I hear people saying that picturebooks are for babies. But they are more that beautiful fun pages. They are gateways to imagination, empathy, critical thinking and learning.

We are living in the world of pictures and visual literacy becomes a must. Modern quality picturebooks are made to be decoded, they only look simple a some of them don’t have a lot of words, others don’t have any at all. This is why I use them in my work with children. They have to read the pictures and make connections Picturebooks make students ask a lot of questions as they can’t be always sure what the author wanted to say. Those books open doors to conversations. This is what we need in the classroom. We need the students to talk and think, share their own experience and thoughts, grow socially and emotionally.

In the classroom, we learn how illustrators use images to deliver messages, how writers leave readerly gaps for us and how to fill them in. We learn to debate about meanings and create our own stories based on famous characters.

Another thing that I wanted to say is that picturebooks are not only for babies and toddlers. It’s a misconception. There are quite a few, sadly not many, even for teens and adults. You can check Directory and see what books we read with older students. It’s not an ultimate list as I don’t have enough time to post about every book we read during our lessons.

In my blog post about books, I cover all how I use them. I talk in those posts to you just as I talk through the book with my students.

Thank you for reading my stories.

Ana Gregory.