The work aims to comparatively analyze the hot spots and trends in children's picture book research in China and abroad through the scientific knowledge map, summarize the existing research problems, and propose future research prospects. The visual literature analysis software Cite Space 6.2R1 was used to select the children's picture book related literature included in the PKU, CSSCI, SCI journal documents in the CNKI and the Web of Science core collection database as the research object and a scientific knowledge map was drawn to perform visual analysis on the number of publications, authors, institutions, research hot spots, frontiers and trends of the current Chinese and foreign children's picture book research. The number of publications on children's picture books in China and abroad has shown a fluctuating upward trend. The cooperation between authors and institutions is not close in China, while the cooperation abroad is close and a complete cooperation team has been formed. The overall Chinese research trend focuses on the creation, reading, and publishing of picture books, while foreign research trend focuses on the study of children's own behavioral characteristics and growth and development. There is a lack of research on the content of children's non-cognitive abilities, the relevance of social issues, and the long-term impact review methods both in China and abroad. There is also a lack of cross-language and cross-cultural research in China. Future prospects include diversification of research objects, pluralism of content, innovation of methods, and scientific direction, so as to enhance the depth and breadth of children's picture book research in multiple dimensions.