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I'd been meaning to follow up on one of the points I made in one of my Electronic Media Series Posts (and this is part one and part three of the series, for more details). I was going to make it primarily personal examples of my children at play, but bolstered up with more general, broad, universal statements about picture books in general (and yes, I DID ramble about the awesomeness of picture books before, too).
Well, I just read a lovely article from Horn Book called "Why We're Still In Love With Picture Books (Even Though They're Supposed to be Dead)," which says everything I was going to say in that General Broad Universal Statement part, anyway. So today I suppose I will, then, just add on my own personal observations. So, technically, that article is the first part of this post. Go read it now. It's all right, it's short, I'll be waiting here for you, I promise.
Read it? Good. Alrighty then.
So it's all true: a picture book is a unique experience in and of itself, and kids LOVE it. We're not saying they DON'T love things with bells and whistles, too. My kids fight over their new Mickey Mouse computer and the Leapster toys. But they're just as likely to grab a book and STUDY it.
One of their new favorite things is Look and Find Books. This series has seemed to spring up all over the place in the past year (ie, even during the electronic age). I know they're hardly the works of art-type picture books I'd been talking about, but they ARE something CLEARLY developed for this particular media: a still picture, to study and stare at and memorize. And as the authors of the above article say, kids are awesome at reading pictures. I thought I would have trouble explaining the concept of the Look and Find to Sam, but even Maddie picked it up immediately, shouting one of her favorite phrases, "There it IS!" at every frequent discovery. And, perhaps just as tellingly, discovering the SAME pictures over and over quite cheerfully!
Maddie in particular is a very visually-oriented person, which may be why she has latched on to books so passionately. She makes observations about color and shape that are JUST NOT NORMAL for a two-year-old. When she looks at a picture, she LOOKS at it. She picks out her favorite details and points them out over and over on every reading. Our favorite book from the library-pile-before-last was Who Made This Cake by Chihiro Nakagawa, (and, more relevantly, ILLUSTRATED by Junji Koyose), which is overrun by hundreds of tiny people driving construction vehicles so as to bake and decorate a birthday cake. There is a LOT to see on every page. On one page the people are icing the cake with whipped cream, and among the many things happening, one of the little people has gotten nailed by a stray dollop of whipped cream and is struggling to get up with the aid of some friends. EVERY time we got to that page, Maddie would point right to that little person and yell, "OH NO WHAT HAPPEN?!" She looked forward to it.
Then other times she'll get even more interactive. She has a real problem with the "o" being "twisted alley-oop" in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. No sooner do I mention the "o" than she flips hastily to the back endpapers, points at the properly Untwisted "o," and gives a relieved "There it IS!" She knows that book inside and out, and its unchanging dependability is part of why she loves it. Over and over again.
The kids like the details in the pictures. They like to point them out and ask questions. Our current library pile has my own favorite from last year, Shark vs. Train, which both kids love to point their way through, demanding "What'd Shark say? What'd Train say? What'd HE say? What's that there?" This shouldn't be a surprise to me. When I was a kid, I loved the little details in picture books, too.
One of my very favorite books was Blueberries for Sal. I would study and study those pictures. My kids? Same thing. Maybe it's because they're both such blueberry fanatics to begin with, but no-- it's those pictures they really love. Common opinion would say kids wouldn't be INTERESTED in such pictures. They're in BLACK AND WHITE! They're not iconic or cartoonish! But they ARE highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings showing a frankly interesting scenario. There is a lot to look at in Blueberries for Sal, and it never gets old. Even for today's kids.
In short, picture books=endless visual stimulation, even when the pictures don't even move.
Well, I just read a lovely article from Horn Book called "Why We're Still In Love With Picture Books (Even Though They're Supposed to be Dead)," which says everything I was going to say in that General Broad Universal Statement part, anyway. So today I suppose I will, then, just add on my own personal observations. So, technically, that article is the first part of this post. Go read it now. It's all right, it's short, I'll be waiting here for you, I promise.
Read it? Good. Alrighty then.
So it's all true: a picture book is a unique experience in and of itself, and kids LOVE it. We're not saying they DON'T love things with bells and whistles, too. My kids fight over their new Mickey Mouse computer and the Leapster toys. But they're just as likely to grab a book and STUDY it.
One of their new favorite things is Look and Find Books. This series has seemed to spring up all over the place in the past year (ie, even during the electronic age). I know they're hardly the works of art-type picture books I'd been talking about, but they ARE something CLEARLY developed for this particular media: a still picture, to study and stare at and memorize. And as the authors of the above article say, kids are awesome at reading pictures. I thought I would have trouble explaining the concept of the Look and Find to Sam, but even Maddie picked it up immediately, shouting one of her favorite phrases, "There it IS!" at every frequent discovery. And, perhaps just as tellingly, discovering the SAME pictures over and over quite cheerfully!
Maddie in particular is a very visually-oriented person, which may be why she has latched on to books so passionately. She makes observations about color and shape that are JUST NOT NORMAL for a two-year-old. When she looks at a picture, she LOOKS at it. She picks out her favorite details and points them out over and over on every reading. Our favorite book from the library-pile-before-last was Who Made This Cake by Chihiro Nakagawa, (and, more relevantly, ILLUSTRATED by Junji Koyose), which is overrun by hundreds of tiny people driving construction vehicles so as to bake and decorate a birthday cake. There is a LOT to see on every page. On one page the people are icing the cake with whipped cream, and among the many things happening, one of the little people has gotten nailed by a stray dollop of whipped cream and is struggling to get up with the aid of some friends. EVERY time we got to that page, Maddie would point right to that little person and yell, "OH NO WHAT HAPPEN?!" She looked forward to it.
Then other times she'll get even more interactive. She has a real problem with the "o" being "twisted alley-oop" in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. No sooner do I mention the "o" than she flips hastily to the back endpapers, points at the properly Untwisted "o," and gives a relieved "There it IS!" She knows that book inside and out, and its unchanging dependability is part of why she loves it. Over and over again.
The kids like the details in the pictures. They like to point them out and ask questions. Our current library pile has my own favorite from last year, Shark vs. Train, which both kids love to point their way through, demanding "What'd Shark say? What'd Train say? What'd HE say? What's that there?" This shouldn't be a surprise to me. When I was a kid, I loved the little details in picture books, too.
One of my very favorite books was Blueberries for Sal. I would study and study those pictures. My kids? Same thing. Maybe it's because they're both such blueberry fanatics to begin with, but no-- it's those pictures they really love. Common opinion would say kids wouldn't be INTERESTED in such pictures. They're in BLACK AND WHITE! They're not iconic or cartoonish! But they ARE highly detailed pen-and-ink drawings showing a frankly interesting scenario. There is a lot to look at in Blueberries for Sal, and it never gets old. Even for today's kids.
In short, picture books=endless visual stimulation, even when the pictures don't even move.
