Learning About Picture Books!

Picture books are important because of how readers interact with them, especially the read-aloud experience. The magic begins when a child or grown-up reader opens up the book.  Picture books represent a unique literary form that blends stories with art. In a picture book, the illustrations are as important as the text, and both work together to tell the story.  Pictures enable children to explore the world within their own imagination and make connections to characters and events they see depicted in books. When you help children connect with characters and events, you make the book more real to them.Picture books introduce children to the concept of reading, even if they can't read yet, and strengthen visual thinking skills! 

      Picture books also help children connect what they observe with how they reason, linking concepts with words.  Picture books introduce children to a love of art in a way that just taking a child to an art gallery can't achieve. The illustrations aren't mere decoration to the text. They enhance the story and emotions. The context encourages a child to go back to different pictures over and over, noticing new things, reading characters' emotions and interactions, possible secondary subplots that are told only in the pictures.

Here are a few of my favorite picture books....

Here is a link to Dr. Smirnova's wonderful powerpoint on picturebooks:
https://docs.google.com/a/my.msmc.edu/presentation/d/1AnZNAxdurQUgyQcGLNQPY1yAbSwJwQSAUIBmxPbrKq8/present?slide=id.p15