Growing a Reader: Kids' Books, Tips and More

  

I adore the Knuffle Bunny series by Children's author Mo Willems. The way in which Willems fuses photography and illustration is a great imaginative prod. Yeah sure the characters are great, and the story is heart-warming, entertaining, and instructive, but it's the illustrations that really make the books stand out for me.

When teaching children how to read, we're often urged to choose books which prominently feature recognizable objects from kids everyday lives. Hence the popularity of the classic children's book Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. Children first gain an awareness of their physical environment and then later come to recognize that reality through a print environment. Willems' fusion of illustration and real life photography in the Knuffle Bunny trilogy is a great technique to help ease this transition along.