A Soapbox For All

If I have a soapbox, this is it. Picture books are everything! Even in my 60s, my reading life is a steady diet of picture books. Here is why I feel so strongly about the value and benefit of picture books and am begging you to provide them for your students, no matter what grade you teach.

1. They are engaging: I once had a group of sixth graders in the library who openly hated reading. They didn’t want to read while they were there, they didn’t want to check books out, and my best book talks barely budged them. So, I said, “Okay,” and put all our Elephant and Piggie books on the tables. They looked at me like I was crazy, but I said, “I love these. You will too. They will give you something to do before you go back to class.” The next thing I knew, these sixth graders were paired up, laughing out loud, and reading to each other until the bell rang. And now you know why, if I ever meet Mo Willems, I will probably hug him too tightly.
2. They expose us to lavish language: The exquisite language of picture books decreases drastically in chapter books written for a young audience. The expectation is that children are reading those independently, so authors have to be careful about controlling the vocabulary. So, if we are in a hurry to move children from picture books to chapter books, we are depriving them of more sophisticated language patterns, syntax, diction, and a complexity of sentence structure that is much richer.
3. Wealth of exposure: Twenty-five picture books may have the same number of pages as a middle-grade novel, but they will certainly cover a lot more ground. In addition to exposing students to a variety of narrative arcs, it isn’t uncommon for a great picture book to lead to research when a story has created wonder and questions in the minds of the reader/listener.

So, if your older students have a stack of picture books, I hope you do a happy dance of celebration. If they are reluctant to read picture books, encourage them to read to younger students. Our sixth graders have kindergarten and first-grade buddies. Reading picture books on a regular basis builds strong bonds and provides an easy way to work on every element of the CAFE Menu.

Lastly, may I plead with you to join the book-a-day challenge. Inspired by Donalyn Miller, Jillian Heise began the Classroom Book a Day movement during the 2014–2015 school year. For 180 days, she reads a picture book to her seventh- and eighth-grade students. If you are interested in this surefire way to grow classroom community and reading engagement, you’ll want to join in the fun. Search for #classroombookaday on Twitter, and you are sure to be inspired to participate.

There are so many books that are perfect for our middle-grade and older students. In no special order, here are some of my favorites. They will spark imagination, create empathy, and prompt questions and conversations. If you decide to do Classroom Book a Day, these will keep you going for 29 days.

I think if you read a picture book a day to your students, no matter how old they are, you’ll be amazed at the results, and you’ll join me in the mantra “Picture books forever, for everyone!”