Picture books are for babies? Somehow we are led to believe that the more a child is able to read, the less pictures there should be in the book…
But do you appreciate and look at the illustration on the front of a book? Do your children? Of course they do! Visual imagery is really important and I feel it is such a shame that illustrations generally disappear from children’s books soon after they get into chapter books.
This post is to encourage you to re-consider picture books – ones with appropriately mature stories or themes – with your older children. In particular, if you are able to read or talk with them about the book.
Why picture books?
Some children find more joy in illustrations than in text. Let them enjoy them! They may be a budding artist in the making, or they may simply appreciate illustration.
However, if you also allow time to absorb the pictures and discuss them, you will find a new way into the story or theme. Plus, you can enrich their linguistic skills by using interesting language yourself and prompting them to think critically about the picture.
Illustrations can also be a useful way in to discovering whether a child understands what they have read. Asking them to connect the text to the picture – discovering where the illustrator has drawn on the text and where they have developed their own ideas – can show their comprehension skills. In reverse, asking a child to draw a picture based on a text can also draw out their comprehension skills! See the post on reading for meaning for more discussion on this topic.
Finally, some children will find a discussion about the illustration (which will, of course, be a discussion about the text to a degree) much less ‘heavy’ than what they perceive as comprehension questions on the text. You can still delve into the theme and meaning of the text, via the illustrations.
What to ask
- Why has the illustrator added that particular picture?
- What does the illustrator want us to think about at this point in the story?
- How does the word or text link to the picture?
- Would you have drawn a different illustration and if so, why? (drawing out what they feel is the important bit of the book at that point)
- Do you think the illustrator has used their imagination a great deal or really drawn as much as possible from the words?
How to find picture books for older children
It is true that picture books for older children can be hard to find and expensive to buy. They are often the hard-back or presentation versions.
So it is definitely worth looking in charity shops – particularly charity shops specialising in books – for real bargains. Hard back illustrated books can be relatively fantastic value and are often in great condition. The Red Cross, Oxfam (Guildford and Cranleigh in Surrey are great) and Amnesty are major charities which have several specialist bookshops.
Of course you can go online, though it can be harder to work out whether the book you are buying has illustrations in it. Filters don’t seem to often allow for this…
So f you want some inspiration for titles, try looking at these blog posts (links here to year 6 but there are other year groups on the same site)
You will also find that the ‘gift’ section of major bookshops has an array of beautifully illustrated books which you can buy – or you can use as inspiration for a second-hand online search
Just take a look at Michael Morpurgo’s book “Arthur” or Jesse Burton’s Restless Girls if you are in any doubt that illustrated tales are only for younger children…
