What I’m discovering is that in the race to achieve, parents are encouraging their children to read more text, more chapter books and leave picture books behind. If I were in their shoes, maybe I would, too. But after reading an article by Julie Bosman, “Picture Books No Longer a Staple for Children” I’m not so sure. Ms. Bosmas says,
“They’re 4 years old, and their parents are getting them ‘Stuart Little,’ ” said Dara La Porte, the manager of the children’s department at the Politics and Prose bookstore in Washington. “I see children pick up picture books, and then the parents say, ‘You can do better than this, you can do more than this.’ It’s a terrible pressure parents are feeling — that somehow, I shouldn’t let my child have this picture book because she won’t get into Harvard.”
But is that really such a good approach?! When reading together, a picture is a chance to pause, discuss the details, what a picture conveys, and to talk about the plot and the issues of the story. It’s an opportunity to ask some open-ended questions, like “What do you think about….?” and “What would you do if….?”
“Some of the vocabulary in a picture book is much more challenging than in a chapter book,” said Kris Vreeland, a book buyer for Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena, Calif., where sales of picture books have been down. “The words themselves, and the concepts, can be very sophisticated in a picture book.”
Some children like picture books because they’re easier to read. Shouldn’t reading be fun? Thoughtful? Interactive? Comfortable? As grandparents, couldn’t we compensate by discussing them with adult vocabulary?
Other children are drawn to the chapter books, and parents encourage it:
“Young adult fiction has been universally the growing genre,” said Ms. Lotz of Candlewick, “and so as retailers adapt to what customers are buying, they are giving more space to that and less space to picture books.”
Do you read with your grandchildren? What do you read? How do you read with them? What about picture books vs. chapter books? (As producers of printed material, this is ultimately important to Goodcopy!)
Tell me what you think!
I am also a proponent of picture books and love your encouragement of this incredible art and literature form. My son is 8 an still enjoys a good picture book.
ReplyDeleteHi Ann: Thanks for commenting. The Dick and Jane book has been my grandchildrens' favorite and most read book.
ReplyDeleteEdie Goldberg