Written and sung by Ray Davies, the song's lyrics describe the experience of an ageing narrator flipping through a photo album reflecting on happy memories from "a long time ago".

[3] Musically, "Picture Book" is a pop song,[4][5] and while its arrangement is cheerful, the lyrics do not directly describe happy memories, but instead the experience of a lonely ageing narrator looking at photographs from "a long time ago".

[11] Author Thomas M. Kitts writes that "Picture Book" conveys ambiguity due to the discordance between its cheerful sound and the lyrics which instead recall "when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago".

[22] Unlike most of the album's songs, its mix emphasises the low-end, particularly Quaife's bass and Avory's drums, which critic Stewart Mason terms "cleverly sloppy".

[24] "Picture Book" was among the tracks Ray sent to Reprise Records in June 1968 for Four More Respected Gentlemen, a US-only album planned for late 1968, though the project was aborted before its release.

[17] In his preview of the album for New Musical Express magazine, critic Keith Altham described "Picture Book" as a good example of the band's ability to extract a "'tinny' texture" from a guitar sound.

[28] Accompanying Village Green's release, "Starstruck" was issued as a single in continental Europe backed with "Picture Book" in November 1968.

[30] In the lead-up to the album's American release, Reprise issued the same single in the United States, possibly on 8 January 1969, though it may have been delayed a week.

[14] The American alternative rock band the Young Fresh Fellows covered "Picture Book" on their 1989 album This One's for the Ladies,[32] a version Stewart Mason of AllMusic calls "endearingly sloppy".