Introduction -- "Goodnight nobody" : comfort and the vast dark in the picture-poems of Margaret Wise Brown and her collaborators -- Straight man and clown in the picture books of Arnold Lobel -- The cycle of the seasons in Hall and Cooney's Ox-cart man -- The New York City picture books of Maurice Sendak -- Dashing heroes and eccentric families in William Joyce's picture sagas of our common culture -- Surrealism and the strange tale in the picture books of Chris Van Allsburg.