Illustrators & Art Style Research

I started looking a bit more into children's books and illustrations / products aimed at children, in particular cookbooks and things to do with food. Firstly I looked through 'The 10 best children's cookbooks' put together by The Independent;
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/the-10-best-childrens-cookbooks-8588949.html

I noticed the varying art styles and noted what I though worked well and what didn't. I liked the books that used all illustration (such as 'Pretend Soup), as well as all photography (such as 'The Usborne Cookbook for Children) for their front covers. Some even use both illustrations and photography (Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes) which I think works well as the illustrations appeal to children and the photographs can make clearer instructions of what needs to be done for the recipe. The themed cookbooks also work well (The Moomins and Star Wars for example) as the children can relate to the characters they know and love.

I have also seen food being turned into characters in many children's books, going back to the idea of the face being important in what engages the child to relate to the character (as seen in the BBC TV programme 'Picture Book'). I own some stationary products from the shop 'Paperchase' which feature cute food characters with faces and thought this style might be appealing to children, particularly girls.

Some notable children's books and illustrators -

David McKee (Elmer)

Brightly coloured character and background, almost camouflaged, immediately creating a game for the child to find Elmer on the first page 

Mick Inkpen (Kipper)

Anthropomorphic dog as main character, bright colours, soft textures, a book series I enjoyed as a child. 

Lauren Child (Charlie and Lola)

Illustrations often involve mixed media and collage, incorporating different patterns and textures juxtaposed with sketchy hand drawn-styled characters.