This week at the State Library you can preview new titles in children’s and teen fiction and nonfiction. Some of the books on display include picture books, which represent a shrinking percentage of the children’s book publishing market. Librarians around the country lament this trend, and many factors exist for the increasingly fewer picture books being published. Are picture books just too expensive to produce? Are parents by-passing this format in their quest to get their children to read more “advanced” books? Are parents simply unwilling to spend time reading with their children?
After all, picture books, despite their “easy” classification, are really not meant for children to read independently. Many picture books involve complex words and ideas; picture book illustrations help children to make inferences or to experience parallel stories alongside the text. Picture books are meant for adults to read aloud with children. In fact, one of the most important benefits of picture books is the shared experience of adult and child. Picture books help adults introduce a world of language, ideas, and values to children. Research continues to point out the importance of reading aloud to young children in terms of developing early literacy skills and building reading readiness and proficiency.
Will electronic picture books such as those available online through subscription services such as Tumblebooks, or those available on e-reader devices, help re-engage parents’ interest in picture books? Will the interactive features of e-books help entice chidren to listen to more books, help develop better vocabulary and increase comprehension? Or, will e-readers reduce picture books to entertainment–another way to keep a child occupied while an adult gives her attention elsewhere? I eagerly await more research about this topic. Lisa Guernsey’s “Are Ebooks Any Good?” in the June 2011 issue of SLJ concludes that more research is needed, but she cautions that we cannot lump all ereaders together and that some may meet the needs of some students better than others. Her article mainly addresses the school setting and the emergent reader, rather than the pre-school set who traditionally experience a picture book as print.
I think the key is that picture books, whether they are in print or in electronic format, should be of the highest quality and should be at the center of a young child’s literary environment. We need to demand more high quality picture books, not fewer. Excellent picture books offer a story in which text and illustrations complement and support one another. They allow a child to imagine, question, draw conclusions and spark a dialogue with the adult reader. Most of all, let’s encourage parents, caregivers and other adults to read aloud often to and with children–giving the activity their full attention.