Abstract/Summary

This chapter considers how printers, publishers and designers used images and text in non-fiction books for children in the middle decades of the twentieth century. It traces the move away from printer-driven conventions to show how designer-led approaches came to determine a book’s use of text and image with the needs of young readers in mind. While the chapter makes brief mention of Noel Carrington, Marie Neurath, Paul Redmayne and others known for the contributions they made to illustration and graphic design, many of the books under discussion were not associated with a particular author or designer. They were ‘ordinary’ information books that children may have encountered at school.