Once upon a time, I knew that. Obviously, sweet as it is, Goodnight Moon wouldn't enthrall a 5- or 6-year-old. Thank goodness Margaret Wise Brown wrote it; and better still, shared her delightful way with words in many other stories, including the stunning collection The Fish with the Deep Sea Smile. That title deserves its own review; for now, suffice to say it was a brilliant gift from a wonderful teacher and very dear friend. (Thanks, Shelly!)
But now that my little guy is reading on his own, selecting picture books and other things we can read together seems harder than ever. Teachers tell us that even very competent young readers can (and should) read picture books on their own and with adults.
Not just any picture book will do for older kids, however. Probuditi is a great pick for the upper end of the picture book demographic, as is anything featuring dear old Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle - although I'll admit it's not quite a picture book, it's perfect for new readers in kindergarten through second grade, at least. (The lady lives in an upside-down house and was married to a pirate. How could kids not love her? The book uses words I haven't heard for 20 years. How can I not love that?)
Unfortunately, at least for me and my little guy, Interrupting Chicken (David Ezra Stein) and Children Make Terrible Pets (Peter Brown) only looked like good-for-older-kids titles. They're both good books, don't get me wrong - Interrupting Chicken earned a Caldecott Honor Book sticker in 2010. They're just not especially interesting to kids who've graduated from preschool.
Lessons learned (again): One, the picture book landscape is vast and varied. And two, don't judge a book by its cover (or even the Amazon "Look Inside!" gizmo). If I'd actually read these titles before purchasing, I wouldn't have purchased either one. (Hello! I know better; I should shop at my local bookstore. Twenty lashes with a wet bookmark.
Now, what do you think? Do we need a new picture book designation? Does the standard "for ages 4 to 8" really cover it? And now that I've got a couple of like-new books taking up room on my shelf, who can tell me all about Amazon's Seller Central??
3 comments:
When I was working at a public library, we had a section called J-EF (juvenile easy fiction) that included BOTH early chapter books and those "older" picture books, like The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, The Mysteries of Harris Burdick, and The Day of Ahmed's Secret. The shelves didn't look very tidy, with big flat books next to little ones like The Most Beautiful Place in the World. But it helped, with a little personal selling, to get those older picture books to those who would enjoy them.
I've noticed Barnes & Noble has started posting something called lexiles which I believe is supposed to help with book choices. As I don't quite understand how they work, they're not much help to me :)
As with most other things where kids are concerned, I think ultimately it's very individual. My kids, when given free choice, would gravitate toward what they were interested in. If the reading was a little easy, no problem. If it was a little hard I could help them by taking turns reading or nudging them over the odd unfamiliar word. As long as they liked the story, they would persevere.
Maybe what would be helpful would be a subject heading (like dinosaurs) and then a list of books from board book through picture books to chapter books etc. so you'd know where to look for a range of choices/reading levels on a topic of interest.
Susanna, Scholastic and its various school book clubs also use the Lexiles, which are probably quite helpful in the states and school districts that use that measure!
Lexiles were designed to measure reading ability and NOT to tie ability to any grade level. So, if you know your child's lexile score, great. If not, pick up the book and make your own best assessment, right?
About 16 states currently use Lexiles, according to the website www.lexile.com.
Now, if anyone has a good rule of thumb for translating lexile scores into something parents in the other 30+ states can use, PLEASE speak up. I'd love to post some useful information about that here.
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