[scribus] Scribus vs Quark?

[Jim Ford]

  I want to layout an illustrated children's book and have practically 
no experience of DTP applications. I understand that the industry 
standard for DTP applications is 'Quarkxpress'.

How does Scribus compare with Quarkxpress? Is Scribus likely to be 
appropriate for what I want to do, or am I going to 'hit a wall' 
eventually and wish I'd sported the (considerable) outlay for Quark?

I'd be grateful for any advice, before I start on the Scribus learning 
curve.

Also, as it's my first post - thanks to the authors of Scribus for 
providing what appears to be a very powerful application!

Jim