Illustrations are as Important as Words
When I am considering which books to add to my child’s home library, I read the storyline (of course) and I look at the illustrations (pictures, drawings, imagery, artwork, whatever you want to call it). It is so important to me that the pictures in the story adds value, creativity, learning, and joy to reading. As I’m leafing through a book, if the drawings are confusing or overwhelming, I don’t purchase the book - even if the storyline is good. I have seen books with excellent stories and overstimulating imagery - that’s a hard “no” for me. Kids don’t need chaos in a book. I have seen books with all kinds of craziness on pages (50ish colors with bolded letters and texture on one page is just chaos) that don’t add value or learning. What are you even supposed to focus on? It’s too much. Illustrations in a book can be complex, can have dimension, and can be bold. Yet, there needs to be a balance of the imagery and the story.
I use pictures in books to add layers to the reading experience with my child. When artwork can be used as a tool during storytime, the benefits to children are astounding! According to Reading Partners, here are a couple of facts around this:
At a most basic level, picture books help kids understand that words convey meaning—connecting the pictures in the book with the words on the page
The imagery in a picture book brings the pages to life, serving as a visual roadmap for the story.
Illustrations shown alongside text offer invaluable tools to help kids build understanding, fluency, vocabulary and other foundational literacy skills.
One key ingredient of picture books that we shouldn’t discount is the benefit of pictures in sparking joy and creating a fun and engaging reading experience for kids.
To share how strongly I believe in imagery, I want to share how my son, who will be 2 years old on March 29th, uses pictures in books. It is just amazing! He can:
Understand and imitate emotions felt by characters.
Identify sequences in the story and knows what comes next based on the pictures.
Pick out which book he wants to read based on the book cover because he recognizes the artwork, images, and even starts babbling about the storyline before he even opens the book to read it.
Connect pictures in one book to a similar picture in another book. My son is obsessed with raccoons, speed boats, trains, deer, trucks, and narwhals. When he sees a raccoon in one book, he points to it then he goes into his bookshelf and gets out another book that has raccoons in it. He flips to the right page and shows the two different raccoons in two different books to me with a huge grin on his face!
Now, this didn’t happen overnight with my child. My husband and I commit to reading time with our child every single day. Reading has been a part of our daily routine since he was born. We read every morning after breakfast for 30-45 minutes - yes, my son is engaged with books for that long at his age. We also read before his daily nap for about 30 minutes and at night before bedtime for about 30 minutes. That’s about 90 minutes each day where my child is exposed to books, stories, images, creativity, learning, and emotions. He is starting to independently look at books which gives him some structured down time, building his confidence and self-regulation.
You may ask yourself… how the hell do you spend that much time reading books? How many books do you own, do you just re-read the book a million times? How does your son stay engaged for that long? Trust me, I have the same questions and I am actively doing this with my son. Here are some of the ways we engage with books and their illustrations:
Read the story - yup, pretty straight forward.
Re-read the story but only make noises through the book based on the artwork (vroom vroom, grrrrr, roar, woof woof, whoosh, weeee, sniff sniff, etc…) you’ll be amazed by how creative you’ll find this - or difficult haha!
Look at the characters and setting in the book and ask questions or make observations such as:
“Look, Ben is wearing a warm hat and boots, I bet it is cold outside where Ben is. Do you think it is cold outside here?”
“I see someone smiling! She looks like she is having fun. Can Mama smile too? Would you like to smile?”
“Oopsies, it looks like the turkey fell over. Should we see if he is okay? Oh… you think he needs a smooch to feel better? Okay, let’s give him a smooch. Good job buddy!”
Depending on the age of your kiddo, you can play “I Spy” with the pictures in the book. I do this with my son and he can pick out things that I didn’t even know he knew (iceberg, volcano, python (not just a snake - a python)). I also add counting into the I Spy game - “I spy three chickens going cluck, cluck, cluck. Do you see three chickens?” As he points out each chicken I count them. He is starting to catch on and knows where there are some he missed or still needs to look for.
Watch your child to see what pictures they like. Raccoons… for whatever reason, my son thinks raccoons in garbage cans are freaking hilarious. So I emphasize the raccoons and make jokes about the raccoons because he loves raccoons and is engaged. You’ll be surprised what your child gravitates toward if you are paying attention.
Pick out things that your child recently did or saw and talk about that with them. It’s almost as if you are re-telling a story they already experienced. “Ooohhh I see a big dump truck! Remember when we were walking to the park yesterday and that huge, loud dump truck drove past us? The driver of the dump truck even honked their horn! This is a dump truck too!”
If you are interested in books and engage your child while reading, then you will see this level of engagement and excitement. Through book illustrations, you can expose your child to ideas, animals, places, and things that are not in their normal routine or environment. You can spark their imagination, build vocabulary, and help them learn about the world. All books I recommend have phenomenal illustrations; illustrations are just as important as words. Happy reading!
