Recently, sophisticated illustrations from the graphic novel sector have been turning the world of children’s books upside down. The consequences are surprising.
Song lyrics become picture stories in the book “Mukkekukke – Comics to Music”.
Rotraut Susanne Berner / Götz Alsmann
When expectations are tricked and familiar molds are broken, interesting things emerge. This also applies to children’s books. And this is happening remarkably often recently in the creative borderline between picture books and comics. Problems with this are adults who have probably never experienced the joy of reading pictures or who believe that they are encouraging text reading by not taking picture reading seriously. But such defensive attitudes are becoming outdated, because technical and media developments are leading to more text-image connections anyway.
Nikolaus Heidelbach is known for meticulously painted fantasy, but in “Bedtime Stories for Celeste” his monsters are never scary enough for little sister Celeste. Whatever her brother Boris says doesn’t scare her. On the left side of the book, Heidelbach’s hauntings appear like panel pictures, while on the right we can follow the siblings’ discussions in Ole Könnecke’s picture story. When Celeste finally takes over the invention of scary things herself, Boris falls asleep exhausted. And the parents who have returned home are happy about their lovely little children. Children’s literature has known framework narratives for fairy tales since Romantic times. But as a parallel guide in two very different illustration styles and as an experiment in story invention, the collaborative work shows in the most comical way how picture books celebrate postmodern media games.
Just don’t stress about this book
What autofictions are to fiction, these are subjective reports for young people that appear as diaries, with sketches, comments and humorous entries. But much of this quasi-spontaneousness turns embarrassing. Lucia Zamolo stands out all the more, and each of her books has received awards so far. She just won the German-French youth literature prize with “And then – how stress makes you less stressful”. As a best friend and ultimately with the dilemma of all anti-advice guides, Zamolo draws and writes a non-fiction book for young people about sensitivities and annoying situations. A theme that was previously reserved for young adult novels, but which now appears, graphically well thought out, almost spontaneously; everyday, empathetic and weird.
Young people’s hectic everyday lives often include songs in their headphones. In the book “Mukkekukke – Comics to Music”, outstanding illustrators draw attention to the content of the songs by converting German-language song lyrics from pop and rock to jazz and chanson to classical music into picture stories. With a linked Spotify playlist, the book offers children and families an unexpected text-image-sound enjoyment. This far surpasses the pure song lyrics, because the way today’s best illustrators develop ideas from moments in the text is a pleasure that only a consistent mix of media makes possible. But there is a great mix on the image level alone, also because the comic publisher Reprodukt favors such diversity.
The children’s book as a coffee table book
Not surprising, but a logical consequence of well-styled products are picture books that match interior design trends. And yet one is amazed at how the designer couple Mayumi Otero and Raphael Urwiller, under the artist name Icinori, create an elementary picture book called “Thank You” that is also an elegant coffee table book. The list «thank you morning, thank you table, thank you storm, thank you secret. . .» Page after page links illustrations and terms, lives from aesthetic reduction in colors and shapes and combines styled humility with high standards. For some it’s philosophical, for others it’s simply beautiful.
Author Sara Lundberg combines harsh reality with beautiful colors
Sara Lundberg / Moritz
The fact that novels often convey women’s fates and report on oppression and escape has long been part of fiction. However, the form of the picture book must first free itself from the image of preschool literature in order to be able to tell true stories. Sara Lundberg, an author and illustrator celebrated in Sweden, is just being discovered by German publishers, but is likely to make a breakthrough here too with “The bird in me flies wherever it wants”. She tells the story of Berta Hansson (1910–1994), who has a hard life as a farmer’s child and, against all the norms of her environment, just wants to paint. The mother’s illness and death, economic hardship and confinement are not glossed over. But Lundberg manages to tell the story of the painter in her own painting style; harmonious, without pandering to Hansson’s art and extremely impressive. The fact that she also tells in the first person, which only hesitantly finds a foothold in picture books, and in general that a 128-page book with little but skilfully condensed text but with dominant image areas is intended for readers aged 10 and over, is a multiple emancipation : as an encouragement for adolescents, an insider tip for adults and a great blessing for the picture book medium.
To read, watch and be amazed – the list of the books mentioned
- Nikolaus Heidelbach / Ole Könnecke: Bedtime stories for Celeste. Hanser 2024. 32 pages, around Fr. 27.–.
- Lucia Zamolo: And then – how stress can be less stressful, with almost no toxic tips. Bohem 2024. 108 pages (from 13 years), around Fr. 25.–.
- Mukkekukke – comics to music. Ed. Anke Kuhl & Moni Port. Reproduct 2024. 152 pages, around Fr. 29.–.
- Icinori: Thank you. Translated from French by Anja Biemann. Rotopol 2024. 176 pages (from 3 years old), around Fr. 37.–.
- Sarah Lundberg: The bird in me flies wherever it wants. Moritz 2024. 128 pages (from 10 years), around Fr. 26.–.
