children like ‘bedraggled’ and ‘dressed up to the nines’ and she places text

scattered

all over

the

page.

However, it doesn’t seem to make a difference to her book sales and there’s a reason for that: she writes witty, playful tales illustrated in a humorous and distinctive style. You can see the illustrations and text are equally important to her and she loves to capture the imagination of all. This is why she’s become a huge name in children’s fiction and why she can get away with such brazen…