Top Trends in Children’s Book Illustration for 2025
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Have you ever thought of how Children’s books are so exciting and appealing these days? Illustration trends are transforming more rapidly than ever! Catchy colors, styles, and ideas make a page visually appealing.
Being an illustrator, author, or publisher, you must have in-depth knowledge of these changing trends. Young readers connect easily with vibrant images, and the proper illustration can do the cakewalk!
This is the reason why book illustration trends are so important in 2025!
In this blog post, I will cover 12 exclusive trends in Children’s book illustration to keep you active and updated in this quickly changing book publishing industry. I will also shed light on the concept of book illustration below.
By the end of this article, you will have a complete idea of the latest trends in book illustration. This will guide you throughout your book illustration journey and keep you updated. You can always keep yourself updated with the latest trends and practices of illustration to stay on top.
Let’s dive into the popular Children’s book illustration first!
What Do You Mean by Children’s Book Illustration?
Children’s book illustration is a type of graphic or illustration that conveys the narrative of a book. Young readers can better understand the story due to these catchy pictures. Illustrators add vibrant colors, thrills, and emotion to the book.
Kids can not read long sentences; that is why illustrations are the best for them to have a clear understanding of what is happening in the story! Moreover, well-illustrated images express emotions, behaviors, and even insights.
Based on the narrative, the plot might be entertaining, soft, serious, or even bright. At times, the pictures even express a significant part of the story without using any words. To leave a long-lasting impression on kids, illustrations play an important role!
Beatrice Alemagna’s “A Lion in Paris” is a prime example, as the catchy illustrations accurately show the animal’s experience.
12 Illustration Trends to Look for in 2025
The Children’s book publishing industry is rapidly growing and transforming. You will get to see a range of book illustration trends, starting from AI-integrated illustrations, comic book art, and doodle art to interactive books, character-centric illustrations, and more!
If your story doesn’t follow these book illustration trends, there might be a chance that you lose your potential young readers!
Let’s find out each trend and think about how you can benefit from such art themes in your illustrative way.
1. Minimalistic Art Styles
Simple colors and lines are the main elements of the minimalistic art style. Any extra detail that lies in the art is removed. This specific book illustration style is trending in the book publishing industry due to its simplicity and easy-to-comprehend manner.
It helps young readers to focus more on emotions and the storyline. Its modern look captures the attention of parents, too. This art style also goes well with screens, hence this is best for digital books. This art style is very popular due to its modern and straightforward illustrations.
One popular example of this is Cori Doerrfeld’s “The Rabbit Listened.”
2. AI-Powered Illustrations
AI tools play a crucial role in illustration. AI is used these days to make AI-integrated images. They provide unique styles and create illustrations in just a few seconds. Due to its unlimited creativity and time-saving nature, this trend is creating a buzz in the Children’s book industry.
AI can mix textures, different hues, and ideas that a human illustrator may not even think of. The majority of indie illustrators are picking this style due to its quick graphic making and cost-effectiveness.
One most popular instances is Ammaar Reshi’s AI-illustrated “Alice and Sparkle,” which owns the hearts of millions of children.
3. Comic Book Art
Actionable frames, bold lines, vibrant colors, speech bubbles, and panel layouts are the most significant features of a comic book illustration. It brings excitement and interpretation to stories. Kids love to see lively visual storytelling, and this makes comic book art a popular one among other book illustration trends of 2025.
Comic art makes use of catchy pictures to help children understand stories or big paragraphs. They also add excitement to learning. Many educational institutions are using comic books to engage children in reading and increase their reading habits.
Dav Pilkey’s “Dog Man” is one of the great examples of comic book illustration. This is popular for its blend of brilliant comic art and humor.
4. Doodle Art
Doodle art is a type of illustration that comes with messy sketches with playful drawings. This art creation is full of excitement, fun, and free energy. This illustration style is very popular among kids, and they think they can easily make doodles by themselves. This increases the relevancy of the book and builds an emotional connection with the children.
Moreover, Doodle art breaks the traditional illustration norms, fostering originality. Parents and educators prefer this highly as it boosts imagination and creativity in children.
One great example of doodle art illustration is Mike Lowery’s “The Doodle Adventures.” This offers magical doodles with an exciting story that captures the attention of young readers.
5. Colorful Abstract Illustrations
Bright hues, unique shapes, and unusual patterns are all essential elements of colorful abstract art. Real-life rules are not followed by this type of illustration. It is trending as it captures the attention real quickly.
Stories feel dreamy and mysterious as they are portrayed in colorful abstract art. Letting kids imagine without any restrictions also boosts their creative thinking. Abstract illustrations are also an excellent fit for digital books due to their easy, screen-fit nature.
One popular and excellent colorful abstract illustration example is Jillian Tamaki’s “They Say Blue.” It reflects the usage of abstract art forms, hues, and colors.
