Child Development and Picturebooks

I was invited to a child development class at the high school to speak about library-as-a-career stuff, choosing books for children, and reading aloud. First time I've ever really been in a high school classroom. It went ok, I even got some kids to laugh at the right spots and some mildly interested questions. I'm putting down what I did because I might go back some time for the earlier child development class and I don't want to start from scratch...this is sort of roughly what I did, although it was a lot more hopping around and not as organized as it looks here.

First, I gave a brief How-I-Became-A-Librarian speech. Next time, I should add in the practicums and experiential work I did, not just the schooling, partly because I think hands on is more useful than academics and partly because I had extra time at the end, so I can!

Then, I started with the very early board books and gave examples of reading books with infants and young toddlers. The boardbooks I used were:

• eyelikenature: Leaves
• indestructibles: Flutter! Fly! by Karen Pixton
• Baby Faces by Margaret Miller

Then I talked about books with more narrative and text for older toddlers, as well as how different books work for different kids.

• How do dinosaurs love their cats? by Jane Yolen
• Can YOU make a scary face? by Jan Thomas

I also showed books with a simple storyline and pictures that work well with both toddlers and preschoolers and talked about adapting stories to fit your group.

• Digby Takes Charge by Caroline Church
• Duck Soup by Jackie Urbanovic

I talked about what makes a good easy reader, how easy readers are changing (from stuff like Dick and Jane to Toon Books and Mo Willems) and what makes a good beginning chapter book.

• Pigs make me sneeze by Mo Willems (also used this to show how some easy readers work as read-alouds)
• Benny and Penny by Geoffrey Hayes
• Extreme Machines by Christopher Maynard (really, any DK nonfiction reader will work here)

I talked about how important it is to keep reading aloud to kids after they've started reading on their own, how it increases vocabulary and improves comprehension and is just plain fun!

• Book that eats people by John Perry
• Chester by Melanie Watt
• Billy Twitters and his blue whale problem by Mac Barnett

I also did a presentation on using nonfiction as read-alouds and beginning readers and why it's important not to limit kids to fiction.

• Down down down by Steve Jenkins (this is a great example of using nonfiction with text that's too dense for reading aloud to a pre-1st grade group. It makes a great interactive experience by having the kids guess the names and types of different animals and discussing their behavior)
• Wolfsnail by Sarah Campbell (I would have taken my galley of Growing Patterns, but I lent it to somebody else...they were duly grossed out by the meat-eating snail and I used this as an example of a nonfiction easy reader that also works as a read-aloud)
• Forest Explorer by Nic Bishop (I couldn't find Spiders or Frogs or Moths & Butterflies. This one doesn't really work as a read-aloud, but I wanted them to see an author that can be used much the same way I use Steve Jenkins but with photographs)

Extra books I took but didn't use:

• Busy Penguins by John Schindel (boardbook)
• Birthday for cow by Jan Thomas (picturebook)
• Race you to bed by Bob Shea (picturebook)
• Night Lights by Susan Gal (picturebook)
• Mitten by Jan Brett (picturebook)
• Froggy eats out by Jonathan London (picturebook)
• Dinosaur Hunt by David Catrow (easy reader)
• Cowgirl Kate and Cocoa (easy reader)
• About Amphibians by Cathryn Sill (nonfiction picturebook)
• Squeaky Door by Margaret Read MacDonald (picturebook)
• Pigeon finds a hot dog by Mo Willems (picturebook)
• Wild boars cook by Meg Rosoff (picturebook)
• Guess Again by Mac Barnett (picturebook)