Today is Picture Book Wednesday and I wanted to share an interesting blog post from the Literacy, families and learning blog. The post was called Why Older Readers Should Read Picture Books. It’s a great exploration of the importance of picture books.
One thing I wanted to add to the discussion was that most picture books are not written with the idea that they will be read by the child (though that often happens). They are meant to be a shared experience between an older reader (parent, grandparent, caregiver, etc) and a child, with the child engaging in the story through listening (to the sound and rhythm of the words) and looking (at the illustrations to discover even more about the story). This experience is vital for the development of pre-literacy skills in the very young child. That said, picture books can and should also be enjoyed by children who can already read and this post provided excellent reasons for that.
What are your thoughts on where the picture book fits in a child’s world – for enjoyment, pre-literacy learning, and active reading skills?
