Illustrations in Children's Books: Useful or Harmful?

A great number of what we call "Children's Books" contains illustrations. It is preferred by children and adults because the pictures attract the children and it has been proven that to keep their attention in the story.
There are some theories that support the usefulness of Illustrations in Children's books. Some suggest that pictures make the reader more interested in the book because it is more attractive, some say that the pictures enhance memory and comprehension, and others say that Children are more engaged with the material because it allows them to interact with it through hearing and seeing.
In a study conducted in 2000 on K-3 students, researchers, Andrews, Schariff, and Moses found out that pictures or illustrations can enhance the comprehension of the story. Their data also shows that pictures or illustrations are very useful when presenting children with a new story and it can influence a child's approach to the book. Children's response to pictures or illustration is something that should be noted by Publishers when choosing illustrations for textbooks and even story books.
There are also some theories that suggest illustrations are harmful for children in understanding the stories. In Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment, he criticizes the use of illustrations in fairytales because "the illustrations direct the child's imagination away from how [a child], on his own, would experience the story." (Bettelheim, p.60) He further asserts that the child is "robbed" of the opportunity to imagine the landscape and the situations himself because the illustrations had done it for him.
Another issue about pictures in books is that it could perpetuate stereotypes and tokenism. In most children's illustrated books, the characters are usually white Caucasian with blonde hair and the villains are ugly and deformed. Children of a different race or color may feel that they cannot identify with the main characters of the stories and thus feel left out or undesirable. A certain group of people are sometimes portrayed as inferior, and the risk that it could affect a child's confidence if he or she is a member of that group. This could specially be the case for African Americans, American Indians and other minority groups. There are very strong evidence that the illustrators’ biases and opinions could be picked up by the child and influence his or her sense of who he or she is.
I believe that Illustrations are very useful in telling stories to children. Because it catches their attention and it helps with figures and concepts that they may not be familiar to them. Children's imagination can still flourish if they are told these stories using illustrated books, because stories, such as fairytales are imaginative in themselves and provide plenty of room for a child to imagine many things. There are many new illustrated books emerging that are sensitive to the physical, cultural and developmental differences of children. I believe that it is the parent or educator's responsibility to be sensitive in choosing illustrated books for children so that it only enhances their learning experience.

References
Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment: The meaning and Importance of Fairytales, (Knopf,1975)
Jamye Andrews, Lauren Scharff and Laurie Moses, "The influence of Illustration in Children's Storybooks", American Journal of Psychological Research (2002) P. 323-339
In Time, Evaluating Children's Books for Bias
www.intime.uni.edu/multiculture/curriculum/children.htm