Artwork Needed, really?

When speaking with a friend about her absolutely wonderful children’s book that she is writing, our conversation naturally turned to the artwork that should accompany it. However, as we spoke more in depth about the topic I mentioned the reason I hadn’t done anything with my children’s work was it didn’t have any artwork. My dear brilliant friend stated quite simply, ‘Does it really need it?’ I honestly hadn’t considered it.

I had assumed all children’s literature did. But, as she aptly continued, many – if not most – of the greatest authors of fairy tales and fables used very little artwork. It was used more as a slight compliment to the piece rather than a dominating feature. She noted such authors as The Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Anderson, and Aesop. Such an interesting and clear point.

One of the things we are taught as writers is to ‘Show don’t Tell’ right? Well, they certainly gave their audience credit way back when, that the reader could develop the world the wordsmith created on the page, in each individuals mind. Because each of us is different, aren’t we? We all see things a little differently. Event if we don’t see it quite the way the author envisioned, it doesn’t take anything away from the story for us, because the story is still alive.

It seems these days like we may have a dependency on artwork to be sure the readers are seeing what we intend, rather than simply trusting that through our words their imaginations will rekindle and they will simply see something.