I am going to begin with a couple of quotes:
"Storybooks are our first social mirrors, helping us figure out who we are and where we fit into the world around us. They are also enticing windows through which we begin to discover diverse and imaginary spaces. To put it simply, picture books are really important."
"When you come to the end of a great picture book, you should feel satisfied by its conclusion. You will have found it entertaining or informative. ... You might even want to read the book again or jump back to the best bits. ... If you're sharing the book with a young reader, take plenty of time to talk about it. ... Whatever you do, never, ever, ever stop enjoying picture books, even when you are a grown-up."
I think this next statement may give you an idea about the intended purpose of The Grown-ups guide to Picture Books:
"as grown-ups we tend to think of picture books as simplistic stories, from which our readers should eventually move on towards lengthier, more worthy reading experiences. But did you know that picture book writing requires a range of specialised literary strategies to tell big stories (with the constraint of a limited number of words)."
Lara Cain Gray makes a very important point in her introduction, and it is one I desperately wish she had elaborated on:
"But like all art forms, not all picture books are great picture books."
Actually, this could also be written as 'not all picture books are great books'. This is a topic I would love to see expanded.
Before reading The Grown-up's guide to Picture Books, I decided to write my own A to Z about picture books. My list includes topics mentioned by Lara Cain Gray and some she does not discuss. I have more than one word for some letters. If I was refining this to try to fit the model used by Lara Cain Gray I would need to think more carefully about audience. Lots of reviewers and Lara Cain Gray herself envisage The Grown-up's guide to Picture Books as aimed at teachers and perhaps Teacher-Librarians and of course parents but perhaps this is too broad? And here is another question - so who are the 'grown-ups' from the title?
Here is my list:
But who is the audience? I am still unsure about this. I would hope that most Teacher-Librarians and public library staff know 'most of this stuff'. If the audience are teachers, rather than presenting them with this book straight away, I would begin with these excellent notes from the publisher (Midnight Sun). These could/should be used for staff professional development.
There are talking points on every page of The Grown-up's guide to Picture Books - I wonder if anyone has considered producing these as a one-page document for easy access. Again, these could be very useful for classroom teachers. I do worry that some parents (if they are the intended audience) might think reading a picture book has to turn into a comprehension lesson. It is certainly okay to chat about a book and think about your shared experience and hopefully make connection between the story and your life or between the story about other books you have read but it is not the role of a parent to 'teach' a picture book.
What's missing? I really wanted a further reading list and a reference list but perhaps that because I take a more 'academic' approach to a book like this. An example where I wanted to know more was on page 48 where Lara Cain Gray references Michael Hyatt and his PINC method for creating a book title. I did a little digging and found this article.
Lara Cain Gray and others claim this book is unique as guide for parents. I cannot dispute that but I am fairly sure there are other books that explain the wonders of picture books to parents. I do like these:
Along with talking points each page there are invitations for the reader to look more closely at the illustrations. Some of these were quite thought provoking but I found a few were a little obscure such as page 20 - "Why is the tortoise eating grapes and what does this choice of food and body language tell you about (his) personality?" Sadly, I did not find the illustrations in this book very appealing and I did wonder why so many seemed to reference Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, and Treasure Island? I am also struggling to 'see' the silverfish on the end papers - sorry.
Going back to my own list of A to Z compared with the one used by Lara Cain Gray. I do wish she had made W for Wordless books. She mentions them several times on other pages but they are so wonderful I wish they had been showcased on a full page. W for white space is interesting but this could be covered on I is for illustrations or S is for spread perhaps. Having said this, I do sadly dispute this statement:
"wordless books are often included amongst the most popular picture books for young readers" page 50
I wish this was true, but I am fairly sure lots of parents have no understanding of the way to read a wordless book or the of the powerful and rewarding stories they contain. Take a look at this blog post. If you are looking for wordless (or as IBBY call them Silent Books) here is my Pinterest.
Some pages contain ideas or an argument that could apply to any children's book not just picture books. It is a totally understandable decision not to include specific examples of children's books. Obviously, they date a book, and how do you choose which books to suggest for example only Australian (I hope not because we can read the BEST books in English from USA, UK, Canada, and New Zealand). But I did want Lara's arguments to come back more often to her topic - Picture Books. T is for title could be about any great book as could U is for underlying and C is for covers.
The pages I thought would give teachers, and perhaps parents, the best understandings about picture books were A is for animals; E is for endpapers; I is for illustrations; L is for language; and R is for repetition. Take a look at this article from ABC Kids about picture books.
As I mentioned I attended an event about this book last week. Lara Cain Gray is an advocate for Picture Book Activism. This was a new term to me, but I gathered it means seeing picture books in all contexts of a reading diet and not merely a steppingstone to harder, longer books. NCACL was mentioned and so I do hope Lara Cain Gray has dipped into their Picture Books for Older Readers database. (I was one contributor). Lara works for Library for All. I need to discover more about this organisation. Take a look at this article from 2021 about libraries for children.
Lara Cain Gray penned an impressive article for The Griffith Review. Here are a few quotes:
Picture books are not just for children. When we’re young, they inspire and facilitate our literacy journey, teaching us how words work and what we might expect from a narrative.
The illustrations in a high-quality picture book are constructed with the same melange of creativity, pedagogy and compressed storytelling as the words. Far from being merely decorative or attention-grabbing, they foster visual literacy. Each double-page spread is constructed to evoke a mood. The reader is manipulated by artistic devices such as the use of a specific colour palette or the careful placement of objects within white space. Like a frame of a film or a gallery painting, the pages of a picture book can be read without words and interpreted in different ways by different viewers. When read with the words, the illustrations expand the story, often providing additional information or even a counter-narrative in more playful examples.
Lara Cain Gray also talked about the way reading a picture book can be a good exercise in mindfulness and that the writing in a picture book is a perfect model of succinct writing of the kind we use when writing grant applications and even Instagram captions.
You can read more about The Grown-up's guide to Picture Books by following these links:
The Mia Macrossan interview for StoryLinks.
Good Reading - includes author and illustrator details
Paperbark words (you can see inside The Grown-up's guide to Picture books here).
Finally I would like to talk about the marketing of this book and the endorsements. Lara Cain Gray and her publisher sent The Grown-up's guide to Picture Books to a number of authors. Their comments (Sophie Mason, Andrea Rowe, Ann James, Jules Faber, Matt Shanks, Peter Carnavas) do set a tone for reading this book but they also conflict (to me) with the idea that this is a book for parents and other adults because these 'big' names will surely mean so much more to Teacher-Librarians but as I already said I desperately hope Teacher-Librarians 'know the stuff' presented in this book.
So back to my early question - who is the audience for this book? It is of course terrific to open up the conversation about children's books of all kinds. I do hope all 'grown-ups' discover or better yet already know the joy of reading picture books to children of all ages.
Here is one of Lara's own favourite picture books:
To round off this post here are the A to Z headings from The Grown-up's guide to Picture Books:
2 comments:
Well done. I agree with what you have said and you were kinder than I would have been. I too don't know who the audience is. I can't see the teachers I work with or the parents reading it and I too would like to think that the T/Ls should know this. If they don't they need to do more than read this book!
Thank you for you thoughtful review. It is sitting on my shelf, but I haven't yet made the time to sit down and read it. I do know that she did some work with NCACL and she presented a webinar I saw with Belle. Like you said I found most of it stuff I thought was common knowledge, but I forget how embedded picture books and children's literature is in my brain and knowledge.
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