We Should All Be Reading Picture Books

Often dismissed as children’s fare, picture books are in fact one of the most sophisticated forms of visual storytelling. Here, filmmaker and Eliko Picture Books & Collectibles founder May Lin Au Yong makes the case for why this classic medium matters more than ever in the age of endless scrolling.

Eliko picture books & collectibles book store — It’s a visual treasure trove over at Eliko Picture Books & Collectibles. Credit: Angela Guo

By Carlos Keng, 3 Jun 2026

Its shop on the first floor of Chinatown Complex might measure a mere 62 square feet, but Eliko Picture Books & Collectibles is impossible to miss. In an age when bookshops are a dying breed, this tiny space manages to display more than 600 titles – and they aren’t just any old books.

Most are vintage and out‑of‑print picture books – some for sale, others for reading on‑site only (for $8, one gets a cup of coffee and a browsing time of an hour) – lovingly collected by store owner May Lin Au Yong, who’s also a producer and documentary film‑maker.

Filmmaker and founder of Eliko Picture Books & Collectibles, May Lin Au Yong
Angela Guo

Here, she tells us about the magic of this particular genre of printed matter and the craft that goes into it.

“I didn’t grow up reading picture books. I grew up on Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl, and I only really encountered picture books later in life, when I was in the US for my master’s degree and saw them in a university bookshop.

Shaun Tan’s The Arrival book — Shaun Tan’s *The Arrival*
Angela Guo

I remember in particular coming across The Arrival – a wordless graphic novel by Australian artist Shaun Tan, which was published in 2006 and depicts the journey of an immigrant having to rebuild a life in an unfamiliar place. It was so beautiful and profound, and completely changed my understanding of what a book can be. As a documentary film‑maker, I’ve always been obsessed with storytelling and I realised that picture book artists through the ages essentially do the same thing I do.

They often don’t care about rules and just want to tell a good story by any means necessary. And the most interesting thing about their craft is how their images expand on, contradict or play with words. To me, that’s when the story really starts to unfold.

You see, historically, picture books weren’t meant just for children, but the whole family, and were thus filled with irony. The reader had to make out messages not so much from the words but the images – what the words didn’t say.

Over time, though, something shifted and picture books somehow became associated mainly with kids, and people started to see them as simplistic and even embarrassing to read as adults. For me, a good picture book trusts its reader and can deal with heavy themes without dumbing them down.

*Listen! Listen!* by Ann and Paul Rand is a favourite of hers with its clean, modern shapes.
Angela Guo

That’s why I’m drawn to foreign‑language and out‑of‑print books from the 1960s and ’70s. Whether it’s the clean, modern shapes of graphic designer Paul Rand (besides the logos of some of the biggest American companies in the world, he illustrated four children’s books with his wife, Ann) or the textured works of Beatrice Alemagna (the award-winning Italian illustrator and author), such books tend to be honest and transparent about discussing death, war or grief, leaving room for children – or adults – to interpret the messiness of the world for themselves.

Katsumi Komagata’s lauded *Little Tree* is a great example of how sombre topics like death can be addressed through picture books - this one features a pop-up tree that changes as you read it, going from a seedling to a withered tree to illustrate the great circle of life.
Angela Guo

And I think such picture books are especially relevant today because they offer an antidote to the endless scroll. Reading them needs to be a deliberate act and requires one to pause – and in that pause, you have to think and decide what the words are trying to say and what the pictures are trying to depict.

That calls for sophistication of thought because you have to not only read what has been written, but also what has not. This kind of visual literacy is always important – and extra important in this digital age.”

Below, a small selection of the hyper-visual works you can expect to find at Eliko Picture Books & Collectibles. P.S. Some of the books at the store are available for sale while others are browsing‑only – for $8, customers can get a cup of coffee and an hour to read them, or tell Au Yong a story and she’ll waive the fee.