We’ve all heard the phrase “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Similarly, Leonardo da Vinci once stated that to represent a man as a whole being through art, “it is necessary to draw and to describe.” Da Vinci firmly believed that attempting to describe a human using words alone would only __1__ a reader’s imagination. Perhaps it is for these reasons that visual storytelling has been popular for thousands of years. This art form dates back to ancient times, when our ancestors would create drawings on the walls of caves to __2__ stories.
In more modern times, visual storytelling has been __3__ in the form of picture books. In fact, the earliest modern picture book appeared as recently as the 19th century, when artist Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886) began using __4__ to tell stories in book form. What was notable about Caldecott’s books was that they elevated the picture to serve as the __5__ channel through which a story was told. Previously, pictures had been used in books mainly to complement text.
However, it wasn’t until after Caldecott’s death that picture books began to become popular worldwide. Early in the 20th century, __6__ in printing technology enabled picture books to be mass-produced for the first time. Then, after World War II, the art of visual storytelling __7__ its most significant shift. Well-known visual artists began to produce picture books, and suddenly, the line separating author and artist was not so __8__. Indeed, it was during the second half of the 20th century that such classic picture books as Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are and Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings were published.
The power of visual storytelling lies in its ability to __9__ the imagination of people of all ages. In this manner, picture books can serve as a powerful __10__ of escapism. Therefore, picture books are likely to become even more popular as the world moves further into an increasingly complex future.
