May 19, 2012 By Maria
I love picture books. I have many fond childhood memories that revolve around picture books and being read to by my parents. Those stories became a huge part of my imaginative canvas as a child and I see the same thing happening in my kids. Picture books are such a great source of storytelling, art and information, including nonfiction picture books. As I grew older, I continued to check picture books out of the library as a teen and even as a college student. Susan, one of the librarians, started to recognize my interlibrary holds by the books I would select. I loved, and still do, feasting my eyes on the artwork and visual storytelling. Of course I continue to read and borrow picture books from the library, but now I read them to my kids. Sometimes, I do sit down after my kids are in bed for the night and pour over a stack of picture books. . . especially those new ones from the library. Through careful searching and checking library sales, I have slowly but surely curated a still growing and changing home library of children’s literature and picture books that my kids enjoy. We also always borrow a large stack of books from the library. Yes, I am that person. You know, the one who holds up the line at the circulation desk slowly feeding an enormous amount of books through the new covid safety plastic partition. I’m still not sure if the librarians are happy or annoyed when I approach the desk with my towering pile of books. They usually smile so I take that as a good sign.
Maybe you’re wondering why invest so much time, and library runs, into picture books? The simple answer is the artwork. Picture book artwork varies from exquisitely detailed and beautifully rendered to delightfully humorous and thoughtfully simple. Think about it, picture books prevail as children’s most frequent exposure to art. The artwork in those books is very important. Look at the detail and visual storytelling in Jan Brett’s illustrations and the extensive amount of work put into producing a graphic novel like Ben Hatke’s Little Robot which relies heavily on art to tell the story. A picture book relies on the artwork; the illustrations share the little details and emotions the text leaves out. My kids very quickly pick up on these small details and laugh with delight at the humor an illustrator indicates or form their own understandings and observations by looking at the pictures. Children, and adults, learn empathy through reading. For my kids the illustrations really help with that. Also children, especially younger children, have an easier time following stories if there are pictures to look at too. Sometimes they struggle when only listening with their ears because they do not have the same range of mental imagery that an older child or an adult may have. In a podcast interview from Sarah Mackenzie’s Read Aloud Revival site, I learned that in MRI studies the brains of children listening to a story with pictures operate optimally versus when just listening to a story with ears alone or watching an animation. See, I’m onto something, picture books are important and an illustrator’s work should not be dismissed.
Since this post is about the importance of picture books and my personal warmth towards them, I decided to share a favorite picture book and author with you. I went to the bookshelf and attempted to collect a few favorite picture books to choose from and realized my stack was becoming heavy and contained close to twenty books. . .and I still wanted to add more! With hard decision making, I narrowed it down to one.
A book I have enjoyed since childhood is The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. I chose Beatrix Potter even though I am sure almost every reader here has already come across her charming, but naughty, vegetable stealing rabbits. Her books may feel a bit archaic in this day and age, but they are universally understood by children. Learning as an adult about Beatrix Potter’s life and how she wanted her books to be small so that children could easily hold them and the pricing to be low so that families could afford them, makes her and her delightfully tiny books even more dear. Beatrix Potter’s illustrations are beautiful! Her animals may be dressed in waistcoats and frocks, but they are real animals. When we read Peter Rabbit my daughter expresses concern about Peter being caught by Mr. McGregor and my son listens with wide eyes. Even though they know the story very well, they love traveling through the pages together and telling me that Peter is “not being a good listener.” Once during a silent point at church, my oldest who was around two years old at the time and very into Peter Rabbit, loudly yelled Mr. McGregor’s line, “STOP THIEF!” It was simultaneously hilarious and utterly embarrassing. I still think of that moment every time we read that part of the story. We have been adventuring through Beatrix Potter’s books for some time and there are still a few even I haven’t read yet. If you already know the popular characters, try one of her lesser known stories and enjoy! Beatrix Potter remains a personal favorite and an inspirational woman in the field of children’s literature and botanical art.
Hopefully, you have been inspired to add some picture books to your library load this week. Don’t be afraid to show up at the library with two tote bags. . .or maybe even a crate. Try starting with a favorite author or illustrator and check out some of their books you haven’t read yet or search for a few Beatrix Potter books. Explore the picture book section. The significance of picture books remains the most important thing I hope you take away from this post. Picture books, besides great sources of literature and fun, are also great learning resources. My kids and I enjoy reading and learning together from picture book stories and biographies, science books and more. I look forward to delving deeper and sharing other favorites at a later time. Happy Reading!
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More Bookshelves Please 
Great post. I remember many library trips with armfuls of picture books. As a grandmother I still love to peruse the children’s picture books section and take books out – for my grandchildren and especially for me.
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