A disheartening article in The New York Times yesterday, "Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children," has me a bit riled up. Why are picture books in peril? Parents are pushing their children toward chapter books sooner so publishers are responding by producing fewer picture books. It's perfectly natural to encourage your child to try reading at what you might consider a higher level, but that's where the confusion lies: picture books aren't necessarily easier and chapter books aren't necessarily harder or...better
Sure, your 4-year-old is way past The Very Hungry Caterpillar, but there is a whole world of picture books geared toward children on the cusp of picture and chapter books and children should straddle these formats for a few years. Many picture books are quite sophisticated and usually have higher-level vocabulary than early chapter books. The words and images interact to support each other and produce a pleasurable reading experience that helps build lifelong readers.
Here's a link to the Times article by Julie Bosman and a quote from Dora La Porte, the children's department manager of a book store: “I see children pick up picture books, and then the parents say, ‘You can do better than this, you can do more than this.’ It’s a terrible pressure parents are feeling — that somehow, I shouldn’t let my child have this picture book because she won’t get into Harvard.”
Chapter books are wonderful and it's exciting to see your child working through one by him or herself. But if you're at the library or a bookstore with your child this weekend, please take a picture book home with you!
Not sure which picture books will best engage an older child? Here are some resources to help:
• Booklist - Picture Books for Older Readers
• Never Too Old: Picture Books to Share with Older Children and Teens
• Sophisticated Picture Books
• Picture Books for Older Readers Wiki
• Teach with Picture Books Blog
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"The Three Questions" by Jon J. Muth is one of the most beautiful picture books ever and the content far outdoes any "Captain Underpants" or "Junie B. Jones" chapter book by far. And that's just one example...I could go on and on.
This is terribly, terribly disheartening. I'm a huge fan of picture books for all ages and I find it disturbing that there is a such a push for chapter books. Unfortunately, just because a child can read a chapter book (or be read to) doesn't mean that they fully understand and appreciate it. If you read a book too early you risk the child missing out on all the layering of the story and the details that truly make the story.
When I was teaching some of our best discussions and lessons were based around picture books. I now use them with my own children all the time and can't imagine being without them!
I love children's picture books. The quality of writing and illustration in many of them exceeds some of the more commercial "chapter" books. We have more books in our house than our child would ever need, but I never feel guilty about buying more books for our daughter. She loves reading and we love the together time we get as a family cuddled up with books.
Picture books are for EVERYONE. They are the introduction and constant through literature - the cradle of appreciation for literature and art! There's no Eric Carle Museum of Chapter Book Art, full of Judy Moody and Magic Tree House is there? Nope. Picture books are an art form - true beauty. I know parents who stress chapter books, too. It's sad. The kids want the picture books, man! I say this as a former Children's Library Ass't AND a children's book author. UGH this makes me so mad!
Give children some Van Allsburg, some Steig, some Ungerer! There's some dark and brooding and thought provoking stuff in there. Or start with the Caldecott winners - they don't have any Magic Tree House bs in there.
We do have some classic early readers like the wonderful Frog and Toad but most of them are far less interesting than a more sophisticated picture book.
We are really lucky to have access to a terrific public library and independent bookstore both. A well trained children's librarian will help you find engaging picture books with rich language. Three cheers for the excellent assistance at Beverly Hills Public Library. We also have a dedicated bookstore, Children's Book World, in Los Angeles, that is a treasure.
There is no lack of engaging material for the older or mature reader.
My daughter is almost 7 and is a fan of a lot of chapter books. We have so much fun reading Ramona and All-of-A-Kind Family and others. And I enjoy her reading Junie B. to me. With all our reading of chapter books, I had almost forgotten how much kids her age truly enjoy picture books until I started reading in her classroom.
Thanks for posting the book lists! They are great. One I saw mentioned Boxes for Katje is a favorite of my daughter. It deals with the hardships after the Second World War. Hard topics addressed in a gentle way.
I read the NY Times piece too, and was profoundly disheartened. Sure, there is an aspect of cost (even I don't buy nearly as many picture books as I want to or plan to due to budget restrictions), but it is primarily an issue of parents erroneously believing that by steering children into chapter books they will be improving reading skills... I was upset to read about the little boy whose parents had steered him into chapter books at age 4! Well, of course he is a reluctant reader at age 6 1/2... I actually have friends now who quietly boast about how their child is reading chapter books; something new to me.
My 7 year old daughter is a good reader, and is only now really starting chapter books (she reads in both English and French, and now German). While she reads them well, I can see that she still engages more with picture books and that frankly, the picture books are more sophisticated, both in terms of concepts and vocabulary. So I am pulling back a bit on the chapter books...
We have a few friends who are educators who I have turned to for recommendations. For example, I am friends with my 5th grade teacher, and he put together a great book blog for his classes, which he has left up since his retirement, and so I have great ideas from him. And yes, he still recommends good picture books, at even "older" ages.
The culture that I come from actually celebrates picture books and the art of illustration. The best ones are collected by adults, and are often turned into a series of short 5 -7 minute illustrated stories broadcast on a national daily bedtime show for children. Wish we did that here too.
From what I have seen, a good illustrator can open a world to children that they themselves could never have imagined, and that can only improve their reading ability and their long-term enthusiasm for books, not to mention their education in art and design. I personally see picture books (and well-designed toys) as a means of influencing my childrens' appreciation for good design as well as their style of drawing. It seems to be working...
I read that article the other day and wonder where they find these people. I don't know anyone that parents like that.
I love picture books. I buy kids books based on how good the illustrations are.
And as an illustrator, I sometimes wish I had been born a couple decades earlier. It's so hard when magazines are crashing, novels use stock photos for covers and now they're selling less picture books? It's so disheartening that there is less appreciation for beautiful art in our everyday lives.