One of the most basic principles of children’s literature is to get the child the habit and love of reading. We can define picture books as educational materials from which children enjoy and learn and open doors to children’s imaginations through the use of illustration and text.

Picture books have an important role in the development of children during early childhood. Illustrations are fundamental to the story and supplemental to the text. This research aims to ‘investigate picture books for 4-8 year-olds in terms of illustrations which were published between 2005 - 2013’.

Screening model was used in this research. The sample group was selected from the population through randomized sampling. As a result of this sampling process, 50 picture books for 4-8 year-old age group were selected. The evaluation process of the picture books in terms of illustration is still continuing and the criteria for evaluation were set by the researcher by getting expert opinions.

Generally, many things change as the picture books are introduced to a child’s life. The child starts to interpret life, learn concepts, gain knowledge and experience, and also learn social rules. In order for a story to be received by the illiterate child, auditory perception should be supported with visual perception through the use of illustrations. In order to produce high quality publications in children’s literature, painters doing illustrations for children’s books should do this work with care and according to the developmental level of the target age group.

Keywords: Children Literature, Picture, Visual Perception,