Don't let anyone tell you picture books are 'easy'. Before I spoke to Jeff Smith for our TVOParents Book Club on graphic novels I read some of his BONE series of graphic novels, and let me tell you, I had to concentrate. Some parts had a few words, some had none at all, so I was forced to deduce what was happening from the illustrations. I actually had to 're-read' (is that the right word when you're looking at pictures?) some of the pages.
Not only do picture books tell a story with few or no words - they're full of detail, and kids love detail. When I was a kid I loved these little story books that had borders of tiny pictures around the edge of every page - extra details to peruse. And that's what I loved about Jan Brett's books, which I read to my kids. She's written many books - The Mitten, The Hat, Berlioz the Bear - and they all have these lovely detailed drawings around the edges of every page, giving you clues as to what will happen next.
So what do kids learn from picture books? Our TVOParents Book Club guests, Barbara Reid, Sheila Barry and Patricia Storms, had a lot to say about that, and they should know. Barbara is a plasticine artist and author of The Party and Picture a Tree, among many others. Sheila is co-publisher of Groundwood Books and Patricia Storms is an illustrator and author of The Pirate and the Penguin. Picture books are fun and they teach a child early reading concepts, like left to right, top to bottom. They also encourage observation and deduction. (Speaking of observation, a big hit with my kids was the Where's Waldo series of books. How many hours I spent looking closely at every little detail trying to find that guy.) My son also loved Stephen Biesty's Cross Section books, and David Macaulay's The Way Things Work, all of them very heavy on illustration. I'm pretty sure they helped him become the creative problem solver he is today. Our guests also said pictures often create a second or opposing story line to the text, which adds yet another layer to the learning.
That's just a bit of what they said. Here's the whole conversation:
Near the end of the discussion Barbara, Sheila and Patricia recommend their favourite illustrated kids' book. They're all gorgeous, and of course I mean the books and the guests.
