These Aren't Your Child's Picture Books Anymore

A middle school teacher wants Leo Lionni books to teach her students how to make inferences. A historical preservationist is reinvigorated by Virginia Lee Burton’s The Little House. Two teenagers flirt and read Wee Little Chick to one another. Picture books are not just for children anymore.

The graphic novel naissance—comics renaissance—has provided entry for a new way of seeing and engaging with picture books. The marriage of picture with text or picture with wordless narrative is no longer just the first step of the serious American reader. Illustrated books with and without words are accepted for all ages, thanks to the successes of the graphic novel. This brings us to the humble picture book and the ways in which graphic novels and picture books have been colliding and expanding and exploding conventions. When American Born Chinese, The Red Book, Zen Shorts, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and The Wall are award winners, we know there must be a sea-change.

I rediscovered picture books as a children’s librarian—no better way, perhaps. While I loved them as a child, I never thought of them as I traveled the typical reader’s trajectory: reading books for children, books for young adults and books for adults. I love children’s and young adult books because of my work. Most likely I would not have discovered their joys elsewhere. When people think of books—if they think of them at all—they adhere to a linear path linking human development and reading. Surely, reading picture books is regressing! Onward and upward, today Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, tomorrow Moby-Dick.

Like any range of literature, picture books can be gentle or challenging, in the terms of their language, themes, design, and images. Picture books can approach a difficult and complicated subject in a comforting and low-pressure way and they can provoke teen and adult readers to look deeply, intentionally, and closely at content that children might miss.

So what can result from interactions between teens and picture books? Teens can learn about book design in Black and White, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, and The Three Pigs; spirituality in Samsara Dog and The Three Questions; “wolves” in Wolves and The Woolves in the Sitee; animal biology (in rhyme!) in Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones; art elements in Hello, Fruit Face! The Paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Nina’s Book of Little Things, and Voices in the Park; war and violence in Patrol:An American Soldier in Vietnam, The Letter Home, The Butter Battle Book, and Rose Blanche; and death in Michael Rosen’s Sad Book and To Hell With Dying.

Librarians must educate patrons that the picture book is a format not always prescribed for very young children. This is a challenge when we are constantly asked for the 4-year old, 6-year old, and 12-year old sections and we dutifully point to picture books, easy readers, and chapter books. But we can inform parents and teachers of the myriad ways picture books can be used with teens. Picture books can be microcosmic in the multitudes contained in their brevity. Jon Muth’s books sometimes seem to teach us all we need to know about Buddhism.

Picture books can be used with reluctant readers and visual learners, they can be paired with novels or nonfiction works in history lessons, they can initiate art and design projects, draw on art historical connections and critical thinking strategies, and rekindle the personal experience with literature. As students begin deciphering textual meaning, they can use picture book connections to learn about character development, language, and theme. While we think of storytime as an essentially preschool activity, collaborative out loud engagement with text and image can be pursued with teens.

For the picture book to fulfill its programming potential, it would be ideal to cultivate a young adult collection of picture books. This may be a cataloging or administrative challenge, but as we see graphic novels collected in up to three locations in a building, a home for young adult picture books seems possible. While many children’s picture books can be used successfully with teens, avoiding redundancy is probably desired. There are many picture books that work more deeply and better with teens than with children and would probably get more love in a YA division. Some resources to check out include: http://readwritethink.org, http://vue.org, http://www.picturebookart.org, and http://www.wiredforyouth.com/books/index.cfm?booklist=picture

Titles mentioned
Brannen, Sarah. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding
Browne, Anthony. Voices From the Park
Burton, Virginia Lee. The Little House
Decker, Tim. The Letter Home
Gravett, Emily. Wolves
Haring, Keith. Nina’s Book of Little Things
Heller, Ruth. Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones
Innocenti, Roberto. Rose Blanche
Lionni, Leo.
Lehman, Barbara. The Red Book
Macaulay, David. Black and White
Manos, Helen and Julie Vivas. Samsara Dog
Muth, Jon. The Three Questions
Myers, Walter Dean. Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam
Richardson, Justin. And Tango Makes Three
Rosen, Michael. Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
Scieska, Jon and Lane Smith. The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales.
Selznick, Brian. The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Seuss, Dr. The Butter Battle Book
Sís, Peter. The Wall
Strand, Claudia. Hello, Fruit Face! The Paintings of Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Thompson, Lauren. Wee Little Chick
Walker, Alice. To Hell With Dying
Wiesner, David. Three Little Pigs
Wild, Margaret and Anne Spudvilas. Woolves in the Sitee
Yang, Gene Luen. American Born Chinese

A Moment off Topic, Please

Developer of Irish capital's public library service

Sat, Aug 16, 2008

MÁIRÍN O'BYRNE, who has died aged 88, was a former Dublin city and county librarian, and did much to develop the public library service throughout the city and suburbs.

Deeply committed to public service, she passionately believed that libraries could make a difference to the lives of those who did not have formal education and was a great believer in life-long education.

Máirín O'Byrne began her career in Dún Laoghaire public library in 1937 and secured a diploma in library training at University College Dublin in 1943. For 15 years from 1946, she was librarian in Bray public library, which was then independent of Wicklow county library.

It was in a poor state when she took over and she made massive strides in bringing the facilities up to date.

She took up the position of Dublin city librarian in 1961 and was appointed Dublin city and county librarian in 1967, which she held until her retirement in 1984.

She sought to enhance the physical environment of libraries and persuaded the Arts Council to fund a mural by Eithne Jordan for Swords library, while convincing a local councillor and publican to fund a piece of sculpture by Conor Fallon.

She was held in high regard among her peers, being elected as president of the Library Association (1966-1967). She certainly made a difference, taking a particular interest in the development of professional qualifications for library staff.

The holder of an honorary fellowship of the Library Association of Ireland, she also was honorary (life) vice president of the Library Association (UK), chairwoman of the Public Library Review Group (1985) and visiting lecturer at the Department of library studies at UCD.

She was a member of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna/the Library Council (1958-1982), the RTÉ Authority, the Public Service Advisory Council and was a trustee of the National Library. A regular contributor to An Leabharlann, she also was co-author of the Public Library Review Report(1987).

Born in 1919, she was the eldest of the four children and only daughter of William and Mary O'Byrne.

Both her parents were school teachers. Her father was from Paulstown, Co Kilkenny, and her mother was from Clandouglas, Lixnaw, Co Kerry.

The family grew up in Kildangan, Co Kildare, where her father was principal of the local national school for more than 30 years.

She attended secondary school at the Mercy Sisters convent in Monasterevin. Most summers were spent in Ballybunion and her Irish was perfected in the Kerry Gaeltacht of Ballyferriter and Waterford Gaeltacht of Ring.

She settled in Albert Road, Glenageary, Co Dublin, in the early 1950, and was joined there by her parents after her father's retirement. He suffered from muscular dystrophy in his final years and was nursed by Máirín and her mother. He died in 1955.

Máirín's mother lived with her until her death in 1970. Two years later Máirín moved to another house on the same road, which became her home for the next 36 years.

She provided a home from home for her brothers Kieran and Brendan, who were priests in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. They did not enjoy perfect health and both were nursed from time to time by Máirín, allowing them to continue their priestly duties until their deaths in 1995 and 2002.

Her eldest brother Séamus practised as a pharmacist in Sutton for 35 years. Married to Pearl, they had six children, Máirín's only nieces and nephews. She cared for Pearl after Séamus's death in 2003.

She never married but was a great family person.

Former colleagues admired her sharp intellect, wit, sense of fun, generosity of spirit and admired her courage in the face of a slowly advancing illness.

A dynamic person, she was very involved the life of Dublin city. She had a great personal interest in art, and she loved her garden and her dogs.

Máirín O'Byrne: born December 5th, 1919; died August 1st, 2008

© 2008 The Irish Times

Let's talk trash!

One of my sure-fire, last-minute, don't-want-to-read-dinosaur-stories-again storytime go-to is TRASH. It's a concept that pre-schoolers are able to grasp and it's potentially gross - that's a win-win situation!

Let me share with you some of my favorite parts of each story!

I Stink!, Kate and Jim McMullan
This is a noisy, roughly drawn tale of a smelly trash truck. The best (and grossest) part of the story is when the ingredients for Alphabet Soup are listed - D for Dirty Diapers, M for Moldy Meatballs, K for Kitty Litter, Y for Year-old Yams. I like to pause after some of the more repungent-sounding items and smack my lips, rub my tummy, or otherwise indicate that for a trash truck? THESE are yum yum yum!

Smash! Mash! Crash! There Goes the Trash!, Barbara Odanaka
This is a gentler trash story that has some great imaginative elements in it - the rumble of the trash truck as it approaches has the neighborhood wondering if it's a "dragon snoring...giants jumping...cymbals clanging?" Kids are then taken on a tour of a typical trash truck route, and are introduced to different trashy items. The last page reveals two little piggies playing with miniature trash trucks. Overall, it's not as crude a story as I Stink! and as such, provides a nice complement.

Trashy Town, Andrea Zimmerman
By far, this is my favorite of the three and I almost always save it for last. This is the tale of Mr. Gilly (and, the keen-eyed among the audience might note, a couple of ratty friends); Mr. Gilly is a trash man. All over the town, Mr. Gilly drives his trash truck, cleaning up as he goes. Kids quickly catch on to the rhythmic chant, "Dump it in, smash it down, drive around the Trashy Town". This is a great audience-participation story and helps kids realize they, too, can help clean up the trash.

In-between stories, I help keep the kids focused by singing/dancing/generally making noise. One of the songs we've had fun with is a trashy version of The Wheels on the Bus: the hopper on the trash truck goes dump, dump, dump; wheels go round and round; flies in the trash truck go buzz buzz buzz; and so on. I've yet to sing the same version twice. Other songs we sing are crowd-pleasers, like Five Little Monkeys, or The Hokey Pokey. I recently thought that I could present a butchered version of Old MacDonald Had A Farm - Old MacDonald had a trash truck, EIEIO. And in that trash truck there were some . . . leftover lunches . . . EIEIO. With a *barf barf* here, etc. Haven't tried it with the children yet, but hopefully I can give it a shot this week!

Do you have any trashy tales or songs you want to share?

The Rumbly in My Tumbly Song

"Hum de dum dum,
Hum de dum dum;
I'm so rumbly in my tumbly.
Time to munch an early lunch:
Hum de dum dum dum."