6. Cartoon and Comic
Cartoon and comic style is another popular trend in book illustration that engages children in funny, playful, and dramatic stories. Funny expressions, bold lines, large eyes, and bright colors are all common features of such kind of art.
This trend is rapidly increasing as it brings life and emotions to narratives. Young audiences immediately connect to the cartoon and funny characters of the stories. This type of illustration trend is best for quick and humorous storytelling.
Early readers and adults are the prime choice for book publishers when they are publishing children’s books containing this specific illustration style.
An excellent illustration of a cartoon and comic is Ben Clanton’s “Narwhal and Jelly.” It catches the attention of young readers by featuring a cartoon-style style cute sea animal.
7. Character-Centric Illustrations
Character-focused illustrations are currently at the top of children’s book illustration trends. This type of art mainly focuses on the adventures and emotions related to the main character.
The background is plain. Due to kids’ emotional connection with the main character, this illustration trend is booming. Young readers are more attracted to characters when they connect with them and want to know more about them.
Popular brands also develop games, TV shows, movies, cartoons, and toys around those characters. This illustration style makes it simpler for kids to know and relate to the story.
If you are looking for stunning character-centric illustrations, then Anantaart.com is your first choice to grab the attention of young readers!
8. Textured Illustrations
If you are amazed by the creative works of illustrations and want more? The textured illustrations are for you! Textured art uses techniques like rough fur or smooth water to create an appearance that feels real to the touch!
Illustrators can use layers of different colors or even real items and brush strokes. This trend is currently trending as it adds depth and realism to your artwork. This grabs the attention of children with the use of vibrant hues and colors. Children love this art style due to their richness and detail orientation.
Moreover, textures boost higher engagement from kids, especially primary readers. They have a feeling that they have access to your page.
One stunning and popular example of textured illustration is Eric Carle’s “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” which features different colorful illustrations.
9. Interactive Books
Interactive books are currently on trend. This type of book illustration helps children to move, touch, or modify parts of the pages according to their mood and desire. There are different flaps, sliders, and textures to keep children interested.
Some use animated QR codes and even music to make it highly interactive. Due to the playfulness and exciting elements of additional nature, this type of book illustration is in high demand. Young readers are highly inspired and engaged in stories by this.
It is the most preferred choice of educators and teachers for early learners. In fine motor skills building, you can not find an alternative to this!
An outstanding example of an interactive book is Harve Tullet’s “Press Here.” Childrens need to tap the dots to make interactions happen on every page, and this keeps them highly engaged.
Another example of an interactive book is Bill Cotter’s “Don’t Push the Button,” which makes the reading experience enjoyable, playful, and lasting.
10. Surrealism
Surrealism or Surreal illustrations is another trending book illustration style that young readers are currently enjoying. Both the imaginary and real world are combined in this art. This is trending as it gives rise to deep thoughts and curiosity.
Surreal illustrations bring life to stories and make them more interesting. It helps children to boost their creativity and imagination, leading them to ask “what if” type of questions. Most of the authors use such illustrations to analyze emotions and essential concepts in a very innovative manner.
The book named “The Red Tree” by Shaun Tan is another outstanding pick for a surrealism illustration. Here, kids get to know how powerful emotions are represented through surreal art.
11. Eco-friendly Art Themes
Eco-friendly themes are another dynamic one that is trending as people are becoming more environmentally conscious. This theme mainly focuses on animals, nature, and earth-saving. This illustration shows blue oceans, deep green forests, and clean air.
This specific trend is booming as it offers knowledge about the planet and Earth; thus, it is highly valued by educators and parents. This type of art is often created using recycled paper or eco-friendly materials.
Zoe Tucker’s “Greta and the Giants” is an excellent illustration example of eco-friendly art themes. It helps children take care of the environment they live in.
12. Hand-Drawn and Organic Art
Hand-drawn art is another popular illustration form that offers an honest and raw feeling. It was not only developed by computers but also by hand using paper, pen, and pencil. This is trending due to its warm and personal touch.
For children, this hand-drawn and organic art is comforting. That’s the reason parents prefer this type of illustration over others.
One excellent example of hand-drawn and organic art illustrations is Matt de la Pena’s “Last Shop on Market Street.” All the hand-drawn illustrations are by Christian Robinson.
Final Thoughts,
Nowadays, modern illustration trends are reflected everywhere! Know that these popular trends are just the future predictions of the book publishing industry. Some trends have been creating buzz in the market for a decade, and some fail to capture young readers!
As an illustrator or book publisher, you can follow these trends and make something visually catchy that leaves a mark on young readers for longer.
I hope that I have mentioned all the popular trends in Children’s book illustration above. I have also added some details about what book illustration is in unambiguous terms. I have also tried to mention some examples of different illustration trends above to boost your understanding.
If you are interested in making catchy illustrations for young readers or a book publisher, just connect to Anantaart.com and create visually attractive, colorful illustrations to capture young audiences.
Happy reading.