Storytelling with Picture Books

Most young children love books and enjoy listening to the same stories over and over again. It's fun to hear the familiar pattern of words and recognize stories.

Picture books can add a different twist to the bedtime story. They can help encourage creativity and build language in a different way to traditional story books.



A picture book doesn't have any words, but a good one will have a story or different story threads popping out from the pages. When you look at their pictures, they make you want to talk about what is going on in them. Children use their imaginations to talk about what they see rather than just listening to a fixed story.

The telling of the stories can be made as simple or as complex as the readers want. The story naturally varies each time you 'read' it.

Here are a few of our favourites:



Moonlight by Jan Ormerod has wordless comic strip style pictures which depict a girl going to bed. She eats her dinner, has a bath and gets ready for bed, but is not ready to sleep. It's easy to make up a story to go along with the pictures. My daughter likes to take it in turns to tell a page each and make up different versions each time we 'read' it. Sunshine , also by Jan Ormerod, features the same little girl getting up in the morning and preparing for her day.





Welcome To The Zoo by Alison Jay is not a linear story. It's all about a trip to the zoo with lots of mini stories to talk about on each page. Every time you 'read' this one, you spot something different. It's easy to dip in and out of and it's a great one for toddlers as well as preschoolers. Spot the naughty ostrich being chased on each page and see him escaping on the top of a double decker bus at the end.





What are your favourite picture books? Please share them in the comments forum.

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#toddler
#preschooler
#books
#picture_books
#creativity
#language

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