Remy Charlip’s 1964 picture book Fortunately has a wonderful structure.
The first two-page spread starts with “Fortunately,” followed by two pages of good news and bright colors.
The next two-page spread starts with “But unfortunately,” followed by two pages of bad news in gray, black, and white.
And by that point, the attentive child should know that this book will alternate from good to bad, with each good bit of good news leading to bad news that overturns it (in gray scale). Parents reading this will have repeated points where they can pause and ask, “So what do you think will happen next” and engage the listening child.
The illustrations often resonate with one another, so that the pages with a plane flying high in the sky are followed by pages with the plane exploding in roughly the same place on the page.
And the whole book, which had started with Ned getting invited to a surprise party, ends with Ned digging his way out of the dark into a fancy party…which turns out to be a surprise party, bringing the whole book full circle (and makes the book into a nicely unified world of its own).
