The power of picture books

In September 2024, the National Library published a blog post titled 'The power of picture books', available here. Excerpts from the blog post follow:

At the Library, we love all books, but picture books have a special place in our hearts. ...

“Reading a book of pictures is still reading,” says a child quoted in A Book Is a Book by Jenny Bornholdt and Sarah Wilkins. It is one of the many wise ideas in this book based on interviews with children.

Reading pictures is the first reading we do.

Even the youngest babies look, absorb and follow the illustrations as the pages turn. In the illustrations, we recognise and start to name, we feel and see more than we can yet name. Illustrations are first and equal to the words in telling stories and creating readers.

Wordless picture books
There will be no debate here about how important it is to create lifelong readers. But book buyers and parents are still nervous about wordless books — showing that many don’t yet realise how illustrations also develop literacy.
The results of one study about how teachers and children collaborate when sharing silent books were shared by children’s literacy researcher Elaine Reese (University of Otago):
“Compared to the reading of a traditional texted picture book, children talked more and used more diverse vocabulary during the wordless picture book.”

Picture books with words
In a picture book with words, the illustrations are also free to tell a subtly different story — surely adding to the reading pleasure! German children’s author and illustrator Antje Damm has said:
“Picture and text can contradict, complement, enrich or even disturb in their relationship to each other. Both can tell their own stories.”