The Magic of Picture Books
Being a new mom, many of us cuddle up with our baby and explore a nice board book together. Their little eyes are developing new strength while looking at the bright colors and bold pictures. As they grow, we start to read books with basic concepts and simple words. Three, four, five years old…the words become short sentences, which soon create paragraphs. Easy reader chapter books may be introduced during this time too!
Picture books made up the majority of our early years book collection, but many were donated as our daughter grew up. Recently, I got a beautiful picture book as a surprise for Eisley. She quickly began flipping through the pages, looking up at me with a bit of confusion. “Mom, how are you going to read this book to me? There aren’t any words in it!” she said. “I’m not going to read this book to you. You are going to read this book to me!” I responded with a smile. I quickly grabbed a pencil and some paper. Then, I explained that she was going to look at the pages while verbally telling me her own version of the story. I tried my best to write quickly and keep up, acting as her scribe. When we were finished, she was so excited for me to read the story to her! She routinely asks me to read it again and again. Since then, we have written more stories based off of picture books. We have also tried to create new stories inspired from an image or item.
Needing some inspiration for new picture books? Here are some links to ones we have used through Amazon. Journey is the first book in Aaron Becker's wordless trilogy series. They are all beautifully created while taking you through a fantasy world.
It’s important that you write down what your child is saying, grammatical errors and all. This gives you a chance to discuss these with them when they hear a sentence that may sound funny or redundant. You can talk about words using past or present tense (I seen vs I saw) and the three main parts of a story (beginning, middle, end). Ask the child to explain these aspects in relation to their story. This helps them to begin to understand these greater concepts!
This is an interpretational story told by Eisley Sage, based off of the book Journey by Aaron Becker. “So she sat down on the stairs, being lonely out of her home. She drew a door with a magical chalk, then she reached out into the woods. Then she saw a river. She drew a boat and sailed away. Then she found a kingdom. Now she saw the workers, they didn’t let her through. She started to go somewhere else and she drew a big circle into a hot air balloon. Someone tried to catch a purple bird. They got the bird until she was going to steal it. And then she climbed up a ladder to rescue the bird. She stealed the bird, let it out, and then they got her into a cage. Deep, deep down and then the bird rescued her. She made a magic carpet and was flying away to a house coconut tree. The bird went through the door and came back. The girl went in and then the bird went in again. They went through a mailbox. First the girl drawed a circle and the boy drawed a circle, and they they went away. The end.”
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