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Picturebooks and Young Children: Potential, Power, and Practices

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Picturebooks hold a special pride of place in the learning, literacy, and lives of young children. While all forms of children’s literature have the potential to impact young readers, picturebooks offer a multimodal format that includes both print and visual texts and which offer readers opportunities to construct meaning based on each of these modalities, as well as from the dynamic interplay between these modes (Arizpe, 2021; Kachorsky, Moses, Serafini & Hoeltling, 2017; Nodelman, 2017; Salisbury & Styles, 2020; Wolfenbarger & Sipe, 2007). Reading picturebooks involves navigating an “intricate dance” of words and images with a meaning that is more complex than a sum of its parts (Sipe, 2011, p. 232).

Though enjoyed by many, picturebooks are typically aimed at an audience of young children. As resources, they are compact, aesthetically appealing, literature-rich, and reasonably available, and hold an appeal for a broad range of developmental levels and interests. These texts can serve as an introduction to the worlds of literature and art, as springboards for rich talk and interactions, as the focus of important social bonding experiences, and as effective pedagogical tools for life and learning (Acer & Gözen, 2020; Jalongo, 2004; Sipe, 2008; Wanless & Crawford 2016). Picturebooks, like the broader expanse of children’s literature, can invite reflection and provide illumination. Powerful books can function as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors (Sims Bishop, 1990); that is, picturebooks can offer stories that reflect a child’s own life, that give them glimpses into the worlds of others; and in some cases, allow readers to slip through a portal that will transport them to new places and experiences. Many picturebooks offer children invitations to explore complex and challenging topics (Arizpe, 2021; Crawford, Roberts & Zygouris-Coe, 2019; Wiseman, Vehabovic, & Jones, 2019). Educators and other caring adults can support children’s transactions with picturebooks in supportive, developmentally appropriate, and impactful ways.

For this special issue of Early Childhood Education Journal, we invite manuscripts that focus on the theme, Picturebooks and Young Children: Potential, Power, and Practices. We seek a broad range of manuscripts that highlight the important aspects of picturebooks and the readings and pedagogy that surround them in the lives of young children, birth through age 8. We invite authors to provide overviews of the ways picturebooks are being used in state of the art practices around the world.

Editors

  • Patricia A. Crawford Patricia A. Crawford , 

    Patricia A. Crawford

    Patricia A. Crawford is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading, where she works in the Early Childhood Education and and Language, Literacy, and Culture programs. She teaches a variety of courses related to literacy and learning, and mentors graduate students who are aspiring researchers and teacher educators. She also serves as coordinator of the Early Childhood Education program and is a faculty coordinator for the Pitt in Florence Early Childhood Education Study Abroad Progran (www.abroad.pitt.edu/florenceed).

  • Sherron Killingsworth Roberts Sherron Killingsworth Roberts  &

    Sherron Killingsworth Roberts

    Sherron Killingsworth Roberts serves as the Heintzelman Literature Scholar at UCF. Her research examines literacy as social practice, innovative pedagogy, and literary content analyses. Roberts received her doctorate from University of Arkansas where she was one of five, campus-wide Dissertation Fellows, after teaching mostly sixth grade in a middle school setting. Prior to coming to University of Central Florida in 1998, Sherron taught reading and language arts methods at Columbia College and at Iowa State University where she was an assistant professor.

  • Jan Lacina Jan Lacina

    Jan Lacina

    Dr. Jan Lacina holds the Bezos Family Foundation Endowed Chair in Early Childhood Education. She has been employed at TCU since 2005. Dr. Lacina’s teaching and scholarship include the intersection of literacy learning, early childhood/elementary education, and teacher education. Dr. Lacina has served in numerous leadership positions within higher education, such as Interim Dean, Early Childhood Program Coordinator, and Post Baccalaureate Graduate Program Coordinator. Since 2011, she has served as Associate Dean for Graduate Studies in TCU’s College of Education.

Articles (29 in this collection)