Picture Books; Beyond Words and Illustrations

When you think about a picture book you usually think its a book that only displays pictures and a less amount of words. That's correct but picture books are also grouped into different categories like;  the Mother Goose Stories, Concept books, Alphabet books, counting books, Wordless picture books, toy books, pop-up books, easy to read books, picture storybooks and post modern picture books. When reading a picture book the elements of illustrations are very important. For instance Color is used to by artist to convey character,mood and emotion. Line is considered to be the most common and expressive element in picture books. Shape is the two-dimensional form representing an object.Texture the illusion of texture is created by an artist to communicate the sensation of roughness, smoothness, hardness, softness, and so forth. Style is not a separate element bu the impact of all of the elements together.Point of View Illustrators use a variety of perspectives to give readers different vantage points from which to view the events in a story. Distance refers to how close or far the viewer is from the scene in the illustration.Media painterly and graphic in which illustrators us to create their artwork.

Its very important that you understand how to read picture books. "The first critical step is to select a picture book in which the pictures are an integral part of the story and that meets the development needs and cultural context of the children with whom you will share the book with. Then make sure the children are within easy viewing of the book, if children cannot see the book, they will probably disengage from the experience."(Pg 100).

After reading the chapter a few things stood out to me that I would use in my own classroom. Having the students make picture books of their choice, A Literature Response Journal and also having the students complete a Reader's Theater(Drama). Each of these activities challenges the students understanding of books with words and without words.
some of the books I would use are:
1.Is it red, Is it Yellow, Is it Blue
2.The Water Hole
3.The Cat in the Hat
4.Where the Wild things are
5. Hugo
6. Curious George
7.Madeline
8. Were Back!
9.The Lorax
10. Shrek
Picturing Books
"Picture books are for everybody at any age, not books to be left behind as we grow older. The best ones leave a tantalizing gap between the pictures and the words, a gap that is filled by the reader’s imagination, adding so much to the excitement of reading a book." ~Anthony Browne, UK Children’s Laureate, 2009-2011

Traditional Literature

The Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, The Ginger Bread Man, Snow White And the Seven Dwarfs, Rumpelstiltskin etc. are wonderful traditional tales for students to read to each other or as a class.  Traditional literature are not only stories that expand out children's mind it helps children understand the personal dimension and standards of behavior of  a culture and the same time reduce stereotypes  It provides children with a framework for the literature, drama, and art they will later encounter, it provides entertainment and pleasure:children enjoy reading and hearing folk tales and it provides strong rhythm, rhyme and repetition of patterns.

As I was reading two things stood out to me. One is that folk tales are told in a numerous amount of ways for instance the Cinderella story has  700  different versions. Having the students explore different versions of Traditional Literature helps the student understand and except different cultures. Two was that Traditional literature can be taken beyond just reading in areas such as social studies, science and math.

One activity I would use in my classroom would be to have the student's write their own version of the following stories; Cinderella  The Ginger Bread Man, Three little pigs and Lion and the Mouse. Having students complete a fun and engaging writing assignment allows the student to feel comfortable and explore their own imagination when it comes to writing.

The following below are some of the different version of the Cinderella Story: