Children’s picture book in Iran: a study of form and content from 2000 to 2011 / Faezeh Kheiri

The modern children’s picture book does not have a long history in Iran. It begins with the establishment of the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adult (IIDCYA) in 1965. The illustrations in Iranian picture books have been a subject of scholarly inquiry since the 1990s, often with an interest in attempting to understand how they work, their history and literature; few have attempted to look at particular visual motifs as cultural products. Illustrations could portray different aspects of society and culture and educate children about their roots and identities. Iranian artists have never been far from their past artistic and cultural heritage and have been trying to explore and practice them in varied new and modern approaches. This study explored the form and content of Iranian children’s picture books, and how Persian art, culture, and society reflect on illustrators’ themes of innovation and tradition in their works of art. This study took a qualitative approach through the content analysis to analyze the form and content of Iranian picture books by providing the categorized data of 165 samples which were published from 2000 to 2011 for the children’s age group of 7 to 9. This approach along with semiotic and iconography method lead the researcher to have a comprehensive interpretation. As an explanatory study, the investigation identifies genre of literature, style, techniques and mediums, and characteristic of Persian art and culture.