Picture Book or Picture Storybook?

Opinions about what makes a title a "picture book" versus a "picture storybook" vary widely. Many people rely on the interaction and mutual dependence of the picture/text relationship. With almost 22,000 titles in our database, it would a very time consuming, not to mention daunting task, to make such determinations. Thus, we decided early on to use the following six categories based on narrative structure. We encourage users to apply "picture book" and "picture storybook" in a manner that best suits their needs. The bulleted terms below the categories are some of the genres/narrative formats associated with the CATEGORY field.

ILLUSTRATED

• adaptations, beginning readers, graphic novels, narrative poetry

INFORMATIONAL PICTURE BOOK

• biographies

PICTURE BOOK

• concept books, wordless/almost books, stories in rhyme

PICTURE STORYBOOK

• historical fiction, realistic fiction

TRADITIONAL LITERATURE

• folktales, fairy tales, fractured tales, etc.

VERSE

• poetry, lullabies, nursery rhymes