Picture Books [6:30]

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About

In this lesson, we will discuss picture books.

Transcript

Let's look at one form of children's literature in depth, and that's the picture book, sometimes also called the picture storybook. This is a slim book, often called an easy reader, for your youngest child, but it actually dates back to the middle ages, when simple books were created with engraved art and engraved text, and then the early 1900s, Beatrix Potter produced the Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was the first book really designed for children, that with half art and half text, and that marriage of storytelling and illustration is the heart of the picture book or picture story book. It's usually about 32 pages in length, although that can vary somewhat, and its purpose is to tell a story through both words and images.

When it comes to children's literature, this is a form of a book rather than a genre, and there are many different versions of the picture book for children. I'd like to talk about some of those and how one might use them in a classroom or library or even family setting to connect with the curriculum. For example, a picture story book, which is sort of the dominant form of this type of book, simply tells a story. Half through words and half through art. That's a perfect tool for reading aloud. And as we know, reading aloud to kids is a really important way of developing their reasoning skills, their literary appreciation, and their sense of story scheme, all at the same time.

You can choose any number of thousands of picture books that are created for children to read aloud. To develop their sense of story and their preparation for reading on their own, even as they're learning to read on their own. They love to hear good books read aloud. Picture story books are perfect for lap time, too. For one adult to share with one or two children, one page at a time, often so many times that everyone has the book memorized. Some classic examples are Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg, just three books of the 100 bestselling children's books of all time that continue to hold up.

But there are other forms of picture books, too, that also have curricular possibilities. For example, the wordless picture book is a picture book that has no text, or very, very little text, very few words, and the entire story is communicated through the illustrations. For example, the Caldecott award winning book Tuesday by David Wiesner is such a book, and these books are excellent for developing kids' oral language. You show the pictures, and together you tell the story, or if you're working with children who are learning English as a new language, this is a great opportunity for them to exercise their growing vocabulary and to identify things in the pictures or to try and tell the story along with you. The predictable picture book is a picture book that has text that is very regular or predictable, like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? By Bill Martin Jr. That's a perfect picture book choice for the very young child. The three, four, five-year old who is just learning to read, to develop what we call emergent literacy. Or the alphabet book like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin, which is a wonderful choice for reinforcing alphabet knowledge, learning your ABCs and then seeing them repeated in the book, and recognizing vocabulary that begins with those initial letters.

Counting books are another form of the picture book, that have lots of natural possibilities for math extension, so you can choose a book that is teaching the counting from zero to ten or one to one hundred, and look at the images, and do the counting and talk about the numbers, and recognize the digits, all through a simple picture book.

The concept book is another form of picture book, and it is a book that is factual in nature. It does not really strive to tell a story, rather, it is introducing concepts in some very basic and obvious and visual way. And many concept books lend themselves to science instruction for example. Or another form of the picture book is what's called the engineered book, or sometimes known as the pop-up or movable book, where there are pieces in the book that move or pop, and those are fun to share with young children to develop tactile and kinesthetic skills. Just be careful that they don't pop it up or pull it apart. The board book is another form of the picture book that is ideal for your very young, your baby or toddler, newborn even. The Very Hungry Caterpillar, for example, by Eric Carle, is available in board book form. These are picture books that have very sturdy pages, almost like boards, designed to be played with, chewed on, sat upon, very sturdy. But they're a great introduction to what a book is and how a book works and how you turn the pages. That's very important to developing all those skills in our very young children.

And yet one other kind of picture book is called the easy reader. The easy reader, really created by Dr. Seuss initially in the 50s with The Cat In The Hat, is a form of book that's very popular with your transitioning reader, your kindergartner or first grader or second grader who's moving from picture books, almost ready for short novels, but still needs a lot of illustrations to understand the story. The Cat in the Hat is a perfect example of that. And many of these forms of books are available as digital books and apps, and those can be helpful ways for kids to begin to learn words, vocabulary, story structure, to develop their visual literacy as they look at images, but also their understanding of story, and there are many awards that recognize art in children's literature like the Caldecott award, for example, that help us select the best of the best, and let's not forget to share some of these simple books with older kids too, middle school and high school students, because the art is still art, and the creation of a book using text and art is something that they can appreciate even more.

Activities

Teaching with Wordless Picture Books

Context:

Following a brief historical background, this lesson provides examples of types of picture books, generally 32-page books which tell a story or present information through words and images. These examples include picture storybooks, wordless books, predictable picture books, alphabet and counting books, concept books, engineered or pop-up books, board books and easy readers. All of these types can be integrated into curriculum in the school library or classroom.

Instructions:

Read a selection of wordless picture books. See Resources below for some suggestions to add to the titles listed in the workshop. Choose a grade level or instructional group, such as English Language Learners, for which to design a lesson around wordless picture books. Using Lesson 2's suggestions as a jumping-off point, create a lesson plan for a wordless picture book. Keep in mind that a range of grade levels and levels can read and enjoy these books!

Resources:

Bird, Elizabeth. "Wordless Picture Books: A List." School Library Journal. http://blogs.slj.com/afuse8production/2017/04/28/wordless-picture-books-a-list/#_ (accessed July 22, 2017).

Levin, Vanessa. "Jim Trelease: Wordless Picture Books." Pre-K Pages. http://www.pre-kpages.com/jim-trelease-wordless-picture-books/ (accessed July 22, 2017).

Reading Rockets. "Our Favorite Wordless Picture Books." http://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/our-favorite-wordless-picture-books (accessed July 22, 2017).

Entry ID: 2122869

About the Author

Sylvia Vardell is Professor Emerita of literature for children and young adults in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman's University. She has authored or co-authored more than 100 published articles, more than 25 book chapters and given more than 150 presentations at national and international conferences. She is the author of Children's Literature in Action: A Librarian's Guide, Poetry Aloud Here!, The Poetry Teacher's Book of Lists, Poetry People, and co-edits many poetry anthologies for young people with collaborator and poet Janet Wong.

Select Citation Style:

MLA Citation

Vardell, Sylvia M. "Children's Literature Basics. Picture Books [6:30]." School Library Connection, ABC-CLIO, September 2015, schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1960207?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902.

Chicago Citation

Vardell, Sylvia M. "Children's Literature Basics. Picture Books [6:30]." School Library Connection video. September 2015. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1960207?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902.

APA Citation

Vardell, S. M. (2015, September). Children's literature basics. Picture books [6:30] [Video]. School Library Connection. https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1960207?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902

https://schoollibraryconnection.com/content/course/1960207?learningModuleId=1960216&topicCenterId=2247902

Entry ID: 1960207