The document summarizes and provides details about four children's books: 1) "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed A fly" from 1997 about an old lady swallowing various items. It has simple, colorful illustrations and interactive pages. 2) "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" from 1969 about a caterpillar eating its way through foods until becoming a butterfly. It uses simple paintings and white space with bright colors. 3) "What The Ladybird Heard" from 2009 about robbers trying to steal a farmer's cow. It uses block colors and textures to illustrate the story in a non-threatening way despite the theme of robbery. 4) Common features of the

1. Children's book research task

2. There Was an Old Lady Who
Swallowed A fly
• This is a children's book about an old lady who swallows a fly, it was published in 1997. The
authors of this book are Simms Taback, Rose Bonne and the illustrator is Simms Taback. The
publisher of this book is Child's Play (International) Ltd. This book is 14 pages long and the
dimensions of the book are 1.3 x 16.5 x 16.5 cm.
• As you can see on the pictures to the right of this screen the book is very
simplistic, vibrant and colorful. It looks like the method that has been
used to illustrate this book could have been paint and collage but it also
looks as if it could have been created on early digital graphics software on
computers. Inside the book you can see it is slightly interactive as it has
holes through the card pages so the children can see what the woman
has in her stomach.
• Very simple san serif fonts are used in this book usually small amounts
too that are out of the way at the top of the page, in this book all of the
blocks of words rhyme. This could be to help the child’s
rhythm develop and some would say it helps the children
understand and enjoy the book more.
• The lesson of this book seems to be don’t eat things that are
bad for you as you might have some trouble trying to make it
better.

3. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• This children’s book is about a caterpillar that that eats and eats and gets bigger and bigger
until it changes into a butterfly. This books author and illustrator is Eric Carle and was
published by Hamish Hamilton on June 3, 1969. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is 28 pages long
but very simple on the pages. The dimensions of this book are 21 x 0.4 x 24.7 cm but people
have commented saying it is too small.
• As you can see on the images on the side of the page the book is very very simple and has a
lot of white space. You can see that all the colours in the book are relatively bring to appeal
to the child’s young mind as everything is easily distinguishable. It looks like all of the images
in the book have been painted and cut out like a collage so is not very detailed and looks as if
a child could have drawn it, but this may have been what the author wanted
so that the children can relate to it.
• In this book the fonts that have been used are serif, this is to help
the child read as fonts which are serif are usually easier to read.
These blocks of text seem to always be in the white space, this
may be to make it easier for the child to read, and all the words
that have been used are quite simple so not to challenge the child.
• This book seems to teach the children that you need to eat a
varied amount of different foods to grow up big, strong and beautiful.

4. What The Ladybird Heard
• This book is about two robbers on a farm who want to steal the farmers
prize cow. This book is by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Lydia Monks and
published by Macmillan Children's, in 2009. This book is 28 pages long
and the demotions of the book are 25 x 0.4 x 25 cm.
• As you can see this book has very simple illustrations and have a lot of
bright colours, the characters in the book all look very nice and happy
and should not be threatening to children. The way that this book looks
like it has been illustrated is by using block colours that looks as if they
have been painted. Some aspects of the book look as if textures have
been used and put over the paintings using computer graphics, for
instance the sheep looks very wooly. Even though there is a darker theme
of robbery in this book the illustrator still manages to make it all look very
happy.
• This book is made up mostly of pictures but the text that is in the book is
in block paragraphs and over block colour as to make it easy for the child
to read. The text is Sans Serif.