How does this translate to the classroom or to family learning? Having a prettily illustrated information text does not guarantee accuracy – even the illustrations might present or cement false assumptions; how to encourage the young to develop a critical approach to material relevant to their subject using both text and illustration to raise questions. Both Karen Bentall and Diletta Donati approach this aspect. Karen Bentall describes a classroom approach in which she took an informational picture book to reach a very diverse class of students. The illustrative aspect allowed her students to relate to the information by making the subject visual and therefore no longer abstract. This bringing-to-life is emphasised by Diletta Donati who examines the way real people – biography – can be presented to young readers. She does not ignore the text but emphasises that readers can meet a subject and feel a real connection and engagement, without lists of dates or tabulations of activities but by the visual creation of aspects that become intangible and meaningless when pinned down by words. Using illustration to reach an audience for information is not new. Martin Jenkins, as author of many titles, records his experiences in this field. It is clear that the collaboration with illustrators has been both rewarding and essential – and recognised by innovative publishers, paving the way for the current scene. It is not that accuracy or research should be abandoned – far from it, indeed the challenge is now the explosion of information available at the digital fingertip. Now accuracy must be presented in a way that adds more than the screen experience; both words and pictures must work to reach the reader.

Reaching the reader was certainly the aim of Girl magazine as it brought lively characters and retellings of classics through its presentation to a wide audience. Nor did it confine itself to fiction. Looking to inspire its female readership it used the comic-strip format to provide information on potential careers (today we may wince at what is on offer and to whom) but there was a genuine effort to open doors that might be otherwise closed as Louise Johnson demonstrates in her article on the Girl feature ‘I want to be an ….’. 

Great illustrations do not have to be fanciful; they can be grounded in real representation. The work of Beatrix Potter might to some seem whimsical – all those animals wearing clothes, but as the exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum reminded us her work was based on detailed observation and meticulous draughtsmanship – even when she was creating fairyland. We may not be able to visit the museum but we can go back to her books to appreciate this marriage of information and imagination.

Ferelith Hordon