Picture Books: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Many of us have heard this common phrase. Its origin has different versions, and The Phrase Finder gives a succinct description of the history of the phrase.

 “Before they read words, children are reading pictures.” 
― David Wiesner, Free Fall

The reason I started with this quote is that I thought this month we could discuss the power of picture books. I love picture books, which is why I like writing them. I read books to my son at bedtime, we would look at the pictures, and the pictures helped in developing his reading strategies at a young age. Picture books are a great way to introduce reading strategies to preschool children. Anna G. has written a blog with great ideas on how to teach reading strategies using picture books.

 “I do so hate finishing books, I would like to go on with them for years”
― Beatrix Potter, 1905

Reading aloud/reading together can benefit children’s language skills. Speech pathologist, Rebecca Eisenberg, has written a great post on 5 Ways to Use Picture Books to Build Kids’ Language Skills.

“As adults, we’ve seen so much before that we often turn the pages of a picture book without really looking. Young children tend to look more carefully.”

― Anthony Brown

Information books are also a great source of learning. My wife often says that her knowledge of history comes from children’s informational books. Many fiction books provide their readers with life lessons. There is also a vast array of non-fiction children’s books that give the reader the chance to research and find answers to their questions while developing even more questions.

Jamie wrote a great post on the art of a simple blog about 10 picture books that teach important life lessons.

An informative post by Kimberley Moran provides a list of 50 Nonfiction Picture Books for Learning about the World. Moran provides a brief summary of each book to help you decide if the book will fill your needs or allow your child to read about a topic of interest.

Tell me about your favorite children’s information book in the comments. I love reading about the book experiences of others.

Enjoy your reading journey!