Here is a corner of the Internet dedicated to picture books, and not anything else. Because there are millions of extraordinary picture books lying around – in faraway libraries and basements and Amazon warehouses – often where no one can find them, and often through no fault of their own. Sometimes they are older (though you can hardly tell it from the shape they’re in), sometimes foreign, sometimes strange, still they are almost always available for as little as a penny plus the cost of delivery – $3.99, which will buy you a meatball in a lot of places.

And while meatballs are admittedly an excellent investment, they cannot usually be passed down between generations, or keep you company through a rainy day, or make you laugh, or explain the world in a way that still makes sense to you twenty or fifty years later. Indeed, of all of the reasons to read, maybe the worst is that it will make you smarter and more employable eventually according to mountains of scientific data.

In that spirit, we offer a rogues’ gallery here which you are unlikely to find in any of the usual places, and if you should happen to come by some education on your way to entertainment, then we take no credit, or responsibility.

Jay Bushara, Editor