Chapter 7

I've always loved me some picture books! I'm a visual learner, what can I say? Picture books define a wonderful relationship between literature and art. Another reason I always enjoyed picture books is because they eliminate one step in comprehending- trying to "picture" the story in your head. Instead, the illustrated story is right in front of you. Sometimes, being limited to a selection of genres was the reason I didn't enjoy reading. In this case, picture books came to the rescue because picture books are not a type of genre, but a form rather. Picture books can be extremely beneficial to students because they offer so much. The text doesn't have to be read to understand the gist of the story. Think-alouds through walk-throughs really get the children thinking and trying to make text-to-text or text-to-self connections. When they can make that connection, they enjoy learning more and participate more often. I love that there are several different types of art that can go into picture books. To put it simple, picture books are like a box of chocolates because you never know what they'll look like inside- that's what makes them so interesting. When I briefly skim through a picture book, my level of anticipation goes up a notch because now I feel I must read it. I enjoy the wordless picture books because the reader's opinion is definitely the only one that matters. If there isn't any text or very little text, then what the reader thinks cannot be wrong. There must be a variety of picture books within the classroom because these are extremely popular with children. We can teach writing through picture books.