In 1991, Walter Wick created a new genre of picture book, starting from a request by Jean Marzollo, an editor at Scholastic, in the "I Spy" books of photographic puzzles. Each page shows an apparently random array of objects for children to search and pick out, whether or not they can read Marzollo's gentle rhymes.
The 2011 Caldecott medalist, "A Sick Day for Amos McGee," is illustrated by Erin E. Stead in charming colored woodblocks and pencil. Because the story concerns a zookeeper, Stead's animals are depicted very realistically, although with expressions and attitudes that clearly convey anthropomorphic emotions. One of the best-loved Caldecott winners of all time, "Make Way for Ducklings," used monochrome pen-and-ink drawings that similarly connect readers to its animal characters.
For "Wabi Sabi," a 2008 picture book introducing the Zen artistic concept through the story of a little Japanese cat searching for the meaning of his name, Ed Young constructed collages out of "a collection of time-worn human-made as well as natural materials." The cat himself is depicted in torn paper, and the pages include haiku poems in traditional calligraphy.
Some pop-up books may be too elaborate and delicate for the youngest children, but the reigning master of the form at the turn of the 21st century, Robert Sabuda, also knows how to keep it simple, such as in his 1999 "Mother Goose." What could be more delightful than the blackbirds actually jumping out of the pie as the page is opened? Paper art can also be as simple as the clever serial die cuts that Simms Taback combined with watercolor, gouache, pencil, ink, and collage to turn a traditional Yiddish folk song about a resourceful tailor into the 2000 Caldecott medalist "Joseph Had a Little Overcoat."