Monday, March 29, 2010

How do you choose a picture book?

When choosing books for your child, take their age and reading capacity into consideration. For pre-readers, choose books that have bold, vivid, and colorful illustrations of everyday objects. For beginners, choose books with simple storylines and illustrations that closely match what is going on in the story.  For independent readers, choose books where the illustrations tell a story of their own in fiction, or where they provide information of their own in non-fiction. 

Source: RIF.


Do read these informative articles on children's picture books:

Save the Picture Book at Book Brunch

6 comments:

  1. Before I started reading to my daughter, I assumed that babies would love very colorful, bright illustrations, but found that for the first few months or so - my daughter preferred simple picture books with crisp images - especially books that had a single, bold image against a white background. The best examples of this for us were the books in The Elephant and Pig series. She loved them as a baby( <4-5 months). Then, she gradually developed a taste for more intricate images and stories. The other element babies seem to like especially as they develop their motor skills is interactivity - any kind of touch and feel experience, pop-up pages, texture etc - The Very Hungry Caterpillar and his pal, the Very Busy Spider are great examples. Even before she was interested in the words, my daughter loved putting her finger in the holes or feeling the raised spider web...also books with mirrors seem to be favorites. Thanks for this interesting post. Who knew there was so much to choosing kids' books!

    My take on selecting books for babies -
    http://babylovesbooks.com/2009/07/30/best-baby-books-what-to-look-for/

    A Reading Consultant shares her views - http://babylovesbooks.com/2010/03/22/picking-the-right-childrens-books-and-other-reading-tips/

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  2. I let my children choose their books these days :)

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  3. http://itchingtowriteblogs.blogspot.com/2010/04/lizards-tale-err-tail.html
    posted a review of your lovely book

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  4. Rupa@babylovesbooks:

    Thanks for your comment. The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a perfect example of really simple illustrations that are a surefire hit with all kids! Thanks for the links to your blog. Really useful!

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  5. ChoxBox,

    Yup, they're the best judges!

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  6. itchingtowrite,

    Thanks for this. Love the review! Yay! :-)

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