Readerful: Episode 6 – The importance of picture books in primary schools

By James Clements

Watch: Sharing picture books across the primary school with James Clements

For many people, picture books have a special place in their memories of reading.

Perhaps it’s because they’re the first books we remember listening to ourselves; perhaps it’s because we have fond memories of sharing them with children (our own children, grandchildren, younger siblings or classes that we’ve taught); or perhaps it’s just because great picture books are works of art, the marriage between images and words each lifting the other to new heights.

However, just because picture books are amongst the first reading experience to capture children as readers, it doesn’t mean they’re only for younger pupils.

Picture books make the perfect texts to share right across the primary school.

With the right book, shared reading – reading lessons where a teacher shares a book with the whole class – can play an important part in children’s reading development.

So, here’s a guide to why sharing picture books works so well across the primary school, featuring thirty glorious picture books.

Building a reading culture and engaging/motivating children

We often value shared reading sessions through their role in helping children to become better readers, but they are also an opportunity to model how wonderful and pleasurable reading can be.

We can use them to showcase individual books - reading a book together and then making sure there is a copy that children can read again independently, or sharing one book in a series and offering children the chance to read the others. For example, we might read Daisy Hirst’s glorious Alphonse, That is Not Ok to Do! before pointing the class towards her other Natalie and Alphonse books; or enjoy Billy’s adventures in Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen before sharing other books by the same author.

With older children, we might share read Arthur and the Golden Rope before introducing the rest of the books in Joe Todd-Stanton’s Brownstone’s Mythical Collection for children to read, talk about and swap with each other.

But we can also use shared reading to share the experiences and emotions that come from reading, helping to ignite emotional engagement from children, not only showcasing the books themselves, but also the feelings that can come from reading.

That might be shared laughter from books like I can Only Draw Worms by Will Mabbitt or Going to the Volcano by Andy Stanton and Miguel Ordóñez.

Or books that lead to poignant thought and discussion, and hopefully empathy, such as I Talk Like A River by Jordan Scott and Sydney Smith.

Modelling the process of reading

Shared reading sessions provide the perfect opportunity for a teacher to read aloud, modelling how a skilled reader makes meaning from a text. The teacher can pause and think aloud to show children how they navigate the meaning of a tricky word, (‘hmm, distinct must mean different from the others because it is very different in this picture’ ) or where an inference needs to be made (‘I think Sorya must be nervous here, just look at her expression!’).

Picture books can be especially useful for this because the meaning of the text is conveyed through both images and words, allowing for nuance of meaning to be explored, as well as inferences that depend not just on language, but pictures too.

The classic example is Rosie’s Walk by Pat Hutchins, where the text and pictures tell two very different stories, causing much delight (as experienced teachers will know all too well).

Jon Klassen’s ‘Hat Trilogy’, including the masterful This is Not my Hat, and Town is by the Sea by Joanne Schwartz and Sydney Smith (full of ideas to explore with older readers, too) are amongst the many picture books that provide space to explore making meaning from a text.

Introducing a big idea in a way everyone can access

The literature we read with children (and picture books definitely are literature) is about more than the text itself, more than wonderful stories and beautiful language. Great literature provides an opportunity to introduce children to big ideas and important themes, to explore different perspectives and perhaps to even to consider what it is to be human.

We might consider profound ideas about the world and our place in it, through books such as You are Stardust by Ein Kelsey and Soyeon Kim or If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall.

Or we might think about more personal concepts, allowing children to see themselves and their thoughts reflected in a book. Children might be able to see how they relate to the central character straight away, such as in books like Ruby’s Worry by Tom Percival or Tisha and the Blossom by Wendy Maddour and Daniel Egnéus.

Or the ideas might need slightly more exploration, as in books like The Perfect Fit by Naomi and James Jones or Black Dog by Levi Pinfold.

At their best, picture books can show that we aren’t alone and that our thoughts (and perhaps worries) aren’t as unique to us as we think.

Sparking book talk

Reading can be a solitary pursuit, but shared reading is collaborative and social. Not only does everyone get to hear the same book, but time to talk and share opinions and interpretations can be incredibly valuable in helping children to see themselves as readers with different, but equally valid opinions.

Books which are inherently interactive are especially good for this (as anyone who has shared Nick Sharatt and Pippa Goodheart’s You Choose, Would You Rather… by John Burningham or any of Jon Burgerman’s books with a class will know.

Book talk might also lead to discussion about subjects that would be difficult to talk about in the abstract. The book provides a safe context to talk about things that might be on children’s minds, through titles such as The Worry Jar by Lou John and Jenny Bloomfield or Grandad’s Island by Benji Davies.

Or, for older pupils, big issues from wider society, such as The Island by Armin Greder or Migrants by Issa Watanabe.

Although we are talking about characters and events in the book, we can explore ideas from the real world, especially difficult or personal ones which might be tricky to talk about otherwise.

Reading across a range of genres

While many beloved picture books are story books, picture books aren’t just fiction. As well as being beautiful examples of different genres in their own right, we can use picture books and illustrated fiction to introduce children to lots of different types and styles of books, helping them to form their own tastes and opinions. This includes non-fiction on topics as diverse as If… by David J Smith and Steve Adams and Mythological Monsters of Ancient Greece by Sara Fanelli.

Enormous Smallness by Matthew Burgess and Kris Di Giacomo, Mae Among the Stars by Rhoda Ahmed and Stasia Burrington, On A Beam Of Light by Jennifer Berne and Vladimir Radunsky and She Made a Monster by Lynn Fulton and Felicita Sala.

And books which are slightly harder to pigeonhole, which tell a story and are full of poetic language, but share fascinating information, too, such as Moth and Fox, by the wonderful team of Isabel Thomas and Daniel Egnéus.

Older readers

Over the course of this piece, we’ve met some picture books perfect for KS2 children. And there’s another reason why picture books are so valuable for older year groups. Just like poetry, they can offer an incredibly rich reading experience in a much shorter package than a novel. We can have the same deep discussions, explore the same challenging ideas and encounter the same beautiful language without setting aside six weeks to finish the book.

Shared reading using these works of art should have a place on every school’s reading curriculum: they’re full of educational value, they can help to shape children’s positive attitudes to reading and, who knows, perhaps they’ll be the books that children look back on as favourites when they’re older.

James Clements James Clements is an education writer and researcher. He is the series editor for the Books for Sharing strand of Readerful.