Reading Picture Books with Children

An Interesting Book With Wide Appeal

For a committed academic I guess this book could qualify as a technical monograph. For a student of early childhood education or children's literature or maybe library science I could see this book being required reading on almost any syllabus. But the best part is that for the enthusiast, parent, home schooler, or just general reader this book is loaded with thought provoking ideas about what books are and how they could be or should be introduced to early readers. I'm in the latter camp and found much of value here.

The author's thesis, basically, is that picture books are created things and that their "thingness" is an important, perhaps essential, element of their enduring appeal. They are made as much as sculpture is made; they are art as much as paintings are art; they are physical objects and created objects, and follow or depart from settled rules, styles and approaches. Text, art and design all come together in a children's picture book and Megan Lambert's argument is that the "whole book" should be presented to the child.

This volume has an engaging charm that flows from the sense that its writing was in some measure a labor of love. It is neither insistent nor authoritarian, presenting itself rather as an invitation to consider and appreciate a new way of looking at picture books. It allows the reader, assuming that reader reads to kids, to draw inspiration and insight as the reader may be inclined. I found myself skimming parts of the book, but I don't mean that to be a criticism. Since the author is in part making an argument to her academic audience she has to be thorough, but I am no part of that argument. I'm just an interested bystander. As such I was free to draw what insight I would from the book.

What did I learn? Mostly, I will pay more attention to the pictures in picture books, (and pay more attention to endpapers, jacket design, embossed covers, orientation and font choices). I will direct my kids' attention to the art of the books we're reading. I will make more of a point of showing kids what a book is and how it is made and how it works. That may sound rather obvious, but this book suggests interesting ways to have fun with that insight, and is a worthy contribution to the field.

As I say, while this is partly aimed at an academic audience it does not stint on helpful tips about adopting a "Whole Book Approach" to suit your own purposes. There is an extensive Frequently Asked Questions segment and a lengthy list of conversation-starters tied to each chapter topic, and those two tools seem like they would be particularly helpful for a new teacher/parent/reader.

So, a happy, interesting and inspirational find. (Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Full of examples. i will definately be purchasing for the library and myself to keep as a professional resource.

A great resource for preschool and early elementary teachers as well as librarians Great for use in universities to explain the picture book.

I think this book will be a good professional development resource for librarians and teachers. The Whole Book Approach, which is advocated in this book looks at how the book is arranged as well as the story and pictures. It gives librarians and teachers a good set of resources in which to discuss picture books in a wide variety of ways with children. I know that it made me look at picture books in a whole new way! I received this book free to review from Netgalley.