This article from Pamela Paul, the co-author of How to Raise a Reader an indispensable guide to welcoming children to a lifelong love of reading, may as well be my store's manifesto. Though your children may be able to read chapter books already, there is still a richness of reading pleasure and depth available for them in picture books. Adults can also find much for them in picture books, even as those "picture books" morph into art books for the coffee table, or cookbooks with gorgeous photographs.
"First, appreciate what picture books, the real wizards of the literary world, do. With remarkable economy, they excel at the twin arts of visual and textual storytelling. Anyone who has ever read a picture book to a child has witnessed this magic firsthand. You’ll be reading along aloud and the child will laugh, not at anything you’ve read but at something she has read in the pictures. While you are reading one story, told in words, she is reading another, told through art. The illustrator doesn’t merely reflect the words on the page; she creates an entire narrative of her own, adding details, creating secondary story lines.
Think of that mouse making its way around the bedroom in “Goodnight Moon” or the buildings constructed out of household goods inside the dreamscape of “In the Night Kitchen.” These elements tell another story, and even kids who haven’t mastered the alphabet can read them, gleaning from the sequence of images how one event leads to another, discovering subplots within. This is why kids tell you not to turn the page yet, or to go back; it’s why they ask for the story to be read over and over again. They learn that you have to look closely to ferret out clues and derive meaning. They are also learning to read deeply."
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"I still read picture books, and if you’re honest with yourself, in all likelihood, so do you. What are all those manga and graphic novels and pricey coffee-table books and online comics we’re all staring at — not to mention Instagram stories and TikTok videos — if not, in essence, picture books for grown-ups? Stories with pictures."
Don't miss Pamela Paul 's debut picture book, Rectangle Time with illustrations by Becky Cameron. Signed copies available!
