ABSTRACT
A significant production of illustrated books and picture books only emerged in Colombia in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Illustrated books had been published previously, and there were important examples of isolated cases of professional or amateur artists who illustrated works written for children (see the historical studies by Beatriz Helena Robledo and Zully Pardo), but it was not until the first years of the 1980s that, in a systematic way, children’s books were published in which, as distinct from textbooks, illustration became an essential part of the book and not just a decorative element.
