The Magic of Picture Books
We talk a lot about why you should read with your kids around here. From an early literacy standpoint, it's perhaps the most highly effective tool in your belt. Reading together teaches kids how stories work, how to use books, and best of all, to love reading. But all of that good, scholarly, study-based stuff, fantastic as it is, captures the true magic of sharing a picture book with a child, for it is so much more than that.
I was really delighted to find that sense of wonder so perfectly captured by none other than Britain's children's laureate, Julia Donaldson in an article in the Guardian. Picture books were not really a feature of her own childhood, so it was not until she became a mother herself, she says, that she discovered all there is to be found in those broad, slim volumes we love so much.
Not only are there picture books on every theme, from seasons to stars to sing-along songs, but they encompass every emotion, allowing children to find humour and identify with sadness and talk about anger in a way that gets them in touch with thsoe feelings, and is a wonderful opener for talking about them, something we are always telling children to do. Use your words! is a constant refrain.
There are also wonderful characters and entire worlds in picture books that give children access both to other children similar to themselves and to things they wouldn't see in the every day. They become a shared language among the readers of that book, allowing paren'ts and children to refer to it as a sort of shorthand or example, an enrichment of their communication. (It is also exactly why we recommend books about special situations, so that they can be used to give them some familiairty in advance of, say, a dentist visit or trip on an airplane, and that story can be a touchstone during the journey.)
And of course, there are those stroies that become favourites. The ones you read until the pages are soft and you can recite entire passages while the book remains at home on the shelf. The one whose characters become so familiar, they are tattooed on your mind like true friends. What better magic is there than that, to find a book has become so much a part of yourself that it feels like home to you.
One thought on “The Magic of Picture Books”
Lovely writing here, Alice. I especially like how picture books allow little ones to get in touch with their emotions. When my daughter was young, she loved William Steig’s SPINKY SULKS. It really spoke to her!