QUALITY STORYTENTS

A resource for family, early childhood and community literacy workers

Preschoolers

“For ages two – six, picture books have illustrations on every page and very little text. Picture books are meant to be read aloud and the pictures pored over” (Hearne, 1981, p. 16). Effective picture book for preschoolers:

• Has illustrations that are rich enough and detailed enough that you can find extra material to talk about.
• Is appropriate for the child’s current age and for the next year or two.
• Has a sentence or two per page, with illustrations being as important as the text.
• Has predictable text, through rhyme, rhythm or logic, to make it easy for a child to‘ read’ for herself.
• Engages both the child and the adult reader
• Is for and about children
• Is made well enough to withstand tough use

Beginning Readers

Books that have short commonplace words that children can recognize at a glance are effective for these readers, and have:

• Certain predictability in the text
• Regular rhythm
• Repeated sentence structure or
• Repeated set of lines
• Humorous, animals, real life of kids, poetry and rhyme, TV tie-ins

Independent Readers

For independent readers, effective books will have short episodic chapters, scattered illustrations, and simple vocabulary, slightly enlarged type, an open friendly format, and a plot and cast of characters without too many complications. They can be read aloud to youngsters or alone by the child as reading skills start to develop (Hearne, 1981, p. 16